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What with all that singles chart hullabaloo going on with X-Factor vs. Rage vs. a few other notable entrants, we thought we'd bring you news of ANOTHER chart, but perhaps one we can relate to a little better this time - the last.fm yearly charts.
For those not in the know a) where have you been? b) last.fm is a website which records and charts your music listening habits, with weekly, monthly, yearly listens to artists, albums, songs and whatnot. Fairly simple.
There's no real surprise who topped this particular competition in 2009, the year only belonged to one crazy tea-cup and saucer wielding woman, Lady GaGa, who topped the last.fm's list for the year with an absolutely ridiculous amount of plays for her album, The Fame.
Here are the Top 10 artists and albums in full:
- Lady GaGa - The Fame - 18,487,185 plays
- The Killers - Day & Age - 12,471,571
- Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You - 10,522, 633
- The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die - 8,900,264
- Franz Ferdinand - Tonight - 8,795,186
- Beyoncé - I Am Sasha Fierce - 8,642,704
- Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion - 7,630,636
- Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown - 7,607,636
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz - 6,855,404
- Kanye West - 808 & Heartbreak - 6,615, 339
Predictable? Decent? Merriweather?!
As well as those proper albums list, there's also a last.fm 'Hot New Artists' of 2009, which was calculated by the number of plays in the shortest period of time, with all the acts given a temperature rating. In degrees Celcius. Bloody Europeans. Here it is:
- The xx - xx - 43ºC
- Fever Ray - Fever Ray - 36ºC
- La Roux - La Roux - 35ºC
- Passion Pit - Manners - 32ºC
- Lady GaGa - The Fame - 31ºC
- Little Boots - Hands - 29ºC
- Florence + The Machine - Lungs - 28ºC
- Bat For Lashes - Two Suns - 21ºC
- Taylor Swift - Fearless - 21ºC
Why there's only nine there I'm not quite sure. Still it fits well in with the 9 in '09 handle which we've been using better than a Top 10 would have.
We have our OWN last.fm group here which you should join if you have an account, obviously. I haven't worked out (yet) how to get our yearly charts but rest assured that it's most likely Animal Collection.
VERY IMPORTANT STATISTICAL UPDATE: Thanks to the very wonderful Theo Graham-Brown who has helped us (read: done it all on his own) tot up our yearly charts, as well as our overall charts for the last.fm group. Check below for some (un)surprising results!
- Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion - 4,441 plays
- Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - 3,179
- Radiohead - In Rainbows - 2,677
- The National - Boxer - 2,652
- Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest - 2,505
- Deerhunter - Microcastle - 2,503
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz - 2,497
- The Horrors - Primary Colours - 2,472
- Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes - 2,358
- Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires - 2,144
The top 10 albums OF ALL TIME:
- Radiohead - In Rainbows - 6,283
- Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - 5,313
- Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - 5,082
- Battles - Mirrored - 4,995
- Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights - 4,985
- Bloc Party - Silent Alarm - 4,730
- Radiohead - Kid A - 4,649
- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless - 4,580
- Radiohead - OK Computer - 4,493
DiScuss: Got your own yearly lists? Post them below, for all to praise or mock.
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really suprised Muse aren't in there
They've been riding high in either the top 4 - and currently no.1 I think - of artist plays for ages. I guess, lol, once people heard it one or two times they stopped listening.
I'm honestly surprised that the new Franz is #5
I mean I really like the album and all, but I thought everyone else just kinda shrugged it off and moved onto other things quickly after its release, plus none of the singles were really hits.
I'm pretty sure I listened to the Kong album this year more times than those numbers listed up there
Are you doing it right Theo?
RIght, group stats are, as I remember, compiled differently.
I'm pretty sure each member is only counted once no matter how many times they play an album, or rather they are only counted once per period.
These were compiled by totally up each week one after another, so my hunch is this: If anyone in the group listened to that album in that week that counts as one listen for the group, regardless of how much they listened to it.
The question this still leaves is how do they determine and album play? Is it one track from that album or every track from that album? I often start an album and then have to stop it before it finishes because of work or something. But personally speaking, I'd still say I gave the album a listen. Conversely, if I just played one track from it I'd only be liking that one track...
People leaving/joining the group will presumably alter the stats so even these values might not be the same if I ran the check in a week's time.
Hot New Artists?
Does Fever Ray really count, since she's half of The Knife, which (according to wiki) started a decade ago?
Also, didn't Natasha Khan start doing Bat For Lashes in '05 or something like that? Are these guys really new, per se?
I know, it's just a trifle, but I'm curious.
http://earz-mag.com/2009/12/music-picks-2009/
2009 picks & guest-curated lists...
DiS Last.fm list
I think I'm solely responsible for the presence of Friendly Fires in that list. I reckon I've listened to the album around 2,144 times.

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