My iTunes most played is skewed since a lot of songs get bumped from being on multiple playlists, and the newer ones get few plays. That's why I like to reset it frequently. Right now it's Katy Perry's Peacock at 82 plays.

Most played:
1: Cape Horn [Safe Passage] by Tommy Tallarico
2: Opened Path ~Fight With Colossus~ by Kō Ōtani
3: Hanyō Inuyasha by Kaoru Wada
4: High Notes by Stéphane Bellanger
5: Some MIDI that is simply called 'against the future' and has no known artist, so let's go with what's next.
6: US Ship Action by Richard Jacques

It matches up quite well since I would call these favourites. I have happened to leave these tracks looping for hours at a time, though, so the sheer amount of plays they have is rather disproportionate.


Would you judge someone's preferences based on what they play most often in their music program of choice?
I don't see why not.

Or would a favorite song chosen by them be a better indicator of their taste in music?
People aren't always great self-indicators, so it probably wouldn't be, but it's worth keeping in mind.

For me, I go on music binges, where I'll just listen to one or two albums non-stop, then get slightly bored of them and move on to something else. Currently, it's a combination of Bjork and the Book of Mormon cast recording. Weird combo, I'll admit, but it's all I'm listening to, pretty much.

Here's my top 5 TOTAL iTunes songs, though:

1. I Don't Want to Know (Rumours) - Fleetwood Mac
2. Everyone's a Little Bit Racist (Avenue Q Original Broadway Cast Recording) - Avenue Q Cast
3. When the Levee Breaks (Mothership) - Led Zeppelin
4. Tightrope (The ArchAndroid) - Janelle Monae
5. Marry the Night (Born This Way) - Lady Gaga

Surprised about the Gaga mention, but I do love that song.

As for judgment, unless people have such homogenous tastes, I don't think the top 1/2/5 entries is as much of a barometer as one would imagine. People, on the whole, seem to have quite eclectic music tastes, at least from personal experience.

My top 5 at the moment are:

• RADWIMPS - One man live
• BONNIE PINK - Rise and Shine
• 坂本真綾 - 秘密
• me-al art - 私の部屋
• Bat For Lashes - Glass

From that you'd conclude that I listen to a lot of Japanese music, which is true, but you'd probably think that's almost all I listen to, which isn't true. Some of my favorite songs are ones I don't want to listen to all the time. I don't want to get tired of them.

My most played songs are mostly from when I got new albums and played them endlessly. Some of them I didn't listen to much after that so I wouldn't really call them my favorite songs, though I still like them and will still listen to them. Oh, some of my most played music comes from when I'm with people and I want to put something on I expect everyone will want to listen to, so that confuses things a little more.

My most played songs match my most common mood; which is apparently anarchy and nihilism. But really I just like hearing Johnny Rotten trash talk the Queen. Then mixed in with that are some of my actual favourites; which tends to be slow and atmospheric, rather than energetic.

#1: Radiohead - Talk Show Host. Actual all time favourite.
#2: Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen. Nowhere near a favourite, just something I like hearing a lot.
#3: At the Drive-In - Cosmonaut. Not a favourite, just crazily intense.
#4: Cocteau Twins - Alice. A favourite.
#5: Cocteau Twins - Tranquil Eye. A favourite.

Then looking down from there at my top 30 I only see about two other favourites. Most of my actual favourites I don't tend to listen to as much as others; because, like Scarf, I don't want to wear them thin.

What people choose to be their favourite is a better reflection of what they like. Choices are what define us.

The last time I reset the play count for my music library was at the end of January in this year, so it's pretty representative of what my favourite songs are at the moment.

1. "Lady Daydream" by Twin Sister (87 plays)
2. "Wedding Bell" by Beach House (69 plays)
3. "Master of None" by Beach House (68 plays)
4. "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping" by Grouper (54 plays)
5. "Where Do My Bluebird Fly" by The Tallest Man On Earth (54 plays)

Master of None is my favourite song of all time - when I first heard it I listened it and the album it's on non-stop, however that was before the play count was reset, so it doesn't appear as number 1 according to my most played. Lady Daydream has been one of my favourite songs in the past six months so I'd agree with it being there. The same goes for Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping. I'd agree with having The Tallest Man On Earth in there as well. So the list is pretty representative - the only change I would make is to replace Wedding Bell with the song 109 by Toro y Moi - as much as I love Wedding Bell, Beach House is already covered in my top five.

