31st
Annual Analysis of My Top 20 Scrobbled Artists of the Year
I deleted all my old blogs along with all of the content and kept no backups, deliberately, so I have no means of comparison of this data with prior years. Oh well. I’ll just have to throw it up on Tumblr.
Anyhow, for what it’s worth, which is undoubtedly nothing, here are my Top 20 artists listened to this year (excluding the CDs I listen to in the car which would probably have put Dave Douglas in 1st place).
1. Miles Davis [244]
2. Genesis [157]
3. Freddie Hubbard [144]
4. David Bowie [116]
5. Dave Douglas [113]
6. Gregorian Chant [107]
7. The Rolling Stones [102]
8. Thelonious Monk [100]
9. Squarepusher [95]
10. Charlie Parker [88]
11. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers [82]
12.*(tied) Charles Mingus [81]
12.*(tied) Lee Morgan [81]
14. Donald Byrd [77]
15. Gentle Giant [73]
16. Uri Caine [66]
17. Béla Bartók [65]
18. Weather Report [57]
19. Ornette Coleman [56]
20. Roxy Music [55]
I first wondered whether the top 20 were in any way even significant to my overall listening patterns. After all, I scrobbled 406 separate artists with a total of 7094 tracks in 2011. But the top 20 represent roughly 28% of this total so I guess that’s of some significance. Here’s the analysis.
Last year I predicted a big year for The Rolling Stones. That turned out to be a fad but nevertheless there they are. Every year I have some manner of regression to a listening period from my youth. A couple of years ago was the American Hardcore era. Before that, Bauhaus and Tones on Tail, Led Zeppelin - been there done that. (The whole Industrial/Skinny Puppy/Wax Trax phenomenon has yet to be revisited in earnest - surprising since in my undergraduate days this was a Big Thing, I DJ’ed a slot devoted to this on college radio for a number of years). This year I revisited to some extent my short stint (most everyone’s had one, no need for regret or embarrassment) with prog. Genesis was always hands-down my favourite of the proggers and I gave them a good re-listen this year. Gentle Giant tagged along for the ride.
Artists I can’t account for: Squarepusher and Roxy Music. I don’t recall listening that much to either of them and sort of surprised that they both rank where they are.
The leading light of the modern, creative sort is hands down Dave Douglas. Uri Caine’s work, which I haven’t spent too much time with yet, is a bit of a discovery.
But the big stories are as follows:
Ecclesiology: The complete disappearance of J.S. Bach (who at 4531 has absolutely dominated my charts since 2006) and his replacement with Gregorian Chant. I will resist the temptation so speculate on any wider significance to this.
Trumpeters: 5/20 are trumpeters. Granted they tend to lead combos a lot.
Blue Note: 7/20 have cut at least one side for Blue Note. Most of these were hard bop mainstays for the label. Well-represented BTL as well with Lou Donaldson, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Hank Mobley making the top 40. In fact, I think that classic hard bop in general and Blue Note Records in particular is the big story of the year.
The Death of Western Classical: Béla Bartók alone makes the top 20 at a paltry 17th place.
Conservativism: Maybe it was the Tories coming to power or something but this was an incredibly conservative listening year. No real “fresh” currently-creating artists apart from Dave Douglas and Uri Caine (and Squarepusher I guess). No major discoveries as has happened in years past.
So that’s that. 2011. Done. Predictions for next year. Much more Blue Note. And…expect the unexpected.
