Monthly Archives: February 2025

My Year in Music – 2024

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I have so far continued to buck the trend of the music industry and still own my music instead of listening to a streaming platform like Spotify.  I no longer have a CD player, but I upload CDs onto my computer’s hard drive, and download a portion of the music collection onto my iPhone, which allows me to access music wherever I am.  I currently have 166 GB of music (almost 32,000 tracks).  I could explain in detail why I do this, but I’m afraid this would bore most readers.  The short answer is that I find streaming platforms unacceptably restrict the ways I can listen to music and also lack the full range of music I am looking for.  This may be changing, and I may give in to streaming eventually, but not this year.

I keep track of my listening habits through the last.fm website, which keeps track of every song I play on my computer or phone from my collection.  Unfortunately, last.fm doesn’t track the songs I listen to on YouTube, where I often go to listen to artists I’m not familiar with.

The results of my year in music, shown below, were influenced in large part by three factors:

  1. I love love love the Canadian band The New Pornographers, and sometimes they’re all I want to listen to. I truly believe that A.C. “Carl” Newman is one of the most gifted songwriters of the 21st century.
  2. I created an iTunes smart playlist called “Artists I’ve seen live” and listened to it quite a bit. On the list below, I’ve added an asterisk to any artist I’ve ever seen perform live.
  3. When I’m not listening to a specific playlist, I just put my entire music collection on random shuffle and listen to whatever pops up. I love the odd, often serendipitous juxtapositions of genre and mood that this creates, although this also means that artists with more (and shorter) tracks in the collection tend to rank higher in the end-of-the-year stats than artists with fewer and/or longer tracks.

NOTE 1: Even though I have listed “most listened-to album” by each artist below, that doesn’t mean I’m actually listening to the album start to finish (something I do very rarely), only that songs from that album were played more frequently than songs from other albums by the same artist.

NOTE 2: I normally only begin acquiring music from the current year in late December after the “best of the year” critics’ lists are released, so there are no 2024 releases on the list. Check in next year for those results.

Most Listened-to Artists (including the artist’s Most Listened-to Album)

  1. The New Pornographers* – Electric Version (2003)
  2. The Decemberists* – The Hazards of Love (2009)
  3. Aimee Mann* – Queens of the Summer Hotel (2021)
  4. PJ Harvey – Rid of Me (1993)
  5. Angel Olsen* – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (2014)
  6. The National* – Trouble Will Find Me (2013)
  7. Juliana Hatfield – Only Everything (1995)
  8. Alvvays* – Blue Rev (2022)
  9. Wolf Alice* – Blue Weekend (2021)
  10. Steely Dan – A Decade of Steely Dan (1972-1980)
  11. The Roches* – The Roches (1979)
  12. Sharon Van Etten* – Are We There (2014)
  13. Bob Dylan – No Direction Home: Bootleg Series, Vol. 7 (1959-1966)
  14. The Beatles – With the Beatles (1963)
  15. R.E.M.* – Around the Sun (2004)
  16. Frank Sinatra – Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years (1960-1979)
  17. The Hold Steady* – Stay Positive (2008)
  18. Paul Simon – Hearts and Bones (1983)
  19. Tom Waits – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (1984-2005)
  20. The War on Drugs* – I Don’t Live Here Anymore (2021)
  21. Buddy Holly – Memorial Collection (1954-1959)
  22. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (2013)
  23. Talking Heads* – Sand in the Vaseline (1976-1992)
  24. Yes* – The Yes Album (1971)
  25. Julien Baker* – Little Oblivions (2021)
  26. OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
  27. Duke Ellington – The Blanton-Webster Band (1940-1942)
  28. The Everly Brothers* – Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits (1957-1960)
  29. Alison Krauss & Union Station* – Lonely Runs Both Ways (2004)
  30. Beck – Morning Phase (2014)
  31. T-Bone Walker – The Complete Imperial Recordings (1950-1954)
  32. World Party* – Arkeology (1986-2011)
  33. Yo La Tengo – Summer Sun (2003)
  34. The Who – Quadrophenia (1973)
  35. Bill Frisell – Have a Little Faith (1992)
  36. Miles Davis – ‘Round About Midnight (1957)
  37. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)
  38. Jimi Hendrix – The Ultimate Experience (1966-1970)
  39. Muddy Waters* – The Best of Muddy Waters (1948-1954)
  40. Sufjan Stevens – The Ascension (2020)
  41. The Velvet Underground – Peel Slowly and See (1965-1970)
  42. Genesis* – Selling England by the Pound (1973)
  43. Little Walter – The Essential Little Walter (1952-1963)
  44. Soccer Mommy – Sometimes, Forever (2022)
  45. SZA – SOS (2022)
  46. Elvis Costello – Punch the Clock (1983)
  47. Lester Young – The Complete Aladdin Sessions (1942-1947)
  48. Bud Powell – The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 2 (1954)
  49. Dizzy Gillespie* – The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1937-1949)
  50. Spoon* – They Want My Soul (2014)