According to Last.fm:
1. Fate of the Unknown (Orchestral) by Bak.R [132 plays]
2. Iron - Woodkid [130 plays]
3. Dearly Beloved - Yoko Shimomura [109 plays]
4. Thirteenth Anthology - Yoko Shimomura [108 plays]
5. Run Devil Run - SNSD [105 plays]

My account was reset a while ago and scrobbles from my iPod rarely work right, but I think that's fairly accurate. Three of them are songs from my favourite game series. The weird anomaly of #2 is... a song I was obsessed with for a week and listened to like non-stop... so it climbed to #1 pretty quick and I had to listen to some others to knock it down a bit. xD; As for the SNSD song, I don't even like it that much and I can't stand hearing it now since I'm so sick of it. I listened to it on repeat accidentally one day while I was playing a game in fullscreen and was too lazy to switch the song so... it got tons of plays. ._. I much prefer quite a few of their other songs. (And I guess Dearly Beloved is a bit skewed too because like 5 songs have that title and artist and I listen to all of them but Last.fm doesn't separate them.) My favourites of all time are #1 and #4 so that's pretty good. :3

I judge people by their most played. :P You can have a very good favourite song but it shows your earworm vulnerability to see something catchy played hundreds of times, haha.

I have a question, but think it fits better in this thread rather than making a new one. Does your most played song matter to you? As in, if you see a song that's not your favourite near the top, do you listen to another one to get it at the top?

And for those who have last.fm, do you listen to certain artists with your last.fm charts in mind so you can create the charts in a way you'd like?

1. Azaghal - "Verta ja Tuhkaa"
2. Metallica - "Am I Evil"
3. Carcass - "Corporal Jigsore Quandary"
4. Napalm Death - "Unfit Earth"
5. Napalm Death - "The Chains That Bind Us"

(#6 is "Little Girls" by Oingo Boingo, LOL)

@ Vendak's question: lulz nah man, I just listen to what I want to hear.

@ Toujours' OP: I admit I do judge a bit of someone by their musical preferences - what they enjoy is usually a good indication of their personality - but it's not a considerable factor by any means.

Vendak said:

I have a question, but think it fits better in this thread rather than making a new one. Does your most played song matter to you? As in, if you see a song that's not your favourite near the top, do you listen to another one to get it at the top?

Click to expand...

Not really, in all honesty. For a while, my top one was the Avenue Q song, and it only got dethroned because the Fleetwood Mac number kept coming up when I was shuffling my iPod. My favourite song is the Led Zeppelin one, but I won't really care if it drops out of the top five. It'll still be my favourite song.

My top 5 plays on iTunes are:

Paramore - Monster [178 Plays]
Olly Murs ft. Rizzle Kicks - Heart Skips a Beat [160 Plays]
Lady Gaga - Heavy Metal Lover [155 Plays]
Chase & Status ft. Clare Maguire - Midnight Caller [133 Plays]
Neon Trees - Your Surrender [130 Plays]

None of the songs are from the same genre, they're a pretty mixed bunch.
"Monster" is my all round favorite song anyways, it's play count is much higher on my iPod, 408 plays. It means quite alot for me, the message it carries is quite powerful and inspirational. Olly Murs' song is simply their because I love it, it's catchy, same as Lady Gaga's. The other two also mean alot to me.

My foobar2000 style doesn't display the statistics I've gathered for most played, which were reset earlier this year, anyway, so I'm going off my Last.fm charts.

1. Crystal Castles - Black Panther (3028)
2. capsule - Sugarless GiRL (2576)
3. Crystal Castles - Celestica (2154)
4. Crystal Castles - Knights (1944)
5. Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating (1374)

Well, they're all top 10 tracks for me, so that's cool. I find it difficult to say one single song is my favourite, though. All of those songs would feature in a shortlist of favourite songs to listen to on repeat, which explains their high playcounts, lol. ^^; There are songs in my library I'd rate higher on shortlists of 'best', 'most beautiful,' etc.

Since I don't use iTunes as of now (I plan on changing that soon), I can't see what my most played song is, but I'm pretty sure it's either 21 Guns by Green Day or something by Taio Cruz. I don't know how many, unfortunately, but I'm guessing that, since those have been some of my favourites for quite some time, it's a lot.

Well I just got a new computer, but I believe my top 5 plays were this... I can only remember the first two's amount.
Heartbreak Hotel ~ Closer 2 Closure ~ 191 Plays
Uneasy Hearts Weigh The Most ~ Dance Gavin Dance ft. Nic Newsham ~ 121 Plays?
OHIOISONFIRE ~ Of Mice & Men
When You Can't Sleep At Night ~ Of Mice & Men
Caraphernelia ~ Pierce The Veil