Here’s my list of 42 most listened-to songs, according to the playcount from iTunes. A big dip in total plays for the top songs, with the most played song only having 34 plays and no others with more than 20. Compare to the list from 2010 where 19 plays would landed just at the end of the bottom 50! In 2009, 34 plays wouldn’t have even made the top 10.
In total, 1337 songs were played at least once in 2011 (1539 in 2010, 1431 in 2009).
I guess I wasn’t listening to as much music in 2011, or at least not as obsessively. Anyway, congrats to Foster the People for topping my list. The high rank for The Go-Go’s was thanks to much playing of their catalog prior to seeing their show in L.A. in August. And the high rank for A Flock of Seagulls is thanks to a “new wave” playlist that I like to play at work.
| Houdini RAC Remix | Foster The People | 34 |
| Lonely Boy | The Black Keys | 19 |
| Warrant | Foster the People | 18 |
| Departures | Karminsky Experience Inc | 17 |
| Tonite | The Go-Go’s | 15 |
| Lust To Love | The Go-Go’s | 15 |
| Messages | A Flock of Seagulls | 14 |
| Helena Beat | Foster the People | 14 |
| Papi | Jennifer Lopez | 14 |
| The Power Of Rolling Along (Till The World Ends) [Pet Shop Boys vs. Britney Spears vs. Adele vs. Rihanna vs. Bloodhound Gang vs. Huey Lewis vs. The All-American Rejects] |
Marc Johnce | 14 |
| You Can Run | A Flock of Seagulls | 13 |
| The High Road | Broken Bells | 12 |
| Houdini | Foster the People | 12 |
| Reach (Extended Dance Version) | Martini Ranch | 12 |
| Blue Tip | The Cars | 11 |
| Send Somebody | Colin Hay | 11 |
| Don’t Ask Me | A Flock of Seagulls | 11 |
| I Would Do Anything for You | Foster the People | 11 |
| We Got The Beat | The Go-Go’s | 11 |
| Born This Way | Lady Gaga | 11 |
| I Ran (So Far Away) | A Flock of Seagulls | 10 |
| Space Age Love Song | A Flock of Seagulls | 10 |
| Telecommunication | A Flock of Seagulls | 10 |
| Modern Love Is Automatic | A Flock of Seagulls | 10 |
| Pumped Up Kicks | Foster the People | 10 |
| Don’t Stop (Color On the Walls) | Foster the People | 10 |
| How Much More | The Go-Go’s | 10 |
| What You Want | Evanescence | 9 |
| Made of Stone | Evanescence | 9 |
| The Change | Evanescence | 9 |
| My Heart Is Broken | Evanescence | 9 |
| D.N.A. | A Flock of Seagulls | 9 |
| Call It What You Want | Foster the People | 9 |
| Waste | Foster the People | 9 |
| Life On the Nickel | Foster the People | 9 |
| Miss You | Foster the People | 9 |
| Our Lips Are Sealed | The Go-Go’s | 9 |
| This Town | The Go-Go’s | 9 |
| Automatic | The Go-Go’s | 9 |
| On The Floor (feat. Pitbull) | Jennifer Lopez | 9 |
| Hypnotico (Bonus Track) | Jennifer Lopez | 9 |
| Disturbia | Rihanna | 9 |
I hadn’t thought to examine my iTunes play lists to see what I really listened to vs what I thought I liked. Now that all my devices are synced to iTunes I could actually do that. There was a crew cut comedian back in the old days named George Gobel http://www.nndb.com/people/613/000060433/gobel2-sized.jpg who used to say in a dazed look to the audience, “… A flock of them went over that time!” I’ll have to check out the modern flock.