The Zeitgeist is here! Our annual roundup of the 50 most-discussed artists, albums, and songs of 2010 launches today. We’ll reveal 10 every day this week, with the Top 10 being released on Friday. Here’s how we made it:
Top 50 Artists: We’ve tabulated the total number of songs from each band posted in 2010 by blogs on The Hype Machine, and invited 50 visual artists to create illustrations for the musicians. You can view them in glorious full-screen resolution while you sample a track from the band. AND! This year, you can send each gorgeous piece of artwork as a postcard to your friends. It’s the closest you can get to hugging a pixel.
Top 50 Albums: We’ve pored over 950 blogger Top 10 lists (the most to date!) and thousands of albums to calculate the final ranking. Grooveshark kindly provided the full album streams, and we’ve used CC-licensed Flickr Photos for the graphics.
Top 50 Songs: We’re excited to present five new mixes of the year’s top songs, created for us by the artists who were dominating the Popular charts in 2010. We’ll also publish the full list of Top 50 tracks on Friday.
As always, the Zeitgeist is one big community effort. Big thanks to all the music bloggers, who make finding the best new music easier; the illustrators and photographers, who make the Zeitgeist look so good; Jeff from Heart On A Stick, who passed the torch a few years back; David from Largehearted Boy, who is the best at collecting best-of lists; Grooveshark (and @bwc), who power the full album streams, SoundCloud, who power the Hype Machine Radio Show; our incredible friends Cain Norris, Michael Bringardner, Lisa Zuniga, Morgan Kelton, and Emma Tangoren for helping us with data slicing and dicing; the entire Hype Machine team, for working through Christmas and New Year’s, every year, to bring you the Zeitgeist. And you: thank you for always looking for new music to fall in love with.
JAN 8 UPDATE: You can now download the entire data set (in a CSV file) we gathered to make the Top 50 albums list this year. The compiled set [CC License] is a more expanded version of our top 50 list that includes some extras, like the average rank given to an album in each post. The raw set [CC License] has the list of all blog posts we’ve indexed and the albums they’ve selected. Enjoy!
Comments
57 responses to “Music Blog Zeitgeist 2010”
Fantastic job, guys. Aurally and visually stunning, super usable, and an excuse to promote the Knocks (who we love). How HypeM of you all. Thanks for making my 2010 sound better than it ever would have, otherwise.
this is GORGEOUS! happy 2011 everybody!
Thankyou Hype Team!
I love the way you help us to find new great music, also thanks for the compilation. I think every young-hearted people should take a look for this.
Something I look forward to every year! A true Gem! Thank you Hype Machine!!!!
Glad you do this every year. I still have last years zeitgeist on my ipod and listen to it on road trips all the time. Keep up the good work.
Really like the addition of Groove Shark. Thanks!
Thats great and all, but where is my Iphone app? Ive have been checking the app store every 5 hours since you announced that it was sent to apple.
Amazbal!
thanks for all of this.
The new features of the website makes it even better than before, the Zeitgeist is awesome and we love you more than before!
Keep rocking like this!
Enjoy the 2011 another year of growth and success!
tia
h n y from france & thx for everything………..XD
I can’t see the positions 1 to 20 (album). Is it normal?
Just wanted to express my thanks for such a great collection – thoughtfully put together and extremely satisfying! Full album streams and full screen layout are great – superb!
Look forward to hearing the top 50 tracks on Friday. 😀
Well done HypeM!
Hey, what happened to the little play button above the artist? Now I gotta go through a few more clicks, but I’m lazy. Just direct play the music!
Thanks.
It seems that the remix mp3 for the Glitch Mob and Clock Opera are the same..
Hey is there any way we can get a tracklist of all the top songs?
Thank you so much for promoting underground and popular music alike. The remixes are always ready to groove to, easy to use interface, no ads, and you don’t get knocked off the server if you’re working on a project or something.
I really appreciate that you put the artists and their sites for the album covers. Sometimes in the music business the 2D artists and illustrators are overlooked. Keep representing art in all forms at its best. Feliz Año Nuevo!
