Inspired by DukeOfDoughnuts's journal, here's my mainstream count.

Take your top 25 artists, and find out how many listeners they have.

1. Kitto - 270
2. Kemopetrol - 20,353
3. Sophie Zelmani - 65,143
4. Faithless - 510,807
5. Zero 7 - 578,199
6. Enya - 469,344
7. RMB - 23,320
8. Looptroop - 63,214
9. Massive Attack - 836,403
10. Norah Jones - 639,956
11. Moby - 947,027
12. Hooverphonic - 307,713
13. Peshi - 780
14. The Chemical Brothers - 769,661
15. Chantal Kreviazuk - 88,350
16. Nelly Furtado - 836,809
17. The Cardigans - 612,758
18. Fattaru - 9,878
19. Gwen Stefani - 626,799
20. Red Hot Chili Peppers - 1,474,073
21. Beats and Styles - 21,157
22. Lady Sovereign - 152,281
23. Petter - 40,433
24. Daft Punk - 875,670
25. Tori Amos - 521,154

Total Listeners: 10,491,552
Divide by 25: 419,662.08
Divide by the number of Radiohead listeners: 1,524,582
Multiply by 100%: 27.5263698508837% mainstream

Fri 22 Aug – Greenbelt Festival 2008

having listened to many of the bands playing this years greenbelt fest the plan is to post my last three month chart here (given when i was away this actually covers the full 11 weeks from me returning from the greenbelt iona retreat to my arrival at the festival) then slowly edit it with comments about the bands that did play the fest. prob a big job so count this journal entry as a work in progress.



1 Levellers 119(no link to greenbelt, well Seth lakeman's brother Sean produced their new album and i can find half a dozen other tenuous links)

2 Michael Franti & Spearhead 82
headlined friday night, wow. maybe not as impressive as when he played two years back and so far i do think i prefer Yell fire to his new album.

2 Duke Special 82
ok joint second for the duke, not at the festival this year but has been most years (once we get out of my top ten i'll delete the bands who weren't on the gb08 line up)
4 Rachel Taylor-Beales 77
Ok despite her new album being fantastic and her getting a great response to her greenbelt 07 set somehow Rachel wasn't booked this year. a terrible oversight and injustice in my opinion.

5 Beth Rowley 38
Beth played what i heard was a blinding set on mainstage sunday afternoon (and given the size of the crowds for much of sunday's bill think a good case could have been made for giving beth a headlining slot) personally and despite Beth coming in my top five artists for the last 3 months i missed her set. (thats greenbelt for you) i would have been up in centaur for the larry norman tribute, did catch Beth in last orders doing two songs which were great.

6 Seth Lakeman 34
someone else i missed at greenbelt this year , went to see Franti's film and was a bit tiredafter so didn't even stop around for the last half hour of Lakeman's set. still hoping i might catch him up her in leeds.

7 Miriam Jones 29
made it into the performance cafe and saw her set. fantastic, two more tracks in last orders that night (and i believe she's been in the night before as well after i'd gone to bed) including "i am one" which i'd been disapointed had been missed from the performance cafe set. bought her first cd and now wishing i'd bought the second one two. new ep coming soon apparently.
8 Brian Houston 26
kept intending to catch this man, did manage to pick up an old live cd of his cheap.
performance cafe was just too full, it needs maybe 6 to 10 less table and a 100 or so more chairs. even then acts the size of Brian could really really do with a bigger venue.
9 MxPx 24
not sure why i listened to so many mxpx tracks, certainly had no intention of seeing them at greenbelt. to be honest it seemed whenever i was listening to the greenbelt event radio on last it would play an mxpx track every time i nipped out of the room.
10 Show of Hands 23
not played greenbelt for too many years. someone must get them back.
10 Utah Phillips 23
sadly Utah passed away this year but something of this man's spirit does live on in patches of greenbelt, real shame greenbelt never booked him.

ok from now on bands with no gb 08 link are deleted (well except a few who i think really should have been booked)

12 Michael Franti 21
he keeps cropping up on this list.
14 Iain Archer 20
greenbelt set advertised as and friends, should really have been "and usual musicians he turns up with plus a few family members he wanted to blag free tickets for" still fantastic set. nice little seminar thing with stockie on the friday too despite me choosing to sit at a point where we could only hear half of it.

17 Andy Yorke 16
great little set in the performance cafe, man deserves a bigger audience, glad i bought his CD before the fest as not available on site , ICC don't stock stuff on major labels (too low a profit margin it seems) for big name artists this is no big loss for folks like Andy it is doing a great disservice to both him and greenbelt punters.

