Topic: Alphabet Soup (Read 7527 times)

Jedit · « **on:** 13 Apr 2006, 16:49 »

I was sorting my MP3 collection, which is all tagged last name first, when I noticed something very weird: for some reason it's extremely heavily slanted towards the first half of the alphabet.

I checked further, discounting a handful of numerically-named artists like 23 Skidoo, and found that of just under 4000 tracks, 1525 were by artists with names from A-G while less than 1400 were by artists in the N-Z drawer. Further, of those 1400 a full 269 were accounted for by just four artists - Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and Vangelis.

Which got me to wondering - is this just a vagary of my collection, or are acts from the arse end of the alphabet genuinely less musical?

Thrillho · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 Apr 2006, 17:35 »

Blood in alphabet souuuuup....

blanko blanco · « **Reply #2 on:** 13 Apr 2006, 17:47 »

My tracks are slightly heavy towards bands from the first half of the alphabet, but it looks fairly balanced. I also noticed that bands starting with the letter M contain the most tracks in my collection (including such bands as Magnetic Fields, The Microphones, Mogwai, Mirah, My Bloody Valentine etc.)

Thrillho · « **Reply #3 on:** 13 Apr 2006, 18:03 »

Mine is pretty bottom heavy, what with my favourite bands being Pink Floyd, Wilco, Weezer, Radiohead, Queen...

And all of my 'The' bands are under 'The,' just because the tags look better and I'm too lazy for a revamp.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #4 on:** 13 Apr 2006, 18:17 »

A-M discounting number bands (...And Oceans to Mötley Crüe): 7791 tracks
N-Z (Nailbomb to Zyklon-B): 5084 tracks

So, I guess yeah. However, I think S makes up the largest segment of the whole thing, with 130 artists and 1156 tracks. Lots of big discogs in there (161 Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows tracks, 88 Sol Invictus tracks, 132 Skyclad tracks)

Talking of dicogs though, I reckon they're probably what's throwing my first half off quite so much. If I sort artists by number of tracks in winamp we see:

337 Iron Maiden tracks
194 Anal Cunt tracks
161 Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows tracks
159 Alien Sex Fiend tracks
132 Cradle of Filth tracks
132 Skyclad tracks
120 NunSlaughter tracks
107 Pink Floyd tracks
104 Therion tracks
104 Inkubus Sukkubus tracks

So, of the 10 artists I have collected more than a 100 tracks of, 4 are in the second half of the alphabet, and the largest are in the first half.

Interesting. But utterly pointless, of course.

Jedit · « **Reply #5 on:** 14 Apr 2006, 02:23 »

Quote from: KharBevNor

Interesting. But utterly pointless, of course.

Nothing wrong with pointless, so long as it is interesting.

jcknbl · « **Reply #6 on:** 14 Apr 2006, 03:13 »

Well I started scrolling through to find out how many artists I have in each letter grouping but it was taking to long. In any case I'm pretty sure I have more songs, artists, and albums at the top of the alphabet. The thing is, I'm pretty sure the letters at the front of the alphabet are just more common. In general. Someone might have to pull out the scrabble board to find out for sure- but I'm pretty sure this is just a function oh which letters are more popular.

Kai · « **Reply #7 on:** 14 Apr 2006, 04:15 »

Middle of the alphabet. M, N, O, P, R, S, the like. Not Q though. Fuck Q.

This is speculation, of course. I'm far too lazy to figure it out.

Bunnyman · « **Reply #8 on:** 14 Apr 2006, 11:46 »

Aesop Rock/Atmosphere/Autechre/Aphex Twin/Amon Tobin/Aceyalone/Antipop Consortium. My A section is STACKED.

Miles Davis/MC Frontalot/Mogwai/Modest Mouse/Mouse on Mars. Lots of tracks, not much diversity. M is still pretty good. Then again, Frontalot should be "F."

P is where it's really at, though. Parliament/Pharcyde/Phenomenauts/Photek/Floyd/Plaid/Prefuse 73. And lots of it. Daaamn. Oh, and Public Enemy.

