The 9513 Last.fm Chart Update (5-3-09)

Welcome to the 9513 Last.fm Chart Update. This has been a feature of The 9513’s forums for a few months now and started off as a way to talk about the musical tastes of our readers. It’s now been called up from AAA to the big leagues.

But first thing’s first, as some of you may not be familiar with Last.fm. Part of the site functions as an Internet radio station (similar to Pandora). You can listen to artists you like, get recommendations and create your own “stations.” The other part of Last.fm is a social networking site, much like a music-centric Facebook. So rather than listing the top five breakfast cereals you loved as a kid or bragging about the latest thug you whacked in Mafia Wars, you share the most vital of information–what music are you listening to right at this moment. Once you download the Last.fm software (even available for jailbroken iPhones), every song that you play on the music-listening program of your choice will be recorded (or “scrobbled”) and displayed on your profile page in real-time.

From there, Last.fm generates charts based on all the music you play, giving you more information about your own listening habits than you probably wanted. I know I’ve looked at my own page more than a few times and thought, “Jeez, do I really listen to The Pogues that much?” Just like other networking sites, you also can make friends and join groups, and one such group is The 9513. Sign up with Last.fm and join our group, if you haven’t already, and all the music that you listen to in a given week will help shape our weekly charts. Now on to the results for this week.

To the surprise of absolutely no one who’s looked at our group more than once, George Strait is the most popular artist of the week with 18 listeners, along with Alan Jackson. Martina McBride, riding the popularity of Shine, is second with 16 listeners. She’s tied with Lee Ann Womack, still (STILL) riding the popularity of Call Me Crazy, and Tim McGraw, who is riding the popularity of…what, exactly? The third or fourth repackaging of his earlier work? The announcement of his new movie with Sandra Bullock? Well, imagine how well he’ll do if he ever gets to release new music.

Throw in Faith Hill’s 13 listeners, and the couple scores 29 total listeners, topping Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood (28) and Keith Urban/Nicole Kidman (13–hey, she sang in Moulin Rouge) for most popular singing couple.

Insanity still dominates the Top Albums chart, as Miranda Lambert’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (11 listeners) and Womack’s Call Me Crazy (10 listeners) are #1 and #2, respectively. Trisha Yearwood, gone from the radio but not our hearts, has three albums in the Top 10. The Top 20 is rounded out by releases from country luminaries like Kelly Clarkson (um?), Julianne Hough (yikes), Rodney Atkins (oh boy) and Sunny Sweeney (YES!).

On the singles side, “Last Call” from Womack had 7 listeners, making it the #1 song of the week. A healthy portion of the group broke out some tunes by Vern Gosdin in honor of his passing. “Set ‘Em Up Joe” and “Do You Believe Me Now” had 6 listeners each, and four other songs had at least 4 listeners, putting them in the Top 20. The Eli Young Band, who as far as I know is completely healthy, put two songs–“When It Rains” and “Always The Love Songs”–into the Top 10 as well.

To see this week’s charts and join our group, head to http://www.last.fm/group/The+9513.

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