My favorite bands aren't the one I thought they were. At least, not according to what I actually listen to.
Here's a musical game you bloggers can play at home. First, make a list of what you think are your top 5 favorite bands. (Do it from memory: no cheating.) Then fire up iTunes, sort your music library by play count, and see what you really listen to.
Here are the bands I thought were my favorites:
- Maria McKee
- Belly
- Stan Ridgway
- The Lucksmiths
- The Peacemakers
But when I listed my iTunes library by play count it turned out my most frequently spun tunesmiths, in order, were:
- Madness
- J. S. Bach
- Lush
- Mary's Danish
- Styx
Well, that was a surprise.
The top five musicians I actually listen to are a ska band, a classical composer, a shoegazer band, a jazz-rock-country fusion band, and an arena rock hair-band. No punk or hardcore bands, no real indie bands, and no current bands (although one of them is still making records, but with a new 50+ year old lineup).
You know, in my mind I'm a lot cooler than that.
Digging deeper into the list, the bands that round out my top 20 are:
- The Donnas
- Bow Wow Wow
- Patty Griffin
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Stan Ridgway
- Planet P Project
- Belly
- The Sundays
- Maria McKee
- Stan Ridgway
- The Lucksmiths
- Holly McNarland
- Maria McKee
- Gin Blossoms
- Kirsty MacColl
The only one of my guesses that was even in my top 10 was Stan Ridgway, and he just squeaked in. And my pick of The Peacemakers didn't even show up in the top 20 at all (although the related band Gin Blossoms did appear).
I wasn't even close. Have I even met me?
