Was scrolling through my computerized music collection today and thought to myself: Which bands to I have the most music from on my computer? And now I know:
1. Depeche Mode — 157 songs (lots of remixes in here)
2. The Beatles — 137 songs
3. U2 — 126 songs
4. The Cure — 110 songs
5. Kate Bush — 104 songs
6. Metallica — 100 songs
7. Tori Amos — 82 songs
8. Nine Inch Nails — 70 songs
9. Journey — 68 songs
10. Tie: Tom Lehrer and They Might Be Giants — 67 songs
Artists also represented by more than 50 tracks include Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Sarah McLachlan, Neil Finn/Crowded House/Finn Brothers, Iron Maiden, Billy Joel (I don’t know why I have so much Billy Joel), Waylon Jennings, Howard Shore (the Lord of the Rings soundtracks), Pink Floyd, Oingo Boingo and Yaz(oo)/Alison Moyet/Erasure (oh, come on. Like Alison Moyet and Andy Bell don’t sound the same).
What does it mean? Uhhhh, that I like all those artists? However, some of my favorite artists aren’t on the list, including Daniel Lanois (36 songs in my collection), Brian Eno (47), kd lang (44), fairground attraction/Eddi Reader (36), Emmylou Harris (16), The Pretenders (36), and the La’s (a mere three tracks on my computer). So I wouldn’t necessarily call that top ten entirely representative of my personal tastes.
It’s also not representative of, say, my entire CD collection, since I have a tendency to rip only tracks I want, rather than entire albums. So some bands are underrepresented on my computer, relative to their presence in my CD collection — and newer bands are overrepresented, since I’ve stopped buying CDs as much and started buying more music online.
But it is interesting. As I said, who knew I had that much Billy Joel? It’s not like my iTunes ever seems to play any. What does it know that I don’t?
Who is most represented in your music collection? Because, you know, now I’m curious.