20 Frank Black 15
Ok never was any real chance of greenbelt booking frank but he does a) have Charlie norman (larry's bro) as part of his band and b) do a mean cover of six sixty six


23 Martyn Joseph 13
nice little set from Martyn. not given half as much time in the program as he should have been (any idiot could tell it was going to overrun and there was enough time after that the comedians on after could have been booked for slots an hour later, as it was with overruns and time to empty venues etc they ended up on at later times anyway Delsio chiponda ended up with a much smaller adience then he had last year as a result of this. sorry supposed to be writting about music not comedy and errors by whoever compiled the program. MJ's anyway great just seen him twice since the last greenbelt so nothing too unexpected.
24 Will Tang 12
Ok thats 12 listens before the fest which sounded great sadly live he didn't really do much for me. all nice but nothing more than that. maybe just the mood i was in.
24 Abram Wilson 12

performed as part of Roll Jordan Roll, actaully quite liked some of his solo stuff, cant really say same for roll jordan roll. quality wise you couldn't fault it but really not my thing and judging by the size of the crowd most greenbelters were thinking the same way as me. great to have on greenbelt mainstage but really didn't justify a headline slot.

28 Michael Franti & Spearhead 11
third appearance on the list this time due an extra space in the band name (last.fm software can be very picky at times)
28 Danny Cope 11
good little set from Danny, impressed. given he is local am hoping might grab a chance to catch him again sometime soon.
32 Emmanuel Jal 10
great to have Jal back at greenbelt, smaller crowd than he deserved (at least for the first half of his set, fortunatly that meant most folks missing the big sound problems)) due in part to so many greenbelters ariving late on the friday and also due to the weird way the firday mainstage line up was put together (fans of either [dweeb] or starfield were unlikly to be staying around for Jal.


32 1 Giant Leap 10
not at this years fest but Jamie Catto was and i intentended to both catch his accoustic set and to see the 1 giant leap film, event i was in overran so missed jamie and after two bad experiences of the film venue wasn't going to risk a third (the room didnt work, the venue manager needed tech support etc)
32 Maggi Dawn 10
not at this years fest but did write a nice bit in the program
32 Cathy Burton 10
didn't catch cathy and not sure why.
32 Juliet Turner 10
couldn't get into the tent but watched from outside sounded great, new cd sold out before i got chance to part with my cash though.
32 Gareth Davies-Jones 10
intended to catch him in the end didn't work out that way. same him do one track with others in the Norman tribute.
32 Kashee Opeiah 10
dont think i was realy intending to catch Kashee but they do sound good.
39 Julie Lee 9
kept seeing Julie everywhere great woman, got her new ish cd and new ep.


39 Fightstar 9
saw a couple of tracks from fightstar seemed OK, nothing too special. wasn't really in a hard music mood at greenbelt this year though.

41Kinzli 8
41 Elliot Jack 8
41 Finchley 8
three good bands just happens to be three good bands i failed to catch.

41 Anathallo 8
pulled out of greenbelt pretty early on.

46 The Austin Francis Connection 7
wasn't really aiming to catch them at greenbelt though they do sound like a real fun band
46 My Spoon 7
46 Virgin Passages 7

two more acts i intended to catch, Virgin passages were circled on my program but it never happened.
46 Sinéad O'Connor 7
Ok not booked for greenbelt this year but did hear rumors folks were trying.
46 Linchpin 7
actually suprisingly good band from what i've heard. would be interested to see live just didn't happen at greenbelt this year.
time of their mainstage slot was changed - shame greenbelt didn't use the text message service to get this info out. still wouldnt have made the gig though was too busy defending my chair in the performance cafe.
46 Faithless 7
ok obviously not at greenbelt this year but founder member jamie catto was and i was upset i missed him (believe his accoustic set included a couple of old faithless numbers)
46 Giant Sand 7
good set on mainstage from the Giant Sand stuff i've heard had capacity to be a really great set which it fell a bit short of.

54 The Matthew Herbert Big Band 6
all the write ups on this band seem to focus on the experimental nature of the work and the electronica influences, from these 6 tracks all i heard was very competent jazz of no interest to me so avoided. listening on last.fm to Herbert's stuff on his own without the big band i prefered that.



54 Howe Gelb 6
played as Howe Gelb and giant Sand(see above) did bring on as a special guest one Mr John Parish (one of only two folks at greenbelt this year to have made it onto the rather select playlist on my mobile)

54 miriamjones 6
whoever uploaded miriam's stuff onto last.fm made an error with the first album missed a space hence this entery.

54 The Brute Chorus 6
quite a nice band really just not nice enoughto compete against whatever else was on at that time slot.
54 Daby Touré 6
quite fancied seeing Daby this year , another missed oppertunity.
54 Julie McKee 6
definatly wanted to see Julie at greenbelt this year, shame it didnt happen.

63 The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

early 90's band and what got me into the work of Michael Franti in the first place.5


63 Starfield 5

canada's answer to delirious? personally i was board of the Uk version so definatly in no need of a canadian one. still a good set on mainstage to a reasonable crowd or so i heard.

