At #2 is the female vocalist who racked up 10 #1 hits on the US Hot 100 faster than any other solo artist, and faster than any other acts in Billboard history except the Beatles and the Supremes. She’s also the youngest artist to place 10 singles at #1 on the US Hot 100. Her music is a mix of pop, R&B, dance, hip-hop, and reggae, and all sexy. Continue reading
At #3 is an American female pop vocalist who has released six studio albums and has sold over 10 million records worldwide, yet has only placed two singles in the US Hot 100. Eighteen of her songs, however, are in my top 500 most played tracks, and five of her studio albums plus one compilation album are in my top 500 most played albums. One of her studio albums is my overall #6 most played album of the past four years, and another is in my overall top 20. Continue reading
At #4 is the group act who ranks higher than any other group act on my personal Last.fm artists chart for the past four years. I saw this group live at the 2003 revival of Lollapalooza, and have been a fan ever since, having purchased most of their albums, including their most recent studio album, independently released on their own label, Purple Feather Records. Continue reading
At #5 is the American female R&B/hip-hop solo vocalist who released my favorite American music video—definitely the one I’ve watched more than any other. Sadly I’ve never met this artist or seen her in concert. She’s released a total of six studio albums and one mixtape, but unfortunately, only the mixtape and three of the studio albums are available in the US. Her other three studio albums are Japan-only releases, and one of those was a digital download version only. Continue reading
At #6 is a pop singer who acquired sudden fame in 2008 with a monster of an attitude and über-catchy pop fare. At the age of 25, she has figured out the music industry and now molds it to her will, sort of the same way Madonna did in her younger days, though Madonna never looked so garish, even in her later years. Continue reading
At #7 is a pop/R&B icon, with songs ranging from topics about social injustice to sexuality, who released one of my favorite tracks of all time. I’ve been a fan of this artist’s music since she took control of her own career in 1986. She’s also the only artist for whom I still have a vinyl album, and I can’t bear to part with it, even though I don’t have a record player and haven’t had one for many years now. Continue reading
At #8 is the former American Idol contestant whose songs I played more often over the past four years than any other AI contestant, despite the fact that she’s not my top personal favorite AI contestant—that honor is held by Stevie Scott. The artist at #8 competed in American Idol season 6, which started the same month and year I joined Last.fm and started scrobbling my plays. I played a lot of this artist’s AI tracks from January 2007 (when AI season 6 started) through May 2007 (when AI season 6 ended), and that helped to push this artist up into my top 10 most played artists of the past four years. Continue reading
At #9 is a pop princess who is so often put down as frivolous but who sells millions of albums and by some calculations is the eighth top-selling female artist in the US. She released her first single at the age of 16 and her first album at the age of 18; she’ll be 30 on December 2, 2011, having released a total of seven studio albums, three compilation albums, and 35 singles. Continue reading
It’s taken me 100 posts and over five months, but I’ve finally reached my top 10 music artists. At #10 is a female R&B/hip-hop artist who died at the age of 22 ten years ago. It’s always tragic when any person dies that young, and it’s even more tragic when the person has shown so much talent and has a life full of promise ahead of them. Continue reading
At #11 is the highest ranking duo in my countdown, the act who recorded my #2 most played album of the past four years. At the time of this writing, they have the most underwhelming official web site, that gives tour dates but no information about who they are, where they are located, or what sort of music they play. And maybe that is okay, because they also have Facebook and MySpace pages with bio info and the like. Maybe it’s better to have a simple official web site that’s easily updated than a complicated web site that easily falls out of date like so many other “official” web sites out there. After all, it’s about the music, not the web site, eh. Continue reading