R is tasty, too. RZA/RJD2/Radiohead/Ra/Red Elvises.

S is good shit. Squarepusher, Stereolab, Sneaker Pimps. Not much diversity to speak of, though ("Snatch Soundtrack" is just bad id3 tags).

I suspect that the real reason for this clustering may simply be that there aren't a lot of cool band names that start with Q. Additionally, band names tend to be made or derived from common words and common transliterations, so really the dispersion is really mirroring actual word dispersion,

nescience · « **Reply #9 on:** 14 Apr 2006, 12:28 »

I find that S, B, and (surprisingly) J are the most frequent starting letters for me. I hit the halfway point about halfway in-between K.

There's a slight edge in observed letter frequency favoring letters at the beginning of the alphabet, but this doesn't account for the statistically significant preferences shown by the posters in this thread. Certainly the position of X, Q and Z (as well as, to a lesser extent, Y) at the second half of the alphabet helps illustrate this point, but I feel there's more there. It probably also has something to do with our preference for buying or reading about items at the beginning of the alphabet because by the time we get to the end of the alphabet (say, at the record store rack or in the online magazine archives), we've already picked out stuff to buy or listen to.

Kai · « **Reply #10 on:** 14 Apr 2006, 14:41 »

Really? I start from Z backwards. Does this make me weird?

ozphactor · « **Reply #11 on:** 14 Apr 2006, 23:12 »

Yeah, my collection is heavily slanted towards the first half of the alphabet too.

A-M: 3952 tracks
N-Z: 2313 tracks

A lot of stuff in the first few letters, especially A, B, and C, but then it drops off after around F. Also a lot under M and S.

Someday, I'll come up with a topic more pointless than this one.

nescience · « **Reply #12 on:** 15 Apr 2006, 00:26 »

Quote from: Kai

Really? I start from Z backwards. Does this make me weird?

Yes. Next question.

Johnny C · « **Reply #13 on:** 15 Apr 2006, 15:20 »

At this time, the stats for me are 1568 for A-M, and a mere 842 for N-Z. I have a whopping 356 tracks under "B."

Of course, there's a problem. I own a lot of, for example, Bright Eyes material, and a lot of Broken Social Scene stuff. There's seventy-two tracks right there. And I own both Silent Alarm and Silent Alarm Remixed. So there's three artists with one hundred and one songs between them.

I probably own about the same number of artists in both halves of the alphabet. I'm just a bit of a B fanboy.

Thrillho · « **Reply #14 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 08:27 »

Quote from: Johnny C

I probably own about the same number of artists in both halves of the alphabet. I'm just a bit of a B fanboy.

So am I. Bottlerockit, BRMC, Blink 182, Bloc Party (not that I'm proud of it), Kate Bush, Blur, David Bowie, The Beatles, Ian Brown, Bloodhound Gang...I could go on.

Kai · « **Reply #15 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 08:30 »

I like how you put Not that I'm proud of it after Bloc Party and not Blink 182.

Thrillho · « **Reply #16 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 09:35 »

That's because I still like Blink 182. Bloc Party I now dislike considerably. I keep the album more out of pride than liking for it.

blanko blanco · « **Reply #17 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 10:33 »

Quote from: Kai

I like how you put Not that I'm proud of it after Bloc Party and not Blink 182.

Blink's first 3 albums are neat. Don't hate!

Oli · « **Reply #18 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 12:24 »

My largest section is P

Mostly made up of The Pogues (I have all their albums on this computer) and the Postal Service with a few other bands hanging about.

S is pretty large too with Sigur Rós, Shane Macgowan, A Silver Mount Zion, The Specials, and Swervedriver taking up most of the space.

J is big too with Jawbreaker, Jets To Brazil, Johnny Cash and Joy Division taking up almost all of it. J is also my most listened to letter.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #19 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 14:27 »

Of the top of my head, D is probably one of my favorite letters. Dream Theater, Dragonforce, Dio, The Doors, Deep Purple...

EDIT: In terms of number of tracks, I is actually really high because I have like the entire discographies of Iron Maiden and Iced Earth.

