Boneys stats
Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 12:56 pm
Well, since we are at a milepost of sorts here on the Boneys countdown (my favorite music from the past 59 years), entering
Monday with 50 albums and 100 songs to go, I thought I'd crunch some numbers. Some observations:
They say that when all is said and done, you tend to go back to the music of your teenage years. As such, the 70's dominated
the rankings, especially in the album category. Since I turned 13 in 1970 and the latter part of the decade was spent in
college, it makes sense that there would be a ton of music that is associated with memorable times and events. Also, I would
argue that the 70's was the golden age of the album. Albums were not the art form of choice in the 60's until the Beatles, Dylan,
and a few others started crafting them more carefully in the later 60's, setting the groundwork for the changeover in the 70's where the album became
more important than the single. But I still wasn't quite expecting the landslide victory for the 70's that it turned out to be.
Not surprisingly, the Beatles lead all categories. However, a mild suprise was Steely Dan's runnerup status. I obviously like them a
lot, but if you ask me what my second favorite artist is, my answer would be Genesis. There are even a couple of other acts I would
put ahead of the Dan. I think this may be because the songs I like by them I REALLY like..I suspect that if I had expanded the list to,
oh let's say 500 songs instead of 350, there would be many more songs by Genesis and a couple others, and the scales might be tipped in
a different direction.
The oldest song in the countdown is "Rama Lama Ding Dong" by The Edsels, which was released in 1958 (although not a hit until its
re-release in 1961), followed by 1959's "Where Or When" by Dion & The Belmonts, both of which have already revealed at #254 and #165
respectively. The most recent, from 2008 comes in at #63, so it has yet to be revealed. Another one, from 2007, will be unveiled at
#84.
In the top 10 on the song list, 6 come from the 70's, 4 from the 60's. But those 4 are all in the Top 5, and yes, 2 of them are by
The Beatles. HOWEVER, they do NOT have my #1 song. Hmmmm...
That's all the "spoilerization" you're going to get.
Now, the stats:
On the Top 150 albums:
by decades:
50's-0
60's-21
70's-105
80's-16
90's-4
00's-4
10's-0
by artist:
Beatles-9
Steely Dan-5
Todd Rundgren/Utopia, Paul McCartney, Genesis-4 each
Cheap Trick, Stevie Wonder, The Who, James Taylor, ELO, Elton John-3 each
by year:
1970-21 entries
1971-16
1973-13
1972-10
1978, 1980-9 each
1969, 1974, 1976-8 each
1975, 1977-7 each
1979-6
1968-4
1967, 1982-3 each
1965, 1966, 1986-2 each
1963, 1964, 1981, 1989, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005-1 each
years with no entries: 1957-1962, 1983-1985, 1987, 1988, 1990-1993, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2006-present.
Part two coming up.
Monday with 50 albums and 100 songs to go, I thought I'd crunch some numbers. Some observations:
They say that when all is said and done, you tend to go back to the music of your teenage years. As such, the 70's dominated
the rankings, especially in the album category. Since I turned 13 in 1970 and the latter part of the decade was spent in
college, it makes sense that there would be a ton of music that is associated with memorable times and events. Also, I would
argue that the 70's was the golden age of the album. Albums were not the art form of choice in the 60's until the Beatles, Dylan,
and a few others started crafting them more carefully in the later 60's, setting the groundwork for the changeover in the 70's where the album became
more important than the single. But I still wasn't quite expecting the landslide victory for the 70's that it turned out to be.
Not surprisingly, the Beatles lead all categories. However, a mild suprise was Steely Dan's runnerup status. I obviously like them a
lot, but if you ask me what my second favorite artist is, my answer would be Genesis. There are even a couple of other acts I would
put ahead of the Dan. I think this may be because the songs I like by them I REALLY like..I suspect that if I had expanded the list to,
oh let's say 500 songs instead of 350, there would be many more songs by Genesis and a couple others, and the scales might be tipped in
a different direction.
The oldest song in the countdown is "Rama Lama Ding Dong" by The Edsels, which was released in 1958 (although not a hit until its
re-release in 1961), followed by 1959's "Where Or When" by Dion & The Belmonts, both of which have already revealed at #254 and #165
respectively. The most recent, from 2008 comes in at #63, so it has yet to be revealed. Another one, from 2007, will be unveiled at
#84.
In the top 10 on the song list, 6 come from the 70's, 4 from the 60's. But those 4 are all in the Top 5, and yes, 2 of them are by
The Beatles. HOWEVER, they do NOT have my #1 song. Hmmmm...
That's all the "spoilerization" you're going to get.
Now, the stats:
On the Top 150 albums:
by decades:
50's-0
60's-21
70's-105
80's-16
90's-4
00's-4
10's-0
by artist:
Beatles-9
Steely Dan-5
Todd Rundgren/Utopia, Paul McCartney, Genesis-4 each
Cheap Trick, Stevie Wonder, The Who, James Taylor, ELO, Elton John-3 each
by year:
1970-21 entries
1971-16
1973-13
1972-10
1978, 1980-9 each
1969, 1974, 1976-8 each
1975, 1977-7 each
1979-6
1968-4
1967, 1982-3 each
1965, 1966, 1986-2 each
1963, 1964, 1981, 1989, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005-1 each
years with no entries: 1957-1962, 1983-1985, 1987, 1988, 1990-1993, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2006-present.
Part two coming up.
