CMJ: The 50 Most-Played Records On College Radio 2005

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

1. Beck - Guero
2. Spoon - Gimme Fiction
3. Decemberists - Picaresque
4. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
5. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake...
6. Gorillaz - Demon Days
7. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
8. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
9. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
10. Low - The Great Destroyer
11. Death Cab For Cutie - Plans
12. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
13. White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
14. M83 - Before The Dawn Heals Us
15. Hot Hot Heat - Elevator
16. Wolf Parade - Apologies...
17. Iron And Wine - Woman King [Ep]
18. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
19. Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
20. My Morning Jacket - Z
21. Sigur Ros - Takk
22. Fiery Furnaces - EP
23. Doves - Some Cities
24. Of Montreal - Sunlandic Twins
25. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
26. ...Trail Of Dead - Worlds Apart
27. Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
28. Coldplay - X and Y
29. Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
30. MIA - Arular
31. Nada Surf - Weight Is A Gift
33. Dandy Warhols - Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars
34. Kills - No Wow
35. Raveonettes - Pretty In Black
36. Idlewild - Warnings/Promises
37. Caribou - Milk Of Human Kindness
38. Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth
39. Dressy Bessy - Electrified
40. Four Tet - Everything Ecstatic
41. Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust
42. Deerhoof - The Runner's Four
43. Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
44. Dangerdoom - The Mouse And The Mask
45. Matt Sweeney/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Superwolf
46. Fischerspooner - Odyssey
47. Kasabian - Kasabian
48. Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die
49. Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
50. Ladytron - Witching Hour

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

admit it, whiney, this is just your list.

― b8a, Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

My list would be Dalek, Jesu and then "Laffy Taffy" 48 times.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

31. Nada Surf - Weight Is A Gift

WTF.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

In a sense, I find this list more interesting that either of the Pitchfork or Stylus lists -- no offense -- although no points for no blubs.

Let's discuss who got play but got no love from the critics. (And yes, I'm assuming that this ranking has some basis in fact.)

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

no way is this more interesting. those lists are sort of weak but at least they've got some unpredictable shit on there. this here is what's pumped in at a really cool starbucks

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, this is just pure, raw chart data. (Our critic's list goes live on Friday).

I always find the CMJ chart fascinating because it seems to be a good indication of what indie types are ACTUALLY listening to. ILX-types (myself very much included) can blog about SunnO))) and Luomo and Bun B and Keith Fullerton Whitman all day long, but most people in our "circle" are probably listening to Dressy Bessy.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

Let's discuss who got play but got no love from the critics.

I think Gorillaz suffers with Pitchfork reviewers because it's got too much cross-over appeal. Pitchfork basically has a barbell strategy: ie., they like things from the obscure end of the rock/pop spectrum and a few token items from the ultra-populist end. The great unwashed middle zone (ie., most rock bands that get play on MTV or the OC) is left to Spin and its ilk.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

I assume that this list is compiled based on the cumulative number of plays? This would explain why it is so biased toward albums that were released early in the year?

If so, trying to compare this list with Pitchfork or whoever's list (where the "best" albums are chosen) is a non-starter.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

That would be like making my own top 10 from my Audioscrobbler "most played" list, right?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

I assume that this list is compiled based on the cumulative number of plays?

According to the info the stations send us, yes.

This would explain why it is so biased toward albums that were released early in the year?

Yep.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

actually barry, i did look at my last.fm stats when compiling my own top ten list. i mean, there's something valid in knowing i gave the constantines 200+ spins throughout the year. not that id base an entire list on merely that but its useful data.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

oh my god, that's the most mind-numbingly dull and predictable list ever compiled about anything. including the alphabet.

― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

oh my god, that's the most mind-numbingly dull and predictable list ever compiled about anything. including the alphabet.

Chart. Not list.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

Wow, my peers have some truly shitty taste in music.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

Of Montreal as high as 24 (no showings on magazine listes yet to my knowledge) is interesting.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

Chart. Not list.

eh. either way.

― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

Even more shocking than the Of Montreal placing ... M83 in nearly-as-popular-as-the-White-Stripes MEGA SHOCKER? (both albums came out around the same time too)

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

nada surf's revival continues to amaze. If Nerfherder signs to Barsuk, do they get cred too?

Who even bothers with college radio these days?

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

I did the same. Well, not Last.fm, since I don't have it set to record my iPod plays, but my overall iTunes most-played list.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

Nice to see Sage Francis getting some recog. Not to mention ranking higher than Devendra and Ladytron.

― Edward III (edward iii), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

Maria and John, I definitely put stock in my own last.fm playlists too. In my case, I listen to a lot of music that never finds a home on my hard drive, so those lists aren't necessarily representative of my overall taste. Also, I might d/l stuff, buy the CD if I really like it, and rarely play that music from my HD after that. Now that I'm thinking about this stuff, here are my most played artists that released an album in 2005:

1. Xiu Xiu
2. New Order
3. Depeche Mode
4. Billy Corgan
5. M83
6. The Warlocks
7. Caribou
8. Daft Punk
9. Roots Manuva
10. t.A.T.u

Only two of them made my actual top ten. As for the rest -- they're basically the albums that I liked but didn't like enough to actually run out and buy! They're the worst of the best! (biased toward stuff that came out early in the year, such as the Caribou album which cycled through my playlists for months but eventually I decided it wasn't that great of a record)

I'm sure Beck topped this chart only because a) the album came out in March, and b) he was played regularly on a huge number of stations (which can probably be said for the entire top ten too). Thus, mediocrity reaches the top spot via widespread cumulative weight.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

Have any of you Nada Surf bashers even heard the record? Or are you basing your opinions on their hit from 10 years ago?

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

I have both this one AND the last one. I don't dig it. I happen to like Barsuk a lot. It's an average record, and if it would have come out on, say, Warner Brothers, it wouldn't have seen one second of college radio.

― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:43 (twenty years ago)

Very interesting this shit needs to go up on Obner Whiney!

― BeeOK (boo radley), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

Apparently college kids don't listen to the Hold Steady. Or were they at #32?

― asl, Wednesday, 21 December 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

As a college radio dj I can admit to spinning 25 of the 50 releases above in 2005. Shit, and I thought I was eclectic!

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

28. Coldplay - X and Y
29. Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
30. Iron An Wine/Calexico - In The Reins
31. MIA - Arular
32. Nada Surf - Weight Is A Gift
33. Dandy Warhols - Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars
34. Kills - No Wow

178. Hold Steady - Seperation Sunday

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

I wish I could type this whole list!

Here's some more interesting choices, to make of what you will:

59. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
65. Weezer - Make Believe
70. Bravery - The Bravery
72. Xiu Xiu - La Foret
73. Ani Difranco - Knuckle Down
84. Books - Lost and Safe
85. Ok Go - Oh No
90 - Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks!
96. Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree
100. Atmosphere - You Can't Imagine...
123. Andrew Bird - Mysterious Production Of Eggs
126. Brian Eno - Another Day On Earth
150. Common - Be
153. Juan MacLean - Less Than Human
159. Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain
162. 13 And God - 13 And God
180. 311 - Don't Tread On Me
188. Louis XIV - The Best Little Secrets...
198. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

where the fuck is outrageous cherry?

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

man i forgot all about that trail of dead record! i should check that out one of these days....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:15 (twenty years ago)

Trudging the botton reaches!
237. Negativland - No Business
281. Bruce Springsteen - Devils And Dust
321. Coachwhips - PB&J At The Ginger Minge
377. Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
409. Gang Gang Dance - God's Money
466. Quasimoto - Further Adventures Of Lord Quas
524. Bloodhound Gang - Hefty Fine
679. XBXRX - Sixth In Sixes
938. Ruins - Vrresto

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

I'm guessing my station's list would look like that, but worse.

― sturve, Thursday, 22 December 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

Nada Surf have been considered friendly to indie-rock fans for the last few years. In fact, probably ever since their 2nd album. "Blankest Year" is one of my favorite songs of 2005.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Friday, 23 December 2005 00:27 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.