Apparently, as a woman over 40, I should clearly stop pretending that I listen to music.
Which, come to think of it, frees up some time to organize my desk. WIN!
Well, at least you're doomed if you want to listen to music whose audience is exclusively women over 40. Have you considered musicians with a 70-30 audience gender split?
I find it bizarre and also reassuring that Steve Vai and Iron Maiden are still super popular among 15-20yr old or so men. Hasn't anything else come out in the past 25 years?
Alternately, maybe I misread the graph.
That's kind of acweird way to display that information. If they want to show the most popular artists per age/gender bin, why not just a 2-D chart? As it is, the font size is just communicating their listenership demographics.
3: Hmm. That leaves me with something called G.M. Orchestra (GM's latest diversification effort?) and the Captain and Tennille. I think I'm still better off filing.
I should mention that I didn't read the accompanying article, so perhaps they explain. I prefer pictures.
Font size could imply that it was a popular choice across a broader range of ages, centered at the average age of listener?
I don't think it does, upon reading. But it might have.
I have the musical tastes of a 30 year old hermaphrodite.
All the instruments used are exclusively made from vegetables: from fresh as well as dried plant material such as carrot, leek, celery root, artichoke, dried pumpkin and onion skin. All these components are used for building organic instruments and sound generators which usually only last for one concert or one day in the studio. In addition to the vegetables, various utensils like record players or power drills are used to create unusual noises and to add unexpected texture to the music.
Oh, good lord.
I think that last.fm has become less useful since they turned off streaming of selected tracks. When I listen to stations based on some band, I get one song from the band I like and then tangentially related stuff that's usually not so good.
Listening to the libraries of other individuals that like something is an OK way to find new music, though.
Interesting that 30 something extremely manly men, like me, like the Chick Corea Electric Band. I mean, I like the Chick Corea Electric Band but I didn't know there were more of us out there. Time to make some new friends.
Genetically Modified Orchestra
They all play the tuber.
I probably wouldn't have posted 14 had I clicked through and read that they actually do play vegetables.
Not many of the people that I listen to on a regular basis are even on that graph.
I have blogged about REM, Etta James, and Ani DiFranco. I occasionally like John Hiat, and Gorillaz. Other than that, not people that I listen to.
Huh, so apparently only men like Howlin Wolf and mostly women like PJ Harvey.
This chart seems to be a total fail in the 50-60 range. Damn kids are listening to too much old music, pushing it leftward. Off my lawn!
All this proves is that Last.fm users are an odd bunch. I mean, find all these 30-year-old men who love Genesis and Yes and tell them to stop.
That chart's kind of a total fail all around.
And the choice of artists to include seems pretty random. Chick Corea Elektric Band, really?
20: In all serious, does anyone here, for instance, ever listen to last.fm?
I have my music player set to "scrobble" to Last.fm, but I never listen to their personalized streams, so I guess it's kind of pointless. It seems like they don't have the rights to a big enough variety of music to make their streams interesting.
Currently listening to the Blue Note catalog with a little G Welch, so I am off the chart too.
Two months ago it was Ella followed by Slayer, Kanye West, PSRaT, DSoTM, Nine Inch Nails, Happy Mondays, Justin Timberlake, Public Enemy, Klaus Schulze...you get the idea. I fucking break such charts.
They also have a service where they will recommend upcoming shows in your area. It's terrible. I would really love to have a service like that that worked (in preference to flipping through the Voice or The Onion every week, or actually reading Oh My Rockness!).
but really, my cows
I'm sorry, but the Cows are mine.
23: Like Yawnoc, I scrobble all the time and probably listen to their streams six times a year. I have enough good music on my iPhone that I have more fun shuffling through my own music than experimenting with other artists from the same genre. But I really enjoy the scrobbling feature so I can see how my music taste changes over the years.
So, speaking of finding new things to listen to, when is neb's next show?
If I understand that chart correctly, Iron Maiden fans age into Genesis fans who turn to Ray Price* when they get older.
*Is that the guy with the song about the squirrel and the other one about the streaker?
