It’s the first of September and therefore the perfect time to make a favourites list. For a while now I’ve been using the music scrobbler from Last.fm to keep a record of the music I listen to. This program – easy to install! – keeps track of what you listen to on your computer – in the windows media player as well as in iTunes (you can even let it synchronize your iPod to scrobble the songs you listened to on there). On your online profile you then can see what artists you have listened to the most – over the last week, the last year or overall, but also (important!) over the last three months.
This has given me the idea to, at the start of every new month, make a list of the 10 artists I’ve listened to the most over the previous 3 months – with a bit of extra info on the why?
These are the first lists (artists and songs) of the months June, July and August.
The artists:
Counting down to 6
In the tenth spot we find Jessie J, which isn’t a big surprise. Ever since I discovered her album Who you are I’ve been listening to her music quite often (especially during our rainy summer holiday in the Netherlands).
Just one spot above her you can find Jamie Lidell. I have this thing with numbers, so I sometimes ask my family to name a number between 0 and x and then I choose the artist that corresponds to that number. This month it was Jamie Lidell!
The eighth spot is occupied by All time low. One of my FB friend mentions that band quite a lot in his status updates, so I got curious and downloaded their music. They’re actually quite nice! Not to heavy.
Above them there’s another rockband, that I already knew a bit longer: Paramore. I simply love Hayley Williams’ voice and their music is very good too. I put Paramore on when I have to study, or when I’m a bit down, ‘cause it fires me up!
Before I enter the top 5, I come across Paolo Nutini. Mid-June I went to the Mundial Festival (Dutch) where Paolo Nutini was a headliner! Me, my mom and my sister actually kind of bought the ticket only for Paolo Nutini! However, when my sister was practicing his lyrics I realized that I didn’t know his second album as well as I expected, so I listened to that a couple of times before the concert.
Numbers 4 and 5
You can find another Mundial act on the fifth place: Triggerfinger. They were on right before Paolo, and they were great! They’re Belgian and their leadsinger has a very powerful voice. I decided to listen to their albums, and they were pretty great too.
Coming in fourth is Raphael Gualazzi, who I already discussed in the introduction to my favourite music. I discovered him at the Europian song contest this year and I’ve listened to his album quite a lot of times since then, so it’s not surprising he’s on this list.
Runners up
In third place we find a Dutch band, Krezip, that alas has split up after 10 years. A few of the members went to the same high school as I did, so that’s cool. I realized like 2 months ago that I only know the singles they have released, so I decided to listen to the rest too!
The runner up this month is an Italian duo, which I listened to for the same reason as Jamie Lidell. It was one of the numbers my family picked! They’re called 883 and their music is not spectacular, but it is a good way for me to practice my Italian.
The #1
Well, it’s not a big surprise who has the lead the last three months. After releasing her new album Born this way, Lady Gaga has returned to my playlists. I’ve listened to the songs I like from Born this way quite a few times since its release. In the next section you’ll find some of those favourite songs from the album.
The songs
The list:
1. Lady Gaga – Judas
2. Lady Gaga – Hair
2. Lady Gaga –Government hooker
2. Lady Gaga – Electric chapel
5. Raphael Gualazzi – Reality and fantasy
5. Raphael Gualazzi – Icarus
5. Raphael Gualazzi – Follia d’amore
5. Raphael Gualazzi – Behind the sunrise ft. Rox
9. Riccardo Cocciante – Margherita
9. Alexis Jordan – Hapiness
9. Lady Gaga – Born this way
9. Raphael Gualazzi – Tuesday
9. Raphael Gualazzi – Calda estate
9. Raphael Gualazzi – Scandalize me
9. Raphael Gualazzi – Empty home
There should be only 10 songs on this list, but some songs I put on as many times as others, so it’s a little bit bigger this time!
Why there are a lot of songs of Lady Gaga and Raphael Gualazzi I already explained above, so let’s focus on those 2 songs that aren’t their doing.
Firstly there’s Hapiness by Alexis Jordan, a song that has been a big hit here in the Netherlands this summer. It’s such a contagious song, that I can’t help but include it in the playlists I sometimes make when I don’t want to listen to one artist in particular.
The song Margherita by Riccardo Cocciante I listened to a lot, because it was one of the songs that I wrote about in my thesis. I’m not gonna bore you with what I wrote about, but it had something to do with translations in pop music.
So now you know what I’ve been listening to! What did you listen to this summer?