63 Spearhead 5
first two albums under this name before change of label resulted in name change to Michael Franti and...
63 Baluji Shrivastav 5
playing probably the smallest venue on site at a peak times when up against some of the biggest names on the bill. still stuff i heard on last is worth recomending.
63 Tankus The Henge 5
can't say they do a lot for me.
63 Larry Norman 5
saw the tribute to Larry . there is a limit to how much you can do in an hour but what was done was impressive. (thought centuar would have been at capacity which it wasn't respectable crowd all the same)
63 José González 5
saw one song by him i think , not in the mood really though clearly two thirds of folks on site were.
63 Paul Robeson 5
long departed so obviously not at greenbelt left on this list as Martyn Joseph does a track in tribute to him. which he did in centaur this year
63 Guards Of Metropolis 5
not at greenbelt, but really really should have been . band features charlie norman.


73 Voice Of The Mysterons 4
nice bit of heavy music in the underground, not the mood i was in this year. maybe next time.
73 Chip Bailey 4
has played greenbelt as part of so many bands somone really needs to give him a solo gig, though that wasn't likely this year (his cd features guests like duke special and aqualung both were at greenbelt 07)

73 Michelle Shocked 4
ok she was in england at the right time plays beautiful music and is outspoken about her faith and social justice - why oh why oh why didnt greenbelt book her?

82 Ed Sheeran 3
young lad never actually named on the gb web site still i managed to hear three tracks of his before the fest. definaly want to hear more
82 This Morning Call 3
from what i've heard prob the best band in the underground this year. still manged to miss them sadly

82 Unbelievable Truth 3
andy Yorke's old band , never as successful as his brothers band , friends will prob lynch me for this but Andy may well be more talented than his bro Thom

82 Foreign Slippers 3
not available on last so i actually paid good cash to download these mp3's , truely beautiful. did a couple of songs with Iain archer which also sounded great. still didn't manage to make her set though.

82 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 3
rumured to be interested in playing greenbelt and listening to these three tracks can see why would make a great fest headliner for next year.

99 Lobelia 2
not on the official line up but played two tracks in last orders on monday with her hubby and also part of Miriam Jones's band. seeing Lobelia in last orders was certainly in my top ten festival moment of the year so why dint she have her own set?


99 Yfriday 2
seems like they pulled out at the last min (ie at some point over the actual weekend) slot on the bill replaced by quench , all much the same to me really.


99 Death Is Not Welcome Here 2
actually quite liked these tracks , another band playing as part of the metal session in the underground. would have been intersting to catch them.

99 Helen J Hicks 2
really wasn't too impressed by these tracks , did though catch her doing one song at greenbelt which rather changed my mind. She did a track in the Larry norman tribute that was real beautiful.

99 Shlomo 2
saw a couple of this guys tracks from mainstage. now he had attracted a decent crowd who seemed to love him so who am i to criticise. crowd response certainly justified the slot he had just whatever he was doing was lost on me.



141 Cherine Anderson 1
given her guest stuff on franti's new cd was kind of hoping he might bring Cherine with him. oh well maybe next time.


141 The Vigilantes of Love 1
not at this years greenbelt but i did pick up an old album of theirs going cheap.


141 Ben Castle 1
was Ben at greenbelt this year anyone? he's dating Beth Rowley so its quite probable.


141 Michael Franti; Spearhead 1
yet another of franti's tracks somehow getting yet another tag.


141 Keith Ayling 1
former kato and K front man used to like his old stuff in the mid 90's.


141 Steve Lawson 1
steve in the end did end up with a greenbelt gig (as lawson, dodds, woods) still managed to miss that one. saw him in a number of other places though.


141Steve Lawson & Jez Carr 1
well they were both at greenbelt. a full set from this pair would have been pretty easy for greenbelt to arrange. no luck sadly.

other folks i saw at greenbelt not on this list Karen Grace . ok only saw her gig so as to not lose mt seat in the performance cafe, hadn't even heard of her. maybe a bit floaty for my taste but definatly want to hear more.
Calvin's Dream (just the one track) not seen or heard of these guys in well over a decade so that was a nice surprise.

Using the artists from my music library, I'm going to list the first and last, and the one that I think is best from each letter of the alphabet. Just passing some time, so here we go:

First: +44
Last: 50 Cent
Best: 3 Doors Down

First: A Change of Pace
Last: Avril Lavigne
Best: The All-American Rejects

First: Backstreet Boys
Last: Bullet for My Valentine
Best: Blink-182

First: Caesars
Last: Cute Is What We Aim For
Best: Coldplay

First: Damien Rice
Last: The Dresden Dolls
Best: Death Cab for Cutie

First: Eagles
Last: Everclear
Best: Evanescence

First: Faithless
Last: Funeral for a Friend
Best: Foo Fighters

First: Goldfinger
Last: Gym Class Heroes
Best: Green Day

First: Hard-Fi
Last: The Hoosiers
Best: Hard-Fi

First: Idlewild
Last: Iron Maiden
Best: Incubus

First: Jack Johnson
Last: Just Jack
Best: Jimmy Eat World

First: Kaiser Chiefs
Last: Kylie Minogue
Best: Kaiser Chiefs

First: Lacuna Coil
Last: The Lovers
Best: Linkin Park

First: Madness
Last: My Chemical Romance
Best: Muse

First: N*E*R*D
Last: NOFX
Best: No Doubt

First: O.A.R.
Last: Orson
Best: O.A.R.