* = have seen this artist perform live

Most Listened-To Albums Released in 2023

  1. Lankum – False Lankum
  2. Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
  3. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want to Turn into You
  4. Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
  5. PJ Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying

Most Listened-To Classical Albums

  1. Jacques Offenbach – The Tales of Hoffman (Andre Cluytens, Choeur et Orchestre du Theatre National de l’Opera-Comique)
  2. Isaac Albéniz – Piano Music (Esteban Sánchez)
  3. George Frideric Handel – Twelve Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra)
  4. Johann Sebastian Bach – St. Matthew Passion (Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus)
  5. Henry Purcell – Dido and Aeneas (Trevor Pinnock, The English Concert)
  6. Anonymous – Adorate Deum: Gregorian Chant from the Proper of the Mass (Alberto Turco, Nova Schola Gregoriana)
  7. William Bolcom – Songs of Innocence and Experience (Leonard Slatkin, University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra)
  8. Ludwig van Beethoven – Violin Sonatas 7-10 (Daniel Barenboim & Pinchas Zukerman)
  9. Modest Mussorgsky (arr. by Ravel) – Pictures at an Exhibition (Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra)
  10. Philip Glass – Einstein on the Beach (Michael Riesman/Philip Glass Ensemble)

More Stars Than There Are in Heaven: The Updated Actors List

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I’ve added about 10 more lists to the Best Actors meta-list, which hasn’t been updated in about 10 years. It was due.  In making this meta-list, I have been conscious that the lists probably have biases.  Some are biased toward the past, others toward the present. Some are biased toward male actors.  Many are biased toward Hollywood and/or English-speaking actors.  Still, even with these biases, the meta-list includes old and new, male and female, and Hollywood and non-Hollywood.  Although the majority of the actors on the meta-list are Americans, with a strong showing by actors from other English-speaking countries, the list also includes actors from several countries in Europe (particularly France and Sweden) and Asia (especially India and Japan).

One change from the earlier version of the meta-list is that I added many more television credits to the selected “filmography” for each actor.  (Filmography is therefore not a completely accurate term, since some of the credits are not films, and – truth be told – many movies are not even made on film anymore.)

Another change is that I’ve eliminated the term “actress” and now refer to film and television performers of all genders as “actors.”

Here is the link to the meta-list:

Best Actors of All Time

For those who can’t wait for the results, here are the top male and female actors on the meta-list:

Male
1. Marlon Brando
2. Robert De Niro
3. Jack Nicholson
4. Humphrey Bogart (tie)
4. Al Pacino (tie)
4. Daniel Day-Lewis (tie)
5. James Stewart
6. Cary Grant
7. Charlie Chaplin (tie)
7. Tom Hanks (tie)
8. Henry Fonda (tie)
8. Dustin Hoffman (tie)
8. Denzel Washington (tie)
9. John Wayne (tie)
9. Paul Newman (tie)
9. Johnny Depp (tie)

Female
1. Meryl Streep
2. Katherine Hepburn
3. Bette Davis
4. Ingrid Bergman
5. Judy Garland (tie)
5. Audrey Hepburn (tie)
6. Barbara Stanwyck (tie)
6. Cate Blanchett (tie)
6. Kate Winslet (tie)
7. Greta Garbo (tie)
7. Jodie Foster (tie)
7. Nicole Kidman (tie)
8. Joan Crawford (tie)
8. Vivien Leigh (tie)
8. Marilyn Monroe (tie)
8. Natalie Portman (tie)

 

They Listed Me with Science!

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The Greatest Scientists of All Time is one of the most popular pages on the Make Lists, Not War website.  The meta-list of scientists consistently gets more hits than all but four or five other pages on the site.  The page also has quite a few comments, more than average.  I haven’t updated the meta-list since 2018, so I decided to look for more lists of “best,” “greatest,” “most important,” and “most influential” scientists of all time.  I found 10 lists that were published since 2018 and added them to the meta-list.  The results are in the links below.  There are  two lists – each one includes every scientist on three or more of the original source lists. The first meta-list is ranked, that is, the scientists on the most lists are at the top.  The second meta-list is chronological: the scientists are listed in order of their date of birth.