Something's seriously wrong with that chart. I'm 41, and recognize almost nothing along that vertical, except for Captain and Tennille, which was music for old people when I was 8.
Also, fuck the gender binary.
Also, fuck the gender binary
Do we have enough time?
Wow, what a ridiculous chart. Apparently I'm a, yes, 30-year-old hermaphrodite. Hi, Togolosh.
I don't see "dadrock" on the genre graph. I'm mildly disappointed.
Reply to 36
I agree; I'm baffled. My friends and I are all in our early forties, we have pretty damn mainstream tastes, and none of us listen to these artists.
Are Last-FM members registering with fake ages? Are there middle-aged users claiming to be 20 years younger than they are, for vanity's sake? I know there are slews of young YouTubers who claim to be 70 so they can access '18-or-over' content.
Doesn't that incomprehensible chart tell us more about the average age of a Last.fm user than about what the average person of a given age listens to?
41: Seems so.
Those who find themselves here on this blog may not fit into the average mold, however; likely more curious, exploratory, and active than the average. I honestly don't know, and fear I'll be looking dubiously at random 40-something-year-olds on the street now: do you listen to Captain and Tennille? Weirdo. It's enough to scare you off trying to date post-40.
Those who find themselves here on this blog may not fit into the average mold, however; likely more curious, exploratory, and active than the average.
I doubt this, actually, at least with regard to music.
The plot isn't what an average person of given age/gender listens to, it's the bands that most strongly correlate with a particular age-- the bands that convey the most information about your listening. Or something. Katy Perry, Led Zeppelin, and Muddy Waters are all absent, for instance, and KP is #11 overall.
Here's a different bunch of bands (mine) similarly plotted:
44 -- I don't understand at all. I mean, I almost understand the words -- but not quite -- but your chart makes the whole thing even less penetrable. Don't spend any effort trying to explain though -- it's probably a lost cause, and even by the low standards of Unfogged commenting, not worth your effort.
43: You sure that isn't just you and LB? I don't think I'm all that exploratory in my music-listening, but most people I interact with on a daily basis don't seem to listen to much music at all, so I would guess that "average" is way on the non-exploratory end. Someone like neb is way out on the tail.
44: I like how people who listen to "Bach, Johann Sebastian" are a bit older than people who listen to "Johann Sebastian Bach".
You sure that isn't just you and LB?
Well, no, but most of the people I interact with regularly IRL seem at least as musically exploratory as most of the people who discuss their musical taste here. (Of course, I may not be in a good position to judge that.) So I dunno.
I do think Last.fm users are likely to be at least as atypical in musical taste as Unfogged commenters.
I actually lie about my musical preferences here. In real life, I listen constantly to a single Screeching Weasel song on repeat at all hours of the day and night. It's great.
48: Huh. I wonder which of us interacts with a more representative sample of the population in real life. Probably you.
Here's a different bunch of bands (mine) similarly plotted:
Huh, the typical Blondie listener is a 25 year-old woman? That surprises me. Also it appears that no men listen to Cat Power which also seems wrong.
That said that graph (and that listing of artists) makes a lot more sense to me in general.
I just noticed, actually, that the Y-axis is not centered on 0, but even so those two listings feel off.
most people I interact with on a daily basis don't seem to listen to much music at all
Yeah, I suspect this not-listening-to-music is much more common than one realizes; and then many of those who do are just listening to whatever the radio is throwing at them.
It's possible that my social circle, being dominated by well-educated young people from New Jersey, is not entirely typical.
Confirming, once again, that middle-aged gay men are 20-year-old women.
As opposed to my social circle of well-educated slightly-less-young people currently living in New Jersey but originally from China, Russia, Germany, or elsewhere in the US.
So, speaking of finding new things to listen to, when is neb's next show?
Not ever in the foreseeable future, sad to say.
Isn't internet radio something you could do from the comfort of your own home?
I just came across this music blog, which is among the bestest things ever on the Internet, and spent last night listening to some totally dope Thai funk from the 60s and 70s.