Yay Zeitgeist 🙂
Good work guys! Look forward to the top50 albums at the end of each year now.
But…I will say I was a little frustrated with the layout of the top50 albums this year plus the lack of actual information/description about each album. I feel the layout from years past was much more useful and enjoyable to scroll through.
Either way, great work. Glad you take the time to put it together. And thank you so much for not having Kanye #1.
Great job again on the top 50! Always gets me through January.
I will echo the frustration with the layout of this year vs last year. The quick description/review of the albums in the past added to the experience, and would prompt me to listen to an album I otherwise might have skipped.
You guys do a tremendous job getting this music out to us, thanks again!
Last year the actual excel file of statistics was released. It was awesome to see all the albums beyond 50. Any chance that will get released yet this year?
Will be releasing the data shortly!
Have you released the list of the top 50 songs yet?
Does anyone know the name of the first track on the blackbird blackbird mix?
It’s too bad the list is 2 days late otherwise you would know by now… what is taking so long?!?!?
in response to your question though it Pretty Lights – Finally Moving
http://hypem.com/#!/item/15zv4/Pretty+Lights+-+Finally+Moving
I must say im highly displeased with the top 50 artists.
to start off you are missing some of the leading artists in the world: drake, deadmou5, kid cudi and multiple others.
also your rankings are out of whack.
ellie goulding in the high 40’s. clearly not.
and most of the top 10 are nobody’s.
the top 50 songs is amazing
the albums is pretty good too.
but come on hypem, fail on the artists.
@Daneil:
If you read the original comment, they didn’t choose the top 50 artists, the internet did. You can’t get mad at any one person for this list.
And if you think people in the top 10 are nobody’s, you’ve been living under a rock.
Is the tracklist a lie?
Umm… forgive me, I’m probably just being really stupid here, but how do we view the top 50 songs? Or is the list not available yet.
Love the artwork for the top 50 artists, some of it is really stunning.
Ah here, I know I’m a complete idiot when it comes to technology sometimes, but how the hell do I open and view a CSV file without dodgy free downloads from virus-filled sites?
“we’ll publish the full list on Friday”
such lies!
Or is there some list I am not aware of…?
The mixes are awesome though. I love this website.
Awesome thanks James, how about the second song on The Knocks cut??
LOVE the postcards, but how do I order one? The links are broken 🙁
Got it, 1st track on the blackbird blackbird mix is Pretty Lights.
does anyone know the one that follows it?
NEED IT LIKE A DRUGGGGG
blackbird i think is pretty lights, then James Blake (cmyk) and then Ambling Alp by Yeasayer
#2 on the knocks is ‘on melancholy hills’ – gorillaz
Great addition with the artwork for the 50 most blogged about artists! It was featured in a Belgian newspaper today (in a small column, but still =) ).
Top 50 songs? Is that coming sometime soon?
Top 50 songs list coming in a little bit, stay tuned.
How about bringing back the feeds, haven’t visited HypeMachine since they’ve been gone.
Still hoping…
So one of my favs is missing in action. Why are the top 50 songs based on how much popularity they got over specific months? What if a song was dropped at the end of a month? What about songs that, over the course of the whole year got more attention from hype machine users. See “Fly Scientist”. It has more hearts for 2010 than several on this list (even when combining hearts of some of these selections which had varying post titles).
It seems what hype machine is presenting here is a compilation of Songs of the Month in 2010, not 2010’s most popular songs of the year. still love you guys though.
Much appreciated, James!
Have yourself a fine day.
Yeasayer is just not the best artist of the year…
Here’s the full list of the Top 50 tracks: http://hypem.com/#!/zeitgeist/2010/songs-list
[…] artwork, full album streams, and DJ mixes created exclusively for The Hype Machine. More info here. It’s fantastic and I encourage you to check it out, if you like good music. And who […]
hey guys, what’s the second song in the clock opera mix?
Im sorry i gotta point out “Wiz Khalifa – The Thrill”. Click on it within the Top 50 list. It includes hearts from 2009. Which makes sense. That’s when the song was