Stats Time!

I did an interesting thing. I went through my iTunes and worked out my "top ten" artists, based on how many songs of theirs I have (clearly when I said "interesting" I meant "incredibly nerdy and of no interest to anyone but me.)

Here is the list. Afterwards there will be comment (suspense!).

1. Sonic Youth - 91 songs
2. Talking Heads - 88 songs
3. The Magnetic Fields - 81 songs
4. The Fall - 48 songs
5. The Cure - 45 songs
6. The Smiths - 44 songs
7= ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - 41 songs
7= Broken Social Scene - 41 songs
9. Pixies - 39 songs
10. Joy Division - 36 songs

And now for some observations.

I should point out that I only got my laptop recently (ie. late September) and, for various reasons, have not been able to copy all of my music collection onto it. This, I think, makes the list even more (or at all) interesting, as it shows where my priorities have lain. Obviously the list is pretty flawed for a number of reasons (total amount of material produced etc.) but it tends to iron out but it may well be as good an, albeit flawed and very simplified, indication of my music taste as anything else.

The only artist who is much higher up than they should be is The Magnetic Fields, who sneak up there by virtue of having recorded an album that has 69 songs on it (the appropriately named "69 Love Songs"). I like them, but not that much.

All of the bands except 3 were active in the 1980s (though Joy Division were only active for 5 months of it, still they made "Closer" in that time). I think that's a pretty good rebuttal for anyone who thinks the 80s was a void of good music.

These 10 artists make up 16.5% of all the music on my computer at present. (I did a shuffle of 50 songs, because I'm just that nerdy, and 6 from these came up, which seems about right. Interestingly At The Drive-In, who were number 12, came up three times. Is it a sign? Perhaps!)

I am a big Smiths fanboy and the sooner I accept it the better.

I might well do this again in an appropriately long amount of time and see what's changed. I doubt anyone will challenge the top three (especially as there's a new Magnetic Fields album due out next year) but who knows.