First: The Paddingtons
Last: The Pussycat Dolls
Best: Paramore

First: Queen
Last: Queens of the Stone Age
Best: Queen

First: R.E.M.
Last: The Rocket Summer
Best: Razorlight

First: S Club
Last: System of a Down
Best: The Subways

First: t.A.T.u.
Last: Trivium
Best: Travis

First: U2
Last: The Used
Best: U2

First: The Veils
Last: VnV Nations
Best: The Verve

First: Waltham
Last: The Wombats
Best: Within Temptation

No Xs

First: Yellowcard
Last: Yellowcard
Best: Yellowcard

First: Zebrahead
Last: The Zutons
Best: The Zutons

DUBSTEP / BASS / MASHUP / WONKIE / BREAKBEAT / DRUM & BASS

1 Ghost Hardware - Burial
2 Love Is A Losing Game (Moody Boyz Dubland Vocal mx) - Amy Winehouse
3 Ildebrand I Byen (2000F Remix Dub) - Natasja I Byen
4 Dancin Shoes - Babylon System
5 9mm (Trillbass Remix) - Selfsimilar
6 Killing Floor - Vex'd
7 Murda Sound - Bar 9
8 Crooked Acid - CROOKED ONE
9 Cyclops - Distance
10 Fallen (Vex'd Remix) - Distance
11 Do Damage - Mathhead
12 Pistols At Dawn - Warlock
13 No Music (Starkey Remix) - Lil Mama
14 Something On Your Mind feat. Abigail Bailey (Switch Mix) - Mync Project
15 Killing in the name of (SebastiAn late night laptop edit) - Rage Against the Machine
16 Insomnia (The Hump Day Project Remix) - Faithless
17 Thunderstruck (Tittsworth Remix) - AC/DC
18 Died in Your Arms (Drop the Lime Remix) - Cutting Crew
19 Bamboo Banga - M.I.A.
20 DJ's Take Control - SL2
21 Far Out - Sonz of a Loop da Loop Era
22 Let There Be House - Cherrymoon Trax
23 Voodoo People - The Prodigy
24 Circles - Adam F
25 Conciousness - Photek
26 Who Has The Jazz - Primary Motive
27 Slip Thru - Ed Rush & Optical
28 A Clue - Fracture and Neptune
29 Disco Dodo - Lynx
30 Point Blank - Sabre
31 The Seven Samurai (Photek Remix) - Photek
32 Time Travelling - Cloak & Dagger
33 Re Order - Amit
34 The Shroud - Breakage
35 One & Only - PFM
36 The Water Margin - Studio Pressure
37 Chase The Blues - Terranova
38 The Healer - Erykah Badu
39 Game Over feat. Jay Dee & Phat Kat (Flying Lotus Remix) - Dabrye feat. Jay Dee & Phat Kat
40 Tea Leaf Dancers - Flying Lotus feat. Andreya Triana
41 Machine Gun - Portishead
42 Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
43 What A Difference A Day Makes - Ella_Fitzgerald
44 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Nina Simone

EDIT --- Good news, my paper got graded 15 out of 20!

Hello,


This is the follow up journal to my May call-out to fill in a survey about Last.fm aimed to support a research I was conducting.
First of all I would like to thank everyone again for your massive support in filling out the survey!
The goal of this study was to find out whether Last.fm indeed has its influence on people's musical tastes. By splitting the survey into two main parts (intensity of use and influence on musical taste) and then determining whether a correlation exists between these two variables, I hoped to be able to answer that question.

As promised, here are some of the results.


1. The Sample
Considering the skewedness of my selection procedures, a sample of about one thousand respondents with varied socio-demographic profiles was the target. This figure has been widely reached, since none less than 1,574 people participated to the research by filling in the survey. Among them, 1,423 people made it to the end and filled in all essential questions. This totals a percentage of over 90%, which is quite high.
Now, what does the sample look like?

1.1 Year of Birth
The average responder was born in April 1986, which means he or she was about 22 years of age at the time of the research. The median year of birth is 1988 and the mode (the most frequent answer) is 1989. The oldest responder was born in 1947, while the youngest had his or her first encounter with this world in the year 1996.
Here's a graphical representation:




1.2 Sex
Among the 1,423 selected responders, 1,032 (72.5%) are male and 391 (27.5%) are female, as pictured below.




1.3 Nationality
The sample contains a total of 73 different nationalities, among which the American (15.3%) and Belgian (14.5%) are best represented. Next up are the UK (10.3%), Germany (8.6%), Poland (6.1%), the Netherlands (4.4%), Australia (4.1%), Finland (4.0%), Canada (3.2%) and Sweden (2.9%).
The unproportionally large number of Belgian responders is a clear indicator of some skewedness in my research. The fact that I am Belgian myself, clearly had its influence.


