Ecstatistic

Ecstatistic adj. Of the nature of frenzy / passion experienced while reading random meaningless figures, being subject to the delusion that they mean something. Of persons: subject to such geeky rapture.

Was reading through a bunch of random blogs the other day and realised that most people seem to use them as ways of baring their soul to the world. So figured I would join the bandwagon (mostly because I couldn't think of anything more interesting to say - it's one of those days) and reveal the innermost secrets of the closest thing I have to a soul - my iPod*

Basically was sitting around yesterday going through music on my iPod, and decided to put together some random stats on the music I have loaded on it (which is of course only a subset, and not an entirely representative one, of my overall music collection). Now if only blogspot would let me use Powerpoint.

Breakdown of music by genre
Total disk space used: 23.7 GB

Classical (Orchestral / Chamber / Solo music) 7 GB (30%)
Opera 2.4 GB (10%)
Choral Works 0.7 GB (3%)

Overall Western Classical 10.1 GB (43%)

Jazz 5 GB (21%)
Rock 4.3 GB (18%)
Indian Classical (Carnatic / Hindustani) 1.3 GB (5%)
Blues 1.1 GB (5%)
Folk (acoustic / world music) 0.9 GB (4%)
Alternative (basically 90's rock) 0.4 GB (2%)
Soundtrack (musicals / movie OSTs) 0.4 GB (2%)
Others (Hindi / Ghazals / Pop / Easy listening) 0.2 GB (1%)

Top Artists
Includes all artists with over 0.5 GB of music

1 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 2 GB
2 Ludwig Van Beethoven 1.5 GB
3 Bob Dylan 1 GB
4 Miles Davis 940 MB
5 Franz Schubert 900 MB
6 Johann Sebastian Bach 850 MB
7 G. F. Handel 680 MB
8 Richard Wagner 660 MB
9 Louis Armstrong 650 MB
10 Billy Holiday 630 MB
11 Guiseppe Verdi 630 MB
12 Charlie Parker 500 MB

(Honourable Mention: George Gershwin - 500 MB of music across various artists)

Most versions** of a single song
Summertime - 8
Billy Holiday, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis (2 versions), Joni Mitchell & Herbie Hancock (with Stevie Wonder), Janis Joplin, Gershwin (2 versions)

Songs with five versions

Ain't Misbehaving: Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong (2)
Embraceable you: Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, George Gershwin, Herbie Hancock, Sarah Vaughan
Honeysuckle Rose: Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk (2)
I've got the world on a string: Art Tatum, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan
Night and Day: Art Tatum, Billy Holiday (2), Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald
Forever Young: Bob Dylan (2), Joan Baez (2), The Pretenders

Additional Fun Facts

Biggest Suprise: Most represented Indian Classical Artist - L Subramaniam (have sudden, inexplicable urge to drink buttermilk)
Most overwhelming dominance: Dylan at 1 GB; the second most represented artist / group across Rock / Folk / Blues / Alt is the Beatles at 350 MB!


*No really, think about it - I take it with me everywhere I go, I'm lost without it and I wouldn't sell it to the Devil if he promised me the Kingdom of the Earth.
** A version represents a fundamentally different performance of the song - alternate takes / duplicates are not included.