Pinched from other journal entries by other people… struck me as an interesting idea. What are the things to dislike about the artists I listen to the most?

–DISCLAIMER–
I am trying very hard to be mean here. I actually really like these artists and, obviously, listen to them all the time. They have many more positive points, particularly the top few - I can't even begin to explain all the things I love about Sleater-Kinney and Sonic Youth in particular…

10. M.I.A. : Trendy pseudo-political arty stuff. She's been an immigrant and had it tough but - uh -…

Take your top 20 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/eclectic.php

My eclectic score is currently

70/100

The 70 related artists for my profile are afi annie antony and the johnsons (2) apparat bauhaus belle and sebastian (3) bikini kill björk bloc party booka…

Out of interest, I decided to calculate the numbers of musical artists of different nationalities in my current top fifty. If in doubt, I used the 'base' countries of artists. The results surprised me a little:

The most common country of origin was the USA, with a surprising 21 artists. Possibly due to my fascination with various american music scenes.

Coming in second was the UK (predominantly England), with 13.

Canada was the third most common country of origin, with 7.

Next came the German artists, all 5 of them.

Following Germany with 3 was France.

And finally, Sweden completed…

Finally, finally got around to listening properly…

…And OH MY GOD, AMAZING.

LOVE it.

Albums I do not own mp3s of:

Let It Die
More Adventurous
Rufus Wainwright
The Invisible Deck
Mary Ann Meets The Gravediggers And Other Short Stories

Albums I already love and need to own for 'real':

I Am A Bird Now
Antony and The Johnsons
Joan As Police Woman
Real Life

Spending time in shops and Starbucks today I became aware of a certain grinding feeling, induced by festive music overkill:

If I hear Happy Xmas (War Is Over) or that stupid effing Band Aid song again I will actually go mad and kill everyone

!

REBEL against shitty holiday music! Do yourselves a treat and crack out Mushaboom, some Regina Spektor or Hed Kandi Winter Chill 06.04…

Meme lifted from another journal:

Find the number of listeners (last week) for your top 10 bands. Add them up and divide by 10 to get the average.

Sleater-Kinney 71,104
Rufus Wainwright 115, 324
The Dresden Dolls 85,133
Tegan & Sara 102,034
M.I.A. 90,622
PJ Harvey 129,342
Regina Spektor 83,824
Le Tigre 119,005
Yeah Yeah Yeahs 206,939
Mindless Self Indulgence 61,013

Sum: 1,064,340
/10 = 106,434

Divide your average by 377876 (the current average of Last.FM's top 10), then multiply by 100 to get your Mainstream Percentage

106,434 / 377876 = 0.2816638 x 100 = 28.1

-> I am 28.1…

A playlist which emerged through use of the Play all by Genre function on my Zen. May be improvised somewhat according to taste; best served on shuffle mode:

The Cure - A Forest
The Cure - Just Like Heaven
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
The Cure - Friday I'm In Love
New Order - Blue Monday
Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)
The Human League - Don't You Want Me
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Cities In Dust
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Arabian Knights
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Israel
Siouxsie & The Banshees - The…

So I just signed up to last.fm and it's got me wondering why I haven't discovered it before - amazing! Appeals to my love of music, my love of networking/recommendations, AND my narcissism.

Definitely will be exploring its features etc over the nest couple of weeks…