2. Results
Let's have a look at the final results of the study. Firstly, does Last.fm have an influence on people's musical preferences?

2.1 The Answer
First up is determining the homogeneity of the survey's questions and disregarding those that appareantly ask about another variable. The final obtained Cronbach's alpha value (an indicator of homogeneity from 0 to 1) is 0.858 for the questions about the intensity of Last.fm use and 0.888 for those asking about the influence on musical tastes.
Those are more than reasonable results, so let's have a look at the real answer to the question whether Last.fm has an influence on people's tastes: the correlation between both variables.
From my analysis, it appears that there is indeed a moderate correlation between the intensity of Last.fm use and the change in musical taste. (rs = 0.369, p < 0.001). A value for p lower than 0.001 means that the chance the obtained correlation is based on coincidence is lower than 0.1%. In other words: the correlation is significant.
This result gently confirms the hypothesis that Last.fm has an influence on people's musical tastes. A correlation coefficient of 0.369 indicates that Last.fm is surely not the only influence, but that it certainly plays its role.

2.2 Other Results
That concludes the results of my main question. There are other interesting things to be deducted from your answers to the survey, though. Let's have a look at them.

2.2.1 Last.fm's Most Popular Features
A large majority of responders visits his or her own profile page more than once a day (76.3%). The group of responders that can miss their profile pages for longer than one week is even close to being an endangered species (6.3%).
Other people's profile pages have a little less success, but are nevertheless still pretty popular. 86.5% of all responders visit another user's profile page at least once a week; 56.6% do so daily.
Similar results are found concerning artist pages. These are visited at least once a week by 87.4% of Last.fm users; 57.6% do so daily.
The base activity of Last.fm, scrobbling (and therefore listening to) music is also very popular. 89% of users say they scrobble music daily. Only 5.5% does so less than once a week.

2.2.2 Discovering new Artists
No less than 95.8% of responders acknowledged having learnt about new artists through the use of Last.fm, whether they like them or not. A pretty spectacular result, if you ask me. But that's not all.
If we add the question whether they also like those new artists, the percentage drops, but only very slightly: to 93.4%.
It does take a minor plunge, down to 70.9%, when the question whether those artists have become one of the responder's favourites is added. But the fact remains: these are pretty impressive figures.

2.2.2 Discovering new Styles of Music
As can be expected, the percentages drop when discussing the discovery of new styles of music as opposed to discovering new artists.
Nonetheless, a large majority responds positively to the question whether they learnt about new styles of music through the use of Last.fm, liking them or not: 66.3%.
Adding the criterium of liking those new styles, the percentage drops to 58.3%.
A little less than half of all responders (43.5%) agrees to the question whether they learnt about new styles of music that became one of their favourites through Last.fm.

2.2.3 Percepted Influence of Last.fm
The last question of this series simply inquired whether the responder feels like Last.fm has influenced his or her taste in music. More than two thirds answered positively to this question (67.1%).

2.2.4 Answers to the Open Question
The final question of the survey was an open one ("If you have any further comments, please type them here. (optional)"). Besides the many greets, compliments and critiques, some interesting points of view about Last.fm were displayed. Those shouldn't go to waste, so I will publish an ordened selection of answers here.


(a) Positive

Last.fm has in a way changed my life, and by doing so, many others as well. Not only do I listen to the music I discover, I also share it with my friends, greatly influencing the music taste of those around me as well.

I want to say that music is very important for me (and i think for everyone), as important as oxygen! And Last.fm is one o the bests ways to seek music. Although i'm quite new in Last.fm, i already made certain that it's very useful in point of music. It's like an encyclopedia of bands and musicians too! I'm glad to be a part of such a website.

lastfm is one of the greatest "e-things" i stumbled upon in last 3 years. an amazing project with a supermassive potential to make great changes in the (almost rotten) music industry - in the way of indirectly but precisely recommending and pushing music to the listeners [...].

Last.fm changed the way I'm listening to music. It's the best web-app ever. Everyone who listens to music should make a profile so he or she can hear a whole new world that opens in their ears.

I've spent an unhealthy amount of time on Last.FM because it's the only community on the whole internet that i really, really like. Gives you more information than you could ever dream about.

While it may not be perfect, last.fm is a decent way of broadening your musical horizons. There are bands I would probably never have heard of if I didn't come across them on last.fm. You can count me as a satisfied customer :)


(b) Negative

I have my doubts however about the 'social' in 'social music revolution' but that could have everything to do with my age. I didn't grow up with computers, mailing and chatting... so the social thing to me comes across as rather superficial. Again, I could be mistaken.

