Last.fm's Best of 2008

For those who are talented musicians, who can play all nameless sorts of instruments without a second thought, and who are so so poetically inclined that they probably speak in rhyme, music can be an outlet like no other. They can express every feeling on a whim of word or chord or melody. They can make people swoon at first listen, and have their listeners begging for more like addicts.

Then there are the rest of us, of course. For us listeners, who are definitely not musically inclined, music can be one of two things: a passing fancy, or a complete obsession. I can't speak for you of course, dear reader, but I can confidently label myself in that latter category. If you just listen to music because it's neat, well, good for you! But if you're as obsessive about music as I am, I'm guessing you probably have a Last.fm account, and scrobble there viciously, daily.

Here's the basic rundown for those not in the know. Last.fm is a music website dedicated to the act of scrobbling. After installing a doo-hicky for your lovely computer, the program automatically scrobbles (or in other words, keeps tally of) the songs you listen to, sending them to Last.fm. Last.fm compiles all that nifty information, and makes a huge musical repertoire with you, showing every song/band/album you've ever listened to on your computer, ever. Now, of course, with millions of Last.fm users, the website handles tons of song information. They recently put all that info to good use.

Last.fm, with their complex interface and data collection system, has compiled their Best of 2008 list. It was not constructed by their staff, nor was it crafted by a dilligently organized survey. No, this list was created by the amount that the perspective song/artist/album was scrobbled on Last.fm. In part by all the listeners scrobbling their tunes, this list was crafted, and thus those bands that deserve to be on these top 10 list (at least by number of times being listened to) earned their spots. Expect to see a lot of Coldplay dominating the top 10 songs of the year, but also expect to see the likes of MGMT, Foals, Bon Iver, Sigur Rós, and many more somewhere up there on the best new artist and best new albums of 2008.

Check out all of Last.fm's Best of 2008 lists right now on Last.fm right now! If you're crazy about music, and would love to see some awesome lists all about the music that you listen to, feel very free to get your own free account on Last.fm while you're there. And if you're really curious, you can always check out what I'm listening to. Be forewarned though, I have been listening to A LOT of Folie A Deux since its release... I CAN'T STOP!