My Tunes

Posted on by scott

Every once in a while, a fan will ask me what kind of music I listen to. This question is in equal parts fraught and shaming, or at least would take too long to answer. But now, inspired by a post at Support Analytics, I’ve figured out how to reveal all.

After a little experimentation, I followed these steps:

1) In iTunes, select View Options under the View menu.
2) Turn off everything but “Artist.”
3) Select all and copy.
4) Search and Replace the word “track” with nothing.
5) Paste the results into the Wordle.net Create page.

And an occurrence-weighted word cloud of favorite musical artistes will appear:


Click the image for a larger version.

A while back, everyone was wordle-ing their novels. But this is really much more fun.

There are bound to be embarrassments, of course, especially for crumblies like me. There’s all that stuff I don’t listen to anymore, looming large. And albums that someone gave you and you hated, still lurking. A quick google reveals some software that weights the artists by play count, but that’s more effort than I’m willing to go to.

Besides, there’s something brutally honest about this. Warts and all.

59 thoughts on “My Tunes”

  3. he he. On the far left hand side it says “attack musicians.” I don’t know if that was intentional or what, but I think its funny (even though I am a musician…) πŸ˜›

  4. Yay! Top 5!

    Coolio, Scott-la! Oh, and congrats to both of you, Justine and Scott, on your books! Can’t wait to read Justine’s, and I’ve been saving my gift card to a bookstore nearby for the Uglies Guide! YAY! But one problem… do I use the gift card for the Uglies book, or for Justine’s?!

    This is a tough decision.

  5. i would use it on the book b.c the guide will probably cheeper πŸ™‚ , not to say scott writes cheep books , well anyway can’t wait for the books and for that post explaing the first lines on your books remeber scott you said you would go into more depth well hope both the books make a bagillion dolars, even more

  6. Nifty trick! Now I’m going to be obsessed with Wordle…

    Do you take recommendations? I find it uncanny how much Joseph Arthur’s EP “Crazy Rain” evokes the Uglies series – if I was doing the movie, I would just make that EP the soundtrack to the whole thing (especially “Dream of the Eternal Life”).

    And based on the Wordle above, I think you’d probably enjoy the album either way…

  7. woohoo! top 10! thats cool and i cant wait to read “how to ditch your fairy” i need 2 try dat itunes thingy. i also cant wait for the uglies guide and anthology

  10. Nice, I have to try that. With Winamp instead of iTunes, but same principle. Though I can already predict that ‘Hives’ (Wordle ignores ‘the’s, doesn’t it, too common or something?) will be huge.

    Wordle is one of the best ways to waste time. I like doing stories too, though I’m still embarrased at all the curse words that came up when I tried my punk vampires story. But it can also be tangentially “useful” in knowing what’s dominating.

  12. What is salt-n-pepa? lol. I haven’t read the midnighters yet. I was going to start it, but then my friend was bugging me to read twilight, and since it’s so popular I thought it would be good. But I can’t even get through the first chapter. BORING. unless someone can convince me that the story actually starts in the second chapter, it’s going in the trash and I’m reading the midnighters.

  13. Oh, this is embarrassing. I entered my music collection into Wordle and the second biggest name (after Radiohead) was my own. What kind of a narcissist am I?

  14. cool!!! but sadly GREEN DAY is my favorite band (yes they r amazing and i dont care wat anyone else says) Have u ever listened to GREEN DAY Scott?? Just wondering coz i think u would like them. they have great views on gov., politics, and religion especially on their album AMERICAN IDIOT (amazing album) just to let ya know. OH btw please excuse the swearing if u listen to them. i guess if u write about problems in the country or world ur bound to be angry. haha. πŸ˜‰

    CANT WAIT FOR BOGUS TO BUBBLY!!!! <3

  19. i have no clue who all those artists r…i listen to country. sigh. no one does these days. listen to…chuck wicks, keith urban, sugarland, sara evans, rascal flatts, brad paisley, kenny chesney, martina mcbride, faith hill, and a few more and THEN judge country music…SRSLY!

  20. i dont get 4) Search and Replace the word Ò€œtrackÒ€ with nothing.
    what is that some crazy evil apple talk or something

  22. I can honestly say, I have never heard of most of those artists.
    Woo! Salt-n-Pepa! aha.
    At least looking them up will give me something to do.. ;P
    Death Cab For Cutie
    rocks BTW…

  31. i went to barnes and noble today, with a list of books i wanted. the list had 18 books that are available now. (the chronicles of narnia, cycler, the books of ember (the last 3) the dark angel books (3), outerspace by david stahler jr, and the magic or madness trilogy) well, i went to the place where the teen section was, and it was gone! then i went searching around the store for it, and my mom found it. then i went to find the books that were on my list, and they didn’t have any. so i told my mom to look for some, and she found the books of ember, and i found all 7 of the chronicles of narnia inside one book. but i didnt see any of the other books. (with the outerspace book, they had the one that came before it in the series, but not the one i wanted.) so i was mad that they didnt have the books i wanted. i was also mad that i only got 4 books. then, in the car, i realized that i really got 10 books for $50. (im still mad that they didnt have magic or madness.) so, i guess thats it…

  33. David Bowie… awesome. My fav. band — Mates of State did a remake of Bowie’s song “Starman” It is totally cool.

  38. Hello – glad my post on visualizing iTunes using Wordle was helpful. Transferring the data over to Wordle is very easy.

    Thanks for checking it out!

    Tony Rose
    Support Analytics

  46. Cool, David Bowie! Tho’ I’ve only heard one one of his and Queen, “Under Pressure”. My Chemical Romance and The Used did a cover for that song and I thought it was awesome. =D

  47. David Bowie is my second largest, after radiohead. Lolz all round amirite. Wordle is my new best friend.

  48. I really haven’t heard of many of those. I forget who said it, but I totally agree with the person who said Greenday was good, it’s just too bad they don’t do much any more. Also like Kelly Clarkson, Paramore, Daughtry, The Veronicas, Nickelback, Carrie Underwood, P!ATD *rambles on for a billion more years*. Went to Barnes and Nobles the other day, and am SO MAD! First of all, they didn’t have Cycler, which I’ve heard they’re not selling anymore due to contrivercial issues but I was still dissapointed. Plus they DID have Justine’s book, but I couldn’t get it because I only had $20 with me and the other book that I was getting (which I’m guessing will be harder to track down again) was a hardcover, too. (Btw, it’s called “Skinned”, and it’s kind of funny ’cause it caught my eye because it LOOKED kind of like a Scott-la book, and it turned out that it was one publishing company he’s used, plus it had Scott-la’s review right under the author’s name on the cover! Anyway, looks like a good book.)

  50. Knock Knock.
    Who’s there?
    Knock Knock.
    Who’s there?
    Knock Knock.
    Who’s there?
    Knock Knock.
    Who’s there?
    Philip Glass.
    …

    Most awesome knock-knock joke ever.

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