Also good: Awesome Tapes from Africa.
And: Destination: Out!
Saw Awesome Tapes in a link from Holy Warbles, but haven't checked out DO yet. Too busy listening, man.
Ha! People teo interacts with regularly IRL have been there done that ages ago.
66: ... and keep an accurate accounting of the dead.
Did anyone ever link this or this here? They crack me up. (Especially the "yo solo te estoy avisando, amigo" translation in the Spanish one.) They both look oddly formal, to me, but this might just be because my Spanish is poor and my German is worse.
68: They used robar for "borrow", which is weird. But otherwise pretty good for the Spanish, IMHO. It's a pretty slangy song.
It's kind of funny how fast they have to go through the German words on account of their greater number.
Oh, and it's plainly translated by someone using Spain-based Spanish, so, you know, not down with the gente.
Vato, please.
On reflection, "Spain-based Spanish" is a terribly poor way of saying what I meant. Crap.
73: Really? I though it was quite clear.
74: I probably should have said "It was plainly translated by someone using Spanish from modern-day Spain."
Plenty of Spanish spoken all over is "Spain-based" in some sense or another, is my self-nit-picking point.
Plenty of Spanish spoken all over is "Spain-based" in some sense or another, is my self-nit-picking point.
All of it, presumably. But in the present context "Spain-based" is as good a term as "Metropolitan" or whatever else the alternative might be.
76: Yeah, I'm clearly still smarting from a recent conversation with a native speaker about prescriptivism vs. descriptivism regarding the difference between la radio and el radio and how there's a real difference...for some native speakers but not all native speakers.
I think, also, last.fm users skew British rather than US, which may have an impact. An acquaintance of mine works for them, fwiw. I scrobble my listening at work to last.fm, but at home not so much, so even I was to look at my own listening profile it'd skew strongly towards stuff friends online had pointed me towards on spotify -- since I don't have access to my own music library at work -- rather than stuff I've actively chosen to listen to.
77: I'm very much interested in what difference is there and for which native speakers.
I would also like to produce sentences that are less awkward.
They also have a service where they will recommend upcoming shows in your area. It's terrible. I would really love to have a service like that that worked (in preference to flipping through the Voice or The Onion every week, or actually reading Oh My Rockness!).
Does Songkick operate in the US? I use it for London and it generally does a good job, both in terms of recommending bands I might like, and in terms of notifying me as soon as tickets are available. Then again, I live with a music journalist, so I don't really need it.
I think, also, last.fm users skew British rather than US, which may have an impact.
Huh. My first reaction to the chart is that it looks extremely American. There are almost no "huge in Britain but unknown in the US" artists there, whereas I can see quite a few of the American equivalents.
Also it appears that no men listen to Cat Power which also seems wrong.
Indeed. I listen to Cat Power a lot. And I'm pretty sure I've listened to her on Last.fm.
re: 81
Yeah, I suppose, re: the artist set. Are there any of that very US-specific genre? Bro-mo, or whatever we should call it. 30-something men bellowing morosely over drop-D rock-lite, like a walrus that's caught its nads in between two rocks? Can't see any that leap out.
Does Songkick operate in the US?
It appears they do. Thanks for the rec!
77: I'm very much interested in what difference is there and for which native speakers.
La radio = the signal in the air and the medium in general.
El radio = the box that receives the signal.
I don't have a map of which native speakers observe this difference, but, anecdotally, I've met children of immigrants (i.e., native speakers of both English and Spanish who were born and grew up in the US) who didn't make the distinction. Specifically, they used el radio for both definitions.
I like last.fm because I can listen to non-US music. Currently I'm on a Finnish trip-hop kick. Before that it was Portuguese rap.
You have to just play a country/genre tag until you find a band you like, then play that band's radio. Then note down all those bands you like, and boom you have a superficial appreciation for some foreign people's musical stylings!
The worst part about last.fm is the people coming along trying to befriend you. I have a little note in my profile saying I don't befriend people, but they still try. Bless their hearts.