I think that Last.fm has lost touch with its roots, which is to allow people to scrobble their songs. It is trying to be a media player and player in media now, and that stinks.

last.fm support is absolutely horrendous. The worst I've ever experienced. And that's not just hyperbole. Their reluctance to pay attention to the emails is beyond belief.


(c) Interesting

Unfortunately last.fm has created a panopticon effect on my music listening habits. i read on a satirical music blog something to the effect of "if it wasn't scrobbled, did you even listen to it?" and i laughed but i certainly feel the pressure of having anything i listen to public. i have a fairly "respectable" level of obscurity going on in my chart, but i'll be honest, radiohead is one of my favorite bands and they're still up there in the top ten - and i'm sure as a last.fm researcher you understand the issues involved with that! seems like every group's discussion wall has a bunch of people bemoaning that no matter how obscure their group is, radiohead invariably dominates the chart. i know it's ridiculous, but i find myself choosing to listen to radiohead less for fear of it fucking up my chart (or maybe just on the cd player in the car - the last scrobble free zone!). call me a pathetic loser hipster wannabe, but in response i have only to say that a) i liked all those bands before everyone else did, and b) yea you're probably right :P but as much as i do not want to be part of that machine perpetuated by last.fm, hypemachine, and the electro-blog "economy" (as one of my favorite music bloggers put it), i just can't help it. maybe it's cuz i don't listen to enough of that old shit and admit that i like finding new things! if it makes me a lamezor, so be it!

I heard about last.fm on 4chan's /mu/ board ages ago. I never really used it, thinking it was some pretentious hipster site. Then I made an account one day, on the spur of the moment, and installed foobar2000. Then I really started listening. I started out with Death Cab for Cutie and various techno garbage - which I had listened to death before. I listened to them even more once I had an account. Then I found the band Mogwai. I cannot describe how amazing they were. They introduced me to a completely new genre of music: post-rock. instrumentals. minimal vocals. slow-motion rock. whatever you call it, it is completely amazing. Then I was introduced to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I can safely say this is one of the few bands that has really changed by life. Everything about it. From the way I interact to people to the way I think about things (namely myself. I don't care.) Then I got into the Godspeed You! Black Emperor side projects - too numerous to list here. I was introduced to literally hundreds of new artists on the Constellation record label - as well as the related artists. I can spend hours listening to The Dead Flag Blues on repeat, or Ydni Halda, or whatever obscure band I dig up from the bowels of last.fm. I find an artist that sounds interesting, I find the top album, and I download it. Then I go clean my wooden leg. Afterwards, I listen to that album - put it on my music player to listening to at school while I shun my friends and walk aimlessly around the halls, staring down people until they nervously glance away, ensuring that no one will be able to disturb me listening to my music, the new chords and melodies and vocals that aren't vocals but instruments, but not really instruments either except there are no vocals it's all just banjos and clarinets and harps and guitars and saxophones and bassoons and keyboards and drum machines and drum sets and another guitar a bass guitar and ambient noises (swings, [Fly Pan Am], glitches, random beepings, but somehow blending together into a melody so beautiful I can feel it, in my soul, though there's no soul, it's just random firings of neurons in my brain, but still, it, music, is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard and last.fm introduced me to a new life.) and violas and sometimes vocals, they fit. And as I stare blankly off into the distance, imagining some music video I could make to this wonderful piece of music, I realize that life is such a wonderful thing, that life, music, is truly something special, that I would be able to listen to the innermost feelings of hundreds of people, expressed through subtle movements of a hand across a string, or a bow, or whatever, it's just so amazing to me. It's all amazing. I don't know where i'm going to this. I love music. I love 65daysofstatic. Math-Rock. Maybeshewill. Post-Rock. All my genre ID3 tags are blank, it is impossible to categorize it. Anyone who disagrees is a bigot. You cannot disagree with that. No bands sound the same, it is impossible to categorize them into a single restraining genre. Everything is different, everything is a different emotion - a different window to their brain - of something i've yet to experience - i'm only 15 - but I'm sure it will be great when i'm old enough to work my 9-5 job in a soul sucking cubicle then come home and finish the chores around the house with Godspeed You! Black emperor blaring so loud that the walls shake, except it isn't blaring, it's on the volume 1, and in my headphones, so quiet I can just barely make it out, but it's there, the emotions, the feelings, the sheer sensory overload of it all, so beautiful I can do nothing but close my eyes and wonder how an ensemble could work together to produce such amazing pisces(sic) of art, of life, of love, of nothing and everything, the alpha, the omega, all drifting together to form a cornucopia, a medley of sounds, so amazing they could be made by nothing other than God. Except there is no God. There is only Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Sophie Trudeau. Moya. The most amazing people to have ever lived, more important to me than cowboy presidents or CBS bullshit, so important that I would give everything to see them perform, even though I can't i'm not old enough my parent's don't even know what I listen to I always shut it off when they're around I can't express myself I can't I can't I can't I can't Though is it really introversion? I think it's just the music. So beautiful.

