Top 25 Most Played Songs in 2011
by E. Christopher Clark | Saturday, December 31, 2011
Sure, we closed down the site months ago, but where else are we supposed to put our annual list of the songs we listened to the most in the past year?
So, without further ado, here are the 25 songs we listened to the most in 2011 (according to Last.fm):
- “Part of Your World” by Skye Sweetnam
- “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster The People
- “Raise Your Glass” by P!nk
- “Please Ask for Help” by Telekinesis
- “Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- “Map of Tasmania” by Amanda Palmer (featuring The Young Punx)
- “Playing God” by Paramore
- “Brick by Boring Brick” by Paramore
- “Private Eyes” by The Bird and The Bee
- “Great Lakes” by Telekinesis
- “Tokyo” by Telekinesis
- “Careful” by Paramore
- “Meet The Future Downlow” by Palmdale
- “Young Blood” by The Naked and The Famous
- “West Coast Serenade” by Palmdale
- “The Problem With Saints” by 8in8
- “All the Money I Had Is Gone” by The Deep Dark Woods
- “I Saw Lightning” by Telekinesis
- “What The Hell” by Avril Lavigne
- “Blow” by Ke$ha
- “Here Comes The Summer” by Palmdale
- “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Arcade Fire
- We Used To Wait” by Arcade Fire
- “Maneater” by The Bird and The Bee
- “Pick Up The Phone” by Palmdale
Okay, so right off the bat, those of you who follow my Last.fm page closely — and I know you’re out there, so don’t deny it — will notice that I’ve manipulated the list a bit more than in past years. Why’s that? Well, first, my daughter Kaylee found the Repeat button on her iPod and toggled it on this summer, so there were a good half-dozen songs that got 40+ plays this year only because they played over and over and over until the iPod’s battery died.
Second, I used my Most Listened To in 2010 list a lot when running this summer, which artificially inflated the numbers for some of the songs from last year. And seeing as I play these lists a lot, and I don’t want a list that looks the same as the last year’s, I omitted anything that appeared on last year’s list.
Third, and last, I think I have a better memory of what went through my ears this year (at least in some cases) than Last.fm does. The human element must be introduced here, at least a little bit.
So, with all that aside, what trends do I notice? Well, the trend of listening to whole albums that I noted on last year’s list continued into 2011. Albums by Telekinesis, The Bird and The Bee, and Palmdale were played constantly throughout the year. So were albums by Arcade Fire, a band I was late in latching onto, but that I embraced with a passion on the advice of many friends this year. If I am surprised by anything on this list, it’s that there isn’t more Arcade Fire.
The number one song, “Part of Your World” by Skye Sweetnam, was, like much of the 2009 list inspired by my old pal Andy Hicks, who posted a video of Sweetnam’s cover of this fantastic song from the soundtrack to The Little Mermaid over on Facebook. And the presence of “Part of Your World” at the top of this year’s list is a reminder of one other trend in 2011: Despite spending a great deal of time away from my family working on projects, I still spent quality time listening to music with my girls whenever I could (not that I didn’t listen to this song on my own, too).