Today is the day that I reset the play counts on all of the Smith Family iPods after a year of data gathering and consolidation. I used to wait right until December 31st, but I’ve found that Marcia and I almost always want something fresh through various holiday trips and hectic work season, so early December has become iPod playlist reprogramming time.
The most interesting playlist to clear is the collection of “most played songs” for the year. Since we synch all of our gadgets to one computer and one iTunes account, this “most played songs” list in our household represent the aggregated play counts from my car (or train, since I’ve moved to Chicago), my gym, Marcia’s car, Marcia’s gym, and the collaborative family iPod that stays in the house’s stereo dock and is played by Marcia, Katelin and I.
So the “most played songs” of the year are often interesting and unexpected, since they tend to represent heart of a musical Venn Diagram where our family’s musical tastes most closely overlap, even though each of us individually may like very different things. We spun about 3,600 songs in 2015 — out of about 10,000 saved on my computer. Here are the 40 that earned the most frequent listening love in aggregate, with links to some of the more esoteric ones for your listening enlightenment:
1. “I Love You All“ by Soronprfbs
2. “Port of Rico“ by Illinois Jacquet
3. “Brass Cupcake” by Melvins
4. “Dadje Von O Von Non“ by Gnonnas Pedro et ses Dadjes
5. “Rock Or Bust” by AC/DC
6. “Old Marcus Garvey“ by Burning Spear
7. “How The Years Condemn” by Napalm Death
8. “Tweet Tweet Tweet” by Sleaford Mods
9. “House Of The King“ by Jan Akkerman
10. “Glass Half Full” by Love Songs For Lonely Monsters
11. “Recessive Jean“ by Shriekback
12. “Black Starliner Must Come” by Culture
13. “The Half“ by Dennis Brown
14. “Party Time” by The Heptones
15. “Ghetto Organ“ by Jackie Mittoo
16. “Acres Wild” by Jethro Tull
17. “Hey Lawdy Mama” by Steppenwolf
18. “Riranzo“ by Nacio Makanda
19. “Inkulu Into Ezakwenzeka“ by Nontwintwi
20. “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult
21. “Sweet Water Pools” by Screaming Blue Messiahs
22. “Restless Day“ by COIL
23. “Apex Predator — Easy Meat“ by Napalm Death
24. “Ruby Tuesday” by The Rolling Stones
25. “The King In The Tree” by Shriekback
26. “No More Heroes” by The Stranglers
27. “Hayilolosa Amale Ye Ma Tshangane“ by Mahikwani Makhuvele
28. “Don’t Bring Harry” by The Stranglers
29. “Slavery Days” by Burning Spear
30. “Life Goes On” by The Damned
31. “Sylvia” by Focus
32. “Eighties” by Killing Joke
33. “Civilized Worm“ by Melvins
34. “Hocus Pocus (Live Reprise)” by Focus
35. “Tom Sawyer” by Rush
36. “Bernadette” by Shriekback
37. “Liveable Shit“ by Sleaford Mods
38. “Who Needs Ya” by Steppenwolf
39. “Got Some Rock and Roll Thunder” by AC/DC
40. “Blackheart Man” by Bunny Wailer
Thanks, it’s always interesting to me to see this list. Good to learn about stuff that is new to me.
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