Here's how it works: the vertical height of a stripe represents the ratio of my listening time dedicated to the artist in question. For example, you can see that the stripe for Metallica is thick in November-December, but gets thinner after that. So basically, I listened to a lot of Metallica in November-December, but a lot less in the following months. Also, the more red ones are artists I've been listening to since the beginning, whereas yellow and green ones are more recent additions. There are 3 green stripes that are not labeled: the top one is Amon Amarth, and the bottom two are Gamma Ray and Kalmah (the two colours are barely distinguishable).
Note that this graph only continues up to the end of February. Data for March is apparently not available yet.
Click to enlarge, of course.
So, some observations:
1. As I said earlier, Metallica was a heavy hitter in early winter, but has since then declined. This I've noticed; I like the band, but listening primarily to four albums that I have been listening to for over a year gets tiresome.
2. Clearly, two bands had a stint in the Christmas period: Opeth and Nightwish. Nightwish got more plays, obviously, but at this point only Opeth appears on the chart (though you can't make it out clearly).
3. Megadeth took over as the flagship of thrash metal in December at the same time as Metallica declined. I said already why Metallica delined, but Megadeth rose for two reasons. One: I got the Warchest (5-disc compilation) for christmas, and two: I went to their concert. You could also say that they arose to fill a vacuum of thrash metal left by the decline of Metallica. Megadeth stayed strong up to February (when I was at their concert), but has since then declined a bit. It is at my top 3 most listened artist, though.
4. Helloween has been fairly consistent, but experienced a boost in December; surprise surprise, I went to their concert then. Number 4 in my charts even now.
5. Dark Tranquillity was very small until about late January. After that, they have been on constant rotation on my iPod. This coincided with me getting Fiction (their latest album) and The Gallery (their second, classic album), as well as buying a ticket to their concert which will be next week. They're now fifth in my most listened artists, and have been the top 1 weekly artist four times.
6. Iron Maiden has been consistent and high the whole time. However, as you can see, though they have been weekly top 1s for me, they have not been monthly number 1s. Last year they were outclassed by Iced Earth, in January by Megadeth, and very recently by Dark Tranquillity. Only in the beginning of February were they number 1s. Thus, I can conclude that Maiden is the most consistent and overall number 1, but I am often more into some other band at any given time.
7. Judas Priest experienced very much the same thing as Dark Tranquillity, except their high time was earlier. This coincided with me getting Painkiller and buying a ticket to their concert, both of which got me heavily into more Priest.
8. Ensiferum was somewhat a short-lived relationship in January. I only listened to them because they were Megadeth's opener, but after the concert I pretty much dropped them.
9. Gamma Ray, Amon Amarth, and Kalmah are new powers on the rise, and I love the first two. They will probably feature in my charts heavily in the future, once I get more of their stuff. I think Kalmah will "do an Ensiferum" and disappear soon enough, since I'm not into them that much.
10. Some artists, like In Flames, Children of Bodom, Black Sabbath, and Bruce Dickinson, have been small but consistent. They're good, but not good enough to contend with the six giants: Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, Megadeth, Helloween, Dark Tranquillity and Judas Priest (in that order).
From these, I can discern some obvious listening habits of mine. The number 1 factor that seems to affect my listening seems to be concerts: the time before a concert, as well as the aftermath of it, seem to heavily raise the amount I listen to the band in question. And last.fm does not even count the amount of Youtube videos I watch (which would probably be about 5-10% of my music).
Second, like I said, there is usually a band that is my absolute favourite; Maiden is usually number two in this case. If there isn't, Maiden is my number 1.
Third, my new bands seem to come in cycles. You can see that Nightwish and In Flames arose roughly at the same time in December (followed by Ensiferum), and the Gamma Ray/Amon Amarth/Kalmah trio in February. What this chart doesn't show, however, is what bands arose from earlier; I started listening to Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, and Children of Bodom around October, at the same time as I started last.fm. The two are quite interlinked; last.fm allowed me to break into melodeath gently, which sparked my interest in the genre.
So, I had one cycle in October, one in December, and one in February. I find it extremely surprising that my music expansion would come in sets like this, and especially at fairly regular intervals. I wonder if there is a specific reason for this, and whether this would be so for other people. Then again, I am fairly abnormal in my music taste, because I am quite narrow-minded and listen only to metal. However, it would be interesting to make a proper "scientific" study into this and see how people get into new music.
Also interesting to note is that there seems to be no regularity with these new bands. Some get big, like Dark Tranquillity; some are dropped, like Nightwish or Ensiferum; and some stay small but constant, like Opeth or Children of Bodom. If I would predict the fates of the next three, I would say that Kalmah will probably be dropped, Gamma Ray will get big, and Amon Amarth will remain average.
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