Because I am incredibly anal, more than a touch obsessive-compulsive and I generally just like stats, I went through my Ipod to figure out which bands/artists had the greatest representation among the nearly 5000 songs.  Here’s what I found:

1. R.E.M. - 149 songs
2. Dave Matthews - 107 songs
3. U2 - 64 songs
4. Indigo Girls - 48 songs
5. Counting Crows - 47 songs
6. Dar Williams - 43 songs
7. Green Day - 43 songs
8. The New Pornographers - 41 songs
9. Elvis Costello - 39 songs
10. 10,000 Maniacs - 37 songs
11. Lucinda Williams - 37 songs
12. Guster - 36 songs
13. Sheryl Crow - 36 songs
14. The Clash - 35 songs
15. Sarah McLachlan - 35 songs
16. Talking Heads - 35 songs
17. Aimee Mann - 34 songs
18. Coldplay - 34 songs
19. Eels - 34 songs (though this one is misleading since that mainly accounts for one album with over 30 tracks)
20. Peter Gabriel - 31 songs
21. Barenaked Ladies - 30 songs
22. Pixies - 30 songs
23. Tori Amos - 30 songs
24. Badly Drawn Boy - 28 songs
25. Fountains of Wayne - 28 songs

A number of groups/singers fell just out of the top 25.  Tied at 27 songs are The Beatles, Cake, Norah Jones, The Police, Jack Johnson, Luscious Jackson and the Mountain Goats.

Some of these top 25 artists are clearly my version of classic rock - The Clash, Indigo Girls, Pixies, Elvis Costello, etc.  Bands I used to buy a lot of that I’ll probably never buy another album from.  They are a part of history at this point.  Like classic rock, the playlist is locked and never changes.

Some could move up.  Which are lurking underneath? Generally, having a song count in the 20s just indicates that I have bought two albums from that artist.  This list could easily change as some of the newer bands get around to putting out a third album that I want.  I’m looking at you Bloc Party (26 songs), The National (24 songs) and Spoon (22 songs).

And in some cases - take Sheryl Crow, for instance - this is a clear wake-up call that I need to weed out some tracks.  There is no way I still listen to 36 cuts from Crow’s albums.  Same probably goes for Counting Crows.  Heck, anyone with a variation of “crow” in their name ought to watch out.