Greatest Scientists of All Time – Ranked
Greatest Scientists of All Time – Chronological

The meta-list contains 128 names.  There are four new additions: Ada Lovelace, George Washington Carver, Emmy Noether, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.  Although most of the rankings remain similar after I added 10 new lists to the meta-list, there were some changes. For example, Rosalind Franklin leapfrogged over both James Watson and Francis Crick in the rankings, apparently an acknowledgement that her contribution to the discovery of DNA’s structure was not properly recognized in the past.

The discussions in the comments section have highlighted some perceived problems with the meta-list.  For one thing, because I only look at English-language sources, the list may be biased towards English-speaking scientists.  Also, there may be a Western, Eurocentric or American bias, which is true for many of the meta-lists on the website.  I’m not sure what I can do to counter this tendency, as it originates in the original source lists and then is carried over into the meta-list.

Another issue is the definition of ‘best scientist.’  Most of the lists of “best scientists” I have found also include inventors, engineers, and mathematicians.  It rubs some people the wrong way to see names like Thomas Edison and James Watt on the meta-lists, as it doesn’t fit their definition of scientist.  Once again, I’m not sure how I can fix this problem (if it is a problem).  As a meta-lister, I am largely bound by the way that the original source listers defined their subject.

Another issue that has been raised is that scientists who are more famous or popular in the public eye tend to get on the “best scientist” lists even if they haven’t made many (or any) serious contributions to original research or discovery.  I’m thinking of people like Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson.  Even Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman’s inclusions have been criticized, even though there is no doubt that both men have done serious work in theoretical physics.  I suppose the logic of the listers is that scientists who make science accessible to the general public serve an important role and are influential in the society at large, if not as researchers in their fields.

For me, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the meta-list is the lack of earth scientists, geologists and paleontologists on the meta-list.  It feels like the physicists and astronomers are overrepresented, and the life sciences and especially earth sciences are underrepresented.  I don’t know why this has occurred. The only geologist on the meta-list is Alfred Wegener. Alexander von Humboldt, James Hutton, Charles Lyell, and Stephen Jay Gould just missed the cutoff, with two votes each. Geologists who are on only one original source list include Georges Cuvier, Louis Agassiz, Mary Anning, Andrew Knoll, Marie Tharp, Luis Alvarez (actually a physicist but best known for his role in paleontology) and Eugene Shoemaker.

Despite all these shortcomings, I still think the meta-list is a useful tool in identifying important and influential scientists. But of course I’d say that.

Meta-List Updates

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I’ve updated a number of the website pages on Make Lists, Not War.

(1) Timeline of Human History, Part V: 2000-Present
I’ve been a little behind in doing the year-by-year summaries, but I am now up to date.  I’ve added important world events for the years 2021-2024.  The big additions include the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, various items regarding Donald Trump, and news about climate change.  I’m still delinquent about adding photos to the years since 2016. I’ll get to that eventually.
Here’s the link:
Timeline of Human History Part V: 2000-Present

(2) Best of the 21st Century (so far): Film, Music, and Books
As we approach the end of the 1st quarter of the 21st Century, a number of new lists have been published, and I’ve added these to the meta-list.  The new lists didn’t change the top items in music or film (The White Stripes – Elephant, and There Will Be Blood), but the top of the book list is now a three-way tie: The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, Atonement, by Ian McEwan, and The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.  As I mention elsewhere, one of the odd results of collecting “best of the 21st century” lists over time is that the meta-list tends to be biased toward the first part of the century.  The lists contain almost no items from 2020 or later.  I’m sure that will be remedied as new lists are produced and added to the meta list.
Here’s the link
Best of the 21st Century (so far)

(3) Best Athletes of All Time
It has been several years since I updated the Best Athletes lists. I found six new lists and added them to the meta-lists.  New additions include Simone Biles and Novak Djokovic.  Athletes who were already on the lists but moved up considerably included Serena Williams, Tom Brady, and LeBron James.  To the dismay of all, Lance Armstrong remains on the list, due to a glitch in the meta-list process. Even though none of the lists that were made after 2013 include Armstrong, I found 8 lists made before the revelations about his performance-enhancing drug use that did include him. I have left this artifact of time on the list with an asterisk to explain the oddity.  Not yet on enough lists to make the meta-list are swimmer Katie Ledecky and basketball phenom Caitlin Clark, although my guess is that they will reach the meta-list in the future.
Here are the lists:
Best Athletes of All Time – Ranked (with photos)
Best Athletes of All Time – By Sport (without photos)