Music and feelings has a relationship and that's important. So, last.fm is important for the people, because it helps us to feel more feelings. So we can find ourselves better.

last.fm affects my listening habits. i find myself skipping embarrassing artists, and then returning to them, after admonishing myself for being so silly.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore - While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door - '"Tis some visiter", I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door - Only this and nothing more."

ALL YOUR SURVEY ARE BELONG TO US

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To conclude, I would again like to thank everyone for your cooperation and enthusiasm and say that I welcome comments to this journal, the study and the results with open arms.

- Jelle Vancoppenolle




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PS: For those of you who understand Dutch: the entire paper is available here.






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// some artist connections, to get noticed. //
The Beatles - Coldplay - Radiohead - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Nine Inch Nails - Muse - Nirvana - Metallica - Linkin Park - Death Cab for Cutie - The Killers - Foo Fighters - Pink Floyd - Led Zeppelin - System of a Down - Green Day - Madonna - Daft Punk - Arctic Monkeys - Queen - Nessie & Her Beard - The Strokes - Franz Ferdinand - Britney Spears - The Doors - The Rolling Stones - Jimi Hendrix - The Kinks - The Beach Boys - Bob Dylan - The Velvet Underground - Deep Purple - The Who - David Bowie - ABBA - Eagles - The Cure - Depeche Mode - The Smiths - New Order - Duran Duran - Guns N' Roses - Joy Division - a-ha - The Smashing Pumpkins - Pearl Jam - Alice in Chains - Soundgarden - Oasis - The Cranberries - Jack Johnson - Damien Rice - Elliott Smith - Iron & Wine - José González - Nick Drake - Wilco - Ryan Adams - Neko Case - Johnny Cash - Calexico - My Morning Jacket - Uncle Tupelo - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Whiskeytown - 16 Horsepower - Neil Young - Placebo - Beck - Björk - Gorillaz - Pixies - Deftones - KoЯn - Serj Tankian - Tool - Stone Sour - Slipknot - Faith No More - Rage Against the Machine - Mudvayne - A Perfect Circle - Incubus - Sigur Rós - Boards of Canada - Aphex Twin - Air - Brian Eno - Moby - Dead Can Dance - Ulver - Enigma - Röyksopp - Interpol - 菅野よう子 - 梶浦由記 - ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION - Mr. Bungle - Frank Zappa - Fantômas - John Zorn - Arcturus - The Residents - Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Naked City - Panic! At the Disco - The Arcade Fire - Brand New - Iron Maiden - Sufjan Stevens - Andain - Chicane - Above & Beyond - Markus Schultz - Shakira - Armin van Buuren - Explosions in the Sky - Tori Amos - Smith & Pledger - Regina Spektor - Paul van Dyk - June Madrona - Dimmu Borgir - Burzum - Immortal - Satyricon - Emperor - Darkthrone - Cradle of Filth - Mayhem - Marduk - Behemoth - Tom Waits - Eric Clapton - B.B. King - John Lee Hooker - Muddy Waters - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Ray Charles - Janis Joplin - Blur - Keane - Broken Social Scene - Feist - Metric - Stars - Tegan and Sara - Avril Lavigne - The New Pornographers - Alanis Morissette - Wolf Parade - Enya - Loreena McKennitt - Clannad - Blackmore's Night - Flogging Molly - Era - The Corrs - Secret Garden - The Pogues - The Dubliners - Massive Attack - Zero 7 - Thievery Corporation - Portishead - Morcheeba - Bonobo - Underoath - Relient K - Switchfoot - P.O.D. - Norma Jean - As I Lay Dying - Jars of Clay - Bing Crosby - Frank Sinatra - Band Aid - Nat King Cole - AC/DC - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Ludwig van Beethoven - Johann Sebastian Bach - Frédéric Chopin - Antonio Vivaldi - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Franz Schubert - Johannes Brahms - Claude Debussy - Tenacious D - "Weird Al" Yankovic - Dane Cook - Monty Python - Bloodhound Gang - Richard Cheese - Dixie Chicks - Willie Nelson - Shania Twain - Dolly Parton - Hank Williams - Nouvelle Vague - The Prodigy - The Chemical Brothers - Fatboy Slim - Basement Jaxx - Kylie Minogue - Faithless - Jamiroquai - LCD Soundsystem - Bee Gees - Róisín Murphy - Boney M. - Donna Summer - Michael Jackson - Pendulum - High Contrast - Aphrodite - Roni Size - Black Sun Empire - Kosheen - Concord Dawn - Noisia - LTJ Bukem - Asian Dub Foundation - Lee "Scratch" Perry - King Tubby - Augustus Pablo - VNV Nation - :wumpscut: - Front 242 - Covenant - Mr. Alfa - Michael Bublé - The Postal Service - Goldfrapp - Kraftwerk - Ladytron - The Knife - My Chemical Romance - Fall Out Boy - Taking Back Sunday - The Used - The Mars Volta - Sonic Youth - Animal Collective - The Decemberists - The Shins - Bright Eyes - Evanescence - PJ Harvey - Norah Jones - Garbage - Fiona Apple - Cat Power - Amy Winehouse - Nightwish - Simon & Garfunkel - Devendra Banhart - Joanna Newsom - Leonard Cohen - Yann Tiersen - Édith Piaf - Justice - Emilie Simon - Carla Bruni - Camille - Charlotte Gainsbourg - Françoise Hardy - Alizée - Keren Ann - James Brown - Prince - Stevie Wonder - Rammstein - Wir sind Helden - Within Temptation - Lacrimosa - Napalm Death - Nasum - Pig Destroyer - Carcass - Santana - Dire Straits - Hatebreed - Converge - Comeback Kid - Beastie Boys - Kanye West - Eminem - OutKast - The Roots - Black Eyed Peas - DJ Shadow - A Tribe Called Quest - Jay-Z - Nas - Wu-Tang Clan - Common - 2Pac - Cypress Hill - Snoop Dogg - Jurassic 5 - Mos Def - David Guetta - Deep Dish - Bob Sinclar - Mylo - Autechre - Squarepusher - Venetian Snares - Amon Tobin - Plaid - Bloc Party - Modest Mouse - Marilyn Manson - Skinny Puppy - Apocalyptica - Pelican - 65daysofstatic - Dir en grey - Miles Davis - Louis Armstrong - Nina Simone - Herbie Hancock - Ella Fitzgerald - Billie Holiday - Manu Chao - Buena Vista Social Club - Juanes - Jennifer Lopez - Gipsy Kings - Enrique Eglesias - Ibrahim Ferrer - Orishas - Myod - Justin Timberlake - Robbie Williams - The Moody Blues - Ricardo Villalobos - Booka Shade - Richie Hawtin - Vangelis - Merzbow - Melt-Banana - Lightning Bolt - Einstürzende Neubauten - Elvis Presley - Chuck Berry - John Lennon - Roy Orbison - The Animals - Nelly Furtado - Gwen Stefani - Christina Aguilera - Kelly Clarkson - U2 - Dido - Maroon 5 - James Blunt - The Cardigans - Siouxsie and the Banshees - Bauhaus - Echo & the Bunnymen - Godspeed You! Black Emperor - A Silver Mt. Zion - Mono - Do Make Say Think - Porcupine Tree - King Crimson - Shpongle - Syd Barrett - The Clash - Sex Pistols - Matisyahu - Bob Marley - Gentleman - Sublime - Peter Tosh - My Bloody Valentine - Slowdive - Jeff Buckley - Tim Buckley - Rufus Wainwright - Reel Big Fish - Less Than Jake - Ska-P - The Specials - Madness - Marvin Gaye - Alicia Keys - Joss Stone - Hans Zimmer - Howard Shore - John Williams - Ennio Morricone - Kent - In Flames - Scooter - Orbital - DJ Tiësto - Benny Benassi - Paul Oakenfold - Cesária Évora - Ravi Shankar

