In real life, I am quite obsessed with lists, statistics and graphs. Though I have clearly chosen the path of linguistics and literature, I cannot hide my passion for the visualized facts in life. My iTunes library probably exemplifies this quite well. I made unwritten rules that apply to every song of my 5,647 tracks, and I try to maintain them properly. One of my most recent actions concerns the years in which the songs were released. Originally, I didn't mind these years. Now however, I try to give my most played songs information about their year of birth. And it does render some interesting statistics. Using a little program, called SuperAnalyzer, I can track the decennia I played most. The statistics are not perfectly in order yet (some songs bear incorrect years, other are blank), but the results do reveal some amazing tendencies.
It cannot be surprising that the 2000s are my number one decade, by cumulative play counts. The temporary statistics read 35,719 plays. Imagine how many hours of music that is! Next in the list are the 1970s, which get quite good figures because of my fanhood of The Eagles in earlier days. The 1990s are quite close to the 70s. It's obvious why I've played so many 90s music: many of the bands I started to listen to in the early 2000s had their roots in the 1990s (think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Green Day). Also, lots of my parents' music is from that period.
The 1980s are next in line. In fact, until a few months ago, they would not have been this well represented. It is because of my recent passion for the Dire Straits and The Cure that the 80s are on the up. The fifth most popular decade is the sixties. The Beatles propably make up a good deal of this decade.
What comes before the 1960s is a rather dark period in my iTunes collection. Songs from the 1950s have - all counted together - only been played 400 times. Compare that to the 2000s! Next in line would be the 1800s and the 1830s. Why? Beethoven and Chopin, of course. Vivaldi in the 1700s to 1720s isn't too bad either. What is rather curious is that there is hardly any music from the period 1900-1950 in my library. Is there anyone who has proper suggestions of good songs from that period?
Dimitri 16:22, March 16, 2010 (UTC)
