2011 was an extremely musically charged year for me. In fact, when it comes to these year end lists, music had so much influence on me that it makes the other “reviews” I’ll do seem lackluster. I have added 9.12 GB worth of music to my iTunes this year (that’s approximately 1400 new songs) and that’s not even all of the music I’ve acquired this year. I’m scared to do the math and see what my Amazon MP3 bill looks like.
Anyway, because music was so prominent this year, I plan to break my music review into two parts for you. What you’re seeing now are the Top Ten Most Played Songs. Keep an eye out for Part 2 – featuring the Best *New Bands of 2011 and the corruptors who made it possible! 🙂
*New to me, not necessarily new to the world
Top Ten Most Played Songs
Every month this year, I’ve done an “On Repeat” post of the music currently getting a lot of love that month. If you’ve been paying attention all year, most of the songs in this top ten should seem a little familiar to you.
10. Sixx: A.M. – "Pray for Me"
I was a fan of Motley Crue growing up so when Heather turned me onto Sixx: A.M. and I realized the band featured Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue it was pretty easy to give them a shot. Clearly, the fact that this song makes this top-ten list is evidence that I ended up loving them. (Warning: The video is explicit)
9. Three Days Grace – “Scared”
So badly I've wanted a character to own this song, but nope, no ones stepped up to the plate for it yet. That didn’t mean I couldn’t love it though, and play it ad nauseam just because I wanted to. That does happen sometimes, after all. 😉
8. Tides of Man – “Chemical Fires”
It surprises me a little that this song got so many plays so quickly considering the band itself is still fairly new to me, but once a certain character of mine heard it, he demanded I listen to it over and over again while working on his book in November. Also, it doesn’t hurt that overall this band flat out rocks and reminds me of a band I grew up loving.
7. The Kills – “U.R.A. Fever”
Imagine two wayward teens, one of which used to be popular. They share a common trait, a special ability, but no one else knows that. Now picture them walking onto campus in one of those slow motion walk sequences like you’ve seen in movies like Road Trip. Suddenly, they seem cool. This is the imagery that belongs to this song for me. Two characters from a companion novel to my first book own this song for this reason and when I received the song, I just knew whenever I return to writing their book that this track will be played so-so many more times than it already has been.
6. Artifex Pereo – “The Lantern & the Firefly”
Everything by this band is so easy to write too, especially for Crack the Sky because their sound overall just fits the tone of that book so perfectly. It’s the kind of music I imagine the lead male listening to so it’s easy to just have it on in the background when I’m writing. This song in particular, though, will actually represent a major turning point in the book and writing that scene will be so much fun! I imagine, as I aim to complete Crack the Sky in 2012, that this track will bleed into the New Year and get heaps more plays.
5. Emarosa – “Breather”
I didn’t even get into Emarosa until late in the year, but this song became the backdrop of the intro to my NanoWrimo novel and as a result was played over 285 times! I love when bands I like release wordless music, especially when it’s as epic as this track. Sometimes it’s the best stuff to write to!
4. Prom Kings – “Angels”
When I first heard this song I loved it right away and I was grateful for the way it seemed to wake up characters I’d long given up on. It became representation of the way the story will end, something I had no idea of when the story had first come to me, and partly the reason I thought it was a dead story. At the time I had no idea this story would be a book I’d actually start working on, but it became my NanoWrimo novel and this song got even more plays than I could have expected!
3. White Rabbits – “Midnight & I”
White Rabbits is a band I really got into last year honestly, but for some reason in the beginning of 2011 I couldn’t get enough of them again and this song in particular. Again, this is a song that was used for a book and it is largely the reason for its repetitive nature. Even if it hadn’t been used for a book though, I would have still loved its moody piano based sound.
2. Sick Puppies – “I Hate You”
I can’t even remember what the first Sick Puppies song I heard was at this point because once I acquired all of their music this song completely dominated my ears. While I will say that everything by this group is extremely easy to listen to, this song in particular got the most plays not just because I liked it, but also because characters from a four book series I plan to write claimed it as theirs. Characters, as you’ve already seen, have a lot of power over me when it comes to my music selection.
1. The Left Rights – “I’m on Crack”
Certifiably the strangest song in this list, I know. I listened to this song ad nauseam last January when they first released it. It’s a side project from Mindless Self Indulgence singer, Jimmy Urine (whom I love), and I just couldn’t help myself. It’s also a short song so its play count quickly climbed higher than the others because of this.
What lived on repeat for you in 2011?
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