Ah, forgot to do this in time, so this is a couple of weeks late.

I had about 57,200 plays in total in the middle of July. That makes about 14,300 plays in total since July 2007. A 7,000 plays' drop from the previous years! What's happened to me?

As a consequence, the top 30 artist charts aren't that interesting:

01. (-) 浜崎あゆみ 1,089
02. (-) 坂本真綾 691
03. (-) The Faint 633
04. (-) System of a Down 606
05. (+3) Björk 594
06. (-1) 菅野よう子 567
07. (-) The Knife 565
08. (-2) Dir en grey 543
09. (*) Tuvalu 483
10. (-1) PMMP 469
11. (+3) HORSE the band 464
12. ( +1) Faithless 462
13. (-2) Rammstein 413
14. (+6) Lapko 411
15. (-5) Imogen Heap 409
16. (-) Seconds To Mars 395
17. (-5) Tool 387
18. (-) belladonnakillz 367
19. (+4) Infected Mushroom 360
20. (-3) Bloodpit 350
21. (-6) Johnny Cash 344
22. (*) Husky Rescue 342
23. (-4) Ulver 341
24. (-3) Carpark North 314
25. (-3) Machinae Supremacy 313
26. (+1) Maj Karma 281
26. (*) CMX 281
28. (-2) Regina 279
29. (-5) Fischerspooner 269
30. (*) Venetian Snares 261

There's less movement, and there are less new arrivals on the chart. Especially the top of the list has stayed the same, with only a few new plays for the artists.

So, now that Last.fm makes it possible, I've decided to add new chart here. The top 15 artists for the last 12 months (today):

01. Tuvalu 319
02. Eleanoora Rosenholm 257
03.