Here I am, once again. Today my profile turns 3 years old. It's been a decently big year for listening. I reached the big 50,000 tracks played, which was exciting. I finally got my songs per day average to 50, after it hovering in the 40s for a long time. Of course, then it dropped drastically over the summer when I didn't listen to much of anything. But now I'm going big again. So, let's see where my charts are.
They Might Be Giants 3,673
The Beatles 3,441
Mike Oldfield 1,843
Gorillaz 1,772
Fountains of Wayne 1,356
Queen 1,206
Dong Bang Shin Ki 1,107
The Alan Parsons Project 1,062
The Killers 1,003
Michelle Branch 982
Vanessa Carlton 883
Yoshihisa Hirano and Hideki Taniuchi 832
Simon & Garfunkel 826
Coldplay 782
Paul McCartney 778
Beck 773
KT Tunstall 773
The Presidents of the United States of America 762
Blur 727
Gabriel Mann 681
The Beach Boys 656
Elton John 650
Geri X 645
"Weird Al" Yankovic 629
Donovan 614
Billy Joel 538
tvxq 530
John Williams 460
The Rocket Summer 434
The Offspring 433
Daft Punk 428
Sean Lennon 416
The Cranberries 395
Michael Jackson 385
Scissor Sisters 355
Mannheim Steamroller 349
The Brian Setzer Orchestra 338
Imogen Heap 320
John Linnell 305
Mono Puff 287
Koji Kondo 277
Koji Kondo, Yoshiko Kawamoto 272
Creedence Clearwater Revival 268
Herman's Hermits 250
Bow Wow Wow 245
Cirque du Soleil 242
super smash bros. brawl 239
The B-52's 238
Paul McCartney & Wings 238
O-Zone 236
So, there you have them. My charts as of today, though more music is playing on my iPod right now, which will undoubtedly cause this to be out of date by the time I publish it. So, who was big this year? Who's on the rise, who's falling, and who stayed the same?
Well, first off, TMBG asserted their place as first quite dominantly, as opposed to when they and The Beatles were neck and neck. The Beatles still got 1,000+ plays though, so they were not neglected. Gorillaz also had another solid year. Fountains of Wayne had a big year, and rose up a few spots, not a small feat for someone in the top 10 of my charts. Queen moved up as well.
The two biggest new additions are The Offspring and Daft Punk. While they were both in my charts a year ago, their presence was negligible. Now, they both have 400+ plays. Both are amazing. Daft Punk's Discovery is my album of the year, without a doubt.
PUSA also moved up a good bit, and deservedly so, as they were not receiving enough attention in the past from me. The Beach Boys and Billy Joel also made some moves. Nice
Bow Wow Wow rocketed up, since I finally listened to the music of theirs I had besides I Want Candy, and realized I liked it. Yay. Also, a welcome to the B-52's, who are fun times.
So, who is making big moves outside of my top 50? Well, Owl City will probably be there soon enough. It seems I can't get enough of it. Also, Yui is fun. Nice mellow j-pop-rock is fun. Men At Work and Colin Hay are looking at making their moves into the charts soon. Oh, also Susumu Hirasawa, with the soundtrack to Paprika, has made his presence felt. No doubt about it, some of these artists will be in my charts next year. O-Zone is on the way out, as is the SSB:Brawl soundtrack. Herman's Hermits just doesn't have what it takes to really compete with any real competition either, given the small number of their songs I have. But only time will tell.
That's it for now. My charts are pretty nice. They've settled somewhat into what they'll sort of look like for the predictable future. The top 10 won't change too much, the next 20 may shift around, but will have most of the same members. But things aren't so defined that they can't move at all, and that's why watching the charts is still fun. I'll see you in a year!
Mike Oldfield
