Last.fm Listening Habits 2011 Q2

I started off this quarter ending my random listening. I wanted to listen to certain artists I really enjoyed. I figured I could go back to random once I got bored of choosing the artists I was listening to. Additionally, in between picking certain artists if I wanted to hear a certain song, I started going through my library alphabetically by artist. Let’s see how these trends panned out over the quarter.

Clearly, the fact that I have been listening to my artists in alphabetical order has trumped the inclusion of new artists on this list if they fell outside the beginning of the alphabet.

1. The Beatles (238) - With nearly twice as many plays as last quarter, The Beatles have taken the top spot this quarter. Again, this is because The Beatles have SO many albums and so many songs I enjoy listening to. They were almost guaranteed the top spot. 2. Anberlin (70) - Interestingly, Anberlin has less plays than last quarter, but ended up with a better ranking than last time. 3. Five Iron Frenzy (60) - This was a great chance for me to review my affinity for FIF. I still like a lot of the songs - they’re pretty awesome. But there are also a lot of past favorites that I don’t like anymore. 4. Childish Gambino (57) - Childish Gambino is new to my library and is yet another recommendation from Dan. The funny thing is that Dan just showed it to me because he’s a huge Glover fan from his work on Community. Dan isn’t really that into the music he creates as Childish Gambino. I, on the other hand, LOVE his 2011 EP. While I ended up getting all his old CDs, they can’t really compete with the musical evolution on display in the EP. So most of these listens are from those 8 tracks. I listened even more as I got ready for his concert. 5. Fantastic Plastic Machine (56) - I like a lot of FPM songs, but I have to be in a certain mood to want to listen to them. They do tend to be very good background music when working on something where I need my brain, though. 6. Girl Talk (54) - I listen to Girl Talk a lot more at work than I do at home. That’s because I burnt all the CDs to take to work and I think Girl Talk works best when listening to the whole album or at least a large portion of it. 6. Sambo Master (54) - This group appeared because the Japanese characters placed it high on the alphabetical listing of artists. 7. Danny Elfman (46) - Danny Elfman is an AWESOME composer who has worked on nearly every Tim Burton movie. His plays came from the Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride soundtracks. 9. Fall Out Boy (43) - This is a group I never thought I’d like because of the way it was marketed - to tweens and, especially, girls. But I caught a whiff of their music thanks to Danielle wanting to have some of the songs that were always on the radio. That was a few years ago and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. It’s just too bad that they have broken up. I would liked to have seen them continue to evolve. 10. Brave Saint Saturn (41) - I love this group. It started off as an outlet for Reese Roper and some other FIF members to be able to explore themes that were a little too dark for FIF. The first album was OK. The second was great. And I feel that the third was spectacular. Together they function as a mega concept album about astronauts who have trouble on a mission to Titan. It took Reese years to finally edit together the third album after it was recorded, so I don’t hold my breath for a fourth one, but I’d certainly love it. 11. Fitz and the Tantrums (40) - This is a GREAT group I heard about in Rolling Stone Magazine. They had the entire album up for listening. I heard it and knew I had to get the entire thing. It puts a smile on my face every time I hear it. They sound like a group straight out of the 1960s with so much soul you can’t help but love it. 12. Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra (31) - Got this album on a recommendation from Fresh Air. It’s OK. I mean the group is good and the music is good as well, but I don’t crave it like I do so many other songs. 13. Christafari (29) - A Christian reggae band. 14. dc Talk (26) - dc Talk is an interesting group. They started off as a rap group self-described as “2 honks and a negro”. Their music is fun and corny in the same way that most early 1990s rap was. (Think Will Smith and neon graffiti) Then, with the release of Jesus Freak in 1996 they went more of a Linkin Park route and did rock with rap. Their final original album was so contemporary, it could have been on Muzak stations. Then they broke up to do solo careers. Their reunion is one of the most anticipated events of the Christian music scene. At least it was at some point. Even if I were still heavy into Christian music, I doubt I’d care. I would have kept interest if they’d stayed with their sound in Jesus Freak. I also think it would have been even more interesting to see how they would have evolved their rap sound if they’d never gone onto Jesus Freak in the same way that it’s very interesting to see what The Beastie Boys have done with their mix of evolution and remaining true to the early 1990s rap sound. 14. Anamanaguchi (26) - As I mentioned last quarter, I have really grown to enjoy this band that came to be by way of Dan. It’s another group that I listen to WAY more at work and so that’s not accounted for in the scrobbles. If you haven’t checked them out yet, go take a listen. They’re another great band that’s great for ambient music because 99.9% of their songs have no lyrics. (There’s a least one remix with words)

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