Thrillho · « **Reply #20 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 14:30 »

Quote from: blanko blanco

Quote from: Kai
I like how you put Not that I'm proud of it after Bloc Party and not Blink 182.

Blink's first 3 albums are neat. Don't hate!

Haha. 'neat?'

You were on my side, but still...is this 1958? Because if it is, that's...well, neat.

Quote from: Nolaw_Nocrime

Mostly made up of The Pogues (I have all their albums on this computer) ....S is pretty large too with Sigur Rós, Shane The Specials... J is big too with Johnny Cash and Joy Division taking up almost all of it.

Can I give you oral sex?

Oli · « **Reply #21 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 14:53 »

Yes. Yes you may.

blanko blanco · « **Reply #22 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 15:05 »

Quote from: DynamiteKid

Quote from: blanko blanco
Quote from: Kai
I like how you put Not that I'm proud of it after Bloc Party and not Blink 182.

Blink's first 3 albums are neat. Don't hate!

Haha. 'neat?'

You were on my side, but still...is this 1958? Because if it is, that's...well, neat.

Outdated words are swell, man!

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #23 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 15:12 »

A-M: 3247
N-Z: 1867

Yikes. Though, I'm thrown off by M, which contains 590 tracks (Miles Davis; Medeski, Martin and Wood; Metallica; Megadeth, etc). I need to continue ripping CDs, too!

Jedit · « **Reply #24 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 15:46 »

Quote from: Bastardous Bassist

(Miles Davis; Medeski, Martin and Wood; Metallica; Megadeth, etc). I need to continue ripping CDs, too!

Miles Davis, Metallica and Megadeth? Even for a jazz musician, that is seriously fucked up. It must be true what they say about your cigarettes.

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #25 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 15:51 »

I don't smoke cigarettes! My tastes are wierd as hell, and I make no apologies. I like listening to all of those artists, and I have them all loaded up on my mp3 player, and I have it on random, so one can follow directly after the other. I really don't see anything wrong with it, personally.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #26 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 15:55 »

Quote from: blanko blanco

Outdated words are swell, man!

Holy verbal anachronisms batman!

Nothing beats outdated British schoolboy slang. It's a wizard wheeze.

Thrillho · « **Reply #27 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 18:06 »

Quote from: KharBevNor

Quote from: blanko blanco

Outdated words are swell, man!

Holy verbal anachronisms batman!

Nothing beats outdated British schoolboy slang. It's a wizard wheeze.

I must say, I do agree. I tend to use the word 'queer' entirely outside of homophobic terms. i.e. There is a sword in my foot. How queer...

So I sez to Mabel, I sez...

Johnny C · « **Reply #28 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 21:43 »

Quote from: DynamiteKid

Bloodhound Gang

Look, say what you will about the other bands (all of whom I think are stellar - good on you, DynamiteKid), but Bloodhound Gang? How did that slip by everyone except me?

Did someone slip me herion? Seriously.

The keyboard tastes funny.

Bastardous Bassist · « **Reply #29 on:** 16 Apr 2006, 21:44 »

Any band that writes a song entitled "I Wish I Were Queer, So I Could Get Chicks" wins in my book.

Jedit · « **Reply #30 on:** 17 Apr 2006, 02:22 »

Quote from: KharBevNor

Nothing beats outdated British schoolboy slang. It's a wizard wheeze.

As any fule kno.

Thrillho · « **Reply #31 on:** 17 Apr 2006, 06:43 »

Quote from: Johnny C

Quote from: DynamiteKid
Bloodhound Gang

Look, say what you will about the other bands (all of whom I think are stellar - good on you, DynamiteKid), but Bloodhound Gang? How did that slip by everyone except me?

I've interviewed them. Therefore I wuvs them.

They're a lot funnier than they should be.

You're pretty when I'm drunk...and I'm pretty fuckin' drunk.

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Author Topic: Alphabet Soup (Read 7527 times)

blanko blanco

jcknbl

Bunnyman

nescience

nescience

blanko blanco

blanko blanco