Who's in your music library?

The other day, somebody asked me what kind of music I liked. At first, I thought that this was a silly question, but then I realized that I had some relevant data: the most frequently occurring artists in my iTunes library. And so I decided to generate a list of every artist for whom I had (arbitrarily) 50 tracks or more in my library. There were 40 of them, listed below. I collapsed a few side-projects into the main artist heading: for example, the total for the Legendary Pink Dots includes Edward Ka-Spel’s solo work.
A few things stand out. First, there are two big categories in my library – “Trance/Electronica” and “New Age” – which are under-represented here, because they are dominated by anthologies, compilations, and DJ mixes. Second, I am (obviously) something of a “completist” for certain artists, such as Al Stewart and the Dots. And third, these numbers don’t really represent my day-to-day listening preferences: right now I’m mostly listening to (checks iPhone playlists) Robbie Williams, Pet Shop Boys, Faithless, and Mark Knopfler. On second thoughts, maybe they do after all…..

ArtistItems
Legendary Pink Dots452
Al Stewart305
Pet Shop Boys270
Porcupine Tree254
Grateful Dead223
Beatles192
Marillion189
Saint Etienne165
Faithless143
Mark Knopfler134
Orb131
Divine Comedy128
No-Man128
Heart105
Love102
Bob Dylan100
Steve Miller Band93
Enya92
Sunscreem89
Dire Straits87
Men Without Hats84
Robbie Williams83
Moby79
The Who79
Frank Zappa69
Jane Siberry 66 88
Radiohead64
Rolling Stones64
Scritti Politti64
Captain Beefheart62
Simon & Garfunkel59
Country Joe & Fish57
Mamas & Papas55
Procul Harum55
Crass54
Led Zeppelin54
October Project53
Cream51
Leonard Cohen51
David Van Tieghem50

P.S. I forgot to include the ISSA tracks in Jane Siberry’s total. It’s so complicated when artists keep changing their names….