Itunes Library: Sorted

Everyone has their own preferential way of organizing things. Whether it be that their room is a mess yet they know exactly where everything is, or everything is physically separated, labeled, categorized, and orderly. When it comes to organizing music, people have their preferences, too. The Itunes library is cool because it lets you basically organize by whatever standards you want - Artist, Album, Genre, and Year are some popular ones. To some, the details of Play Count and Date Added are very important to keep track of. Personally, I might fall apart if I couldn't always list and view my music by Date Added, knowing the relative time sequence of when I purchased a song or album. I can look back chronologically, pick out a group of 20 or so songs clumped together because of their near-each-other acquisition dates, and recall exactly what time of year it was and my thoughts when listening to that music for the first time.

I thought it'd be interesting to see the top songs of my library under different categorizations. For starters, one that I'm now paying attention to slightly is the play count. It's not at all accurate, based on the fact that I doubt my phone and ipod and laptop all coordinate with each other, not to mention I still listen to CD's a lot, and those times don't get recorded. But just for kicks, at this point in time, we begin with my "Most Listened To" songs: (and some of these surprise me)

(Song) - (Artist)
Follow You Home - Nickelback (31 plays)
Shadows - RED                                                    
Start Again - RED                                                
Confession (What's Inside My Head) - RED          
Stay - Safetysuit                                                  
Into the Night - Santana ft. Chad Kroeger          
You're Going Down - Sick Puppies                    
Breath - Breaking Benjamin                                
The Downfall of Us All - A Day to Remember    
Tiny Heart - Flyleaf
Animals - Nickelback
Shakin Hands - Nickelback
Ordinary World - RED
Santa Monica - Theory of a Deadman
Rip Tide - Sick Puppies (21 plays)

Date Added, aka "Most Recently Acquired By Various Methods"


(Song) - (Artist)
Come On, Come On - After Midnight Project
Scream For You - After Midnight Project
"Tron" Soundtrack - Daft Punk
Invaders Must Die - The Prodigy (and more of their songs)
Polyamorous - Breaking Benjamin
The Red - Chevelle
Get Thru This - Art of Dying
Rolling in the Deep - Adele
What Ya Gonna Do - Hinder
Blow - Ke$ha
Born This Way - Lady Gaga
Loser Like Me - Glee Cast
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow - The Soggy Bottom Boys
Manifesto - The City Harmonic
Symphonies - Dan Black

Largest Time, aka "Longest Songs, by Minutes"


(Song) - (Artist)
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Iron Maiden (13:38)
10,000 Days (Wings, Part 2) - Tool
Roseta Stoned - Tool
Reflection - Tool
Save Me - Avenged Sevenfold
Concerto No. 1 in E Major "Spring" - Antonio Vivaldi
Part 1 Sunlight - Kevin Kendle
Lullaby - Sia
Soldiers of the Wasteland - Dragonforce
Deadwing - Porcupine Tree
Lateralus - Tool
Parabola - Tool
November Rain - Guns 'N Roses
Farewell/End Title - John Barry
Triad - Tool (8:47)

Alphabetically by Artist, aka "The Top "A" Bands"


(Artist) - (Song/s)
a-ha - Take On Me
A*Teens - Under the Sea
A.F.I. - Beautiful Thieves & Prelude 12/21
A.R. Rahman - Jai Ho
Aaron Copland - Hoe Down
Aaron Lewis - Country Boy
Abel - Saints
AC/DC - two albums + two songs
The Academy Is ... - Attention
Ace Young - Father Figure
Adele - one album +  three songs
Adelitas Way - one album + one song
Aerosmith - Dream On
After Midnight Project - three songs
Ak'sent feat. Beanie Man - Zingy

Alphabetically by Album, aka "The Top "A" Albums"


(Album) - (Artist)
AB III - Alterbridge
Across the Universe Soundtrack - various artists
Adelitas Way - Adelitas Way
Advisory Committee - Mirah
After the Chaos II - Royal Bliss
Aftermath - Hillsong United
Against the Grain - The Veer Union
The Age of Plastic - The Buggles
Aim and Ignite - fun.
Aladdin Soundtrack - various artists
The All-American Rejects - The All-American Rejects
All About the Scrillions - Super Mash Bros.
All-American Nightmare - Hinder
All Day - Girl Talk
All For You - Janet Jackson

Alphabetically by Song Name, aka "The Ones that Come Even Before the "A"s"


(Song) - (Artist)
99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger
90's Baby - Karina
80's Joint - Kelis
8 AM - Summer Obsession
7 Things - Miley Cyrus
5:15 - The Who
4ever - The Veronicas
45 - Shinedown
42 - Coldplay
4 Minutes - Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake
4 AM - Kaskade
369 - Cupid feat. B.O.B.
3 Weeks, She Sleeps - Blue October
3 AM - Matchbox Twenty
3 - Britney Spears

and finally...

Last Played, aka "The Last Songs I've Listened to For Whatever Reason"


(Song) - (Artist)
What Hurts the Most - Rascal Flatts
Concerto in D Minor - Antonio Vivaldi
Rolling in the Deep - Adele
Someone Else's Arms - Mae
Manifesto - The City Harmonic
My Never - Blue October
Cannonball - The Breeders
I'm Not Who I Was - Brandon Heath
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Through Glass - Stone Sour
Who Says - Selena Gomez
Undo It - Carrie Underwood
Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
Savannah - Relient K
E-Pro - Beck

Well, that was a little eye opening. Personally I feel like I performed a science experiment just now; if I had known those answers would come up I might not have written a post about it. The alphabetical lists were especially boring, eh? My conclusion is that when you have as many as 3754 songs in your library, taking the top 15 of anything will definitely not give a good representation of the variety of your music. Not even taking the top 15 seven different ways will do it! But that was still fun. Go ahead and judge, but know that this is just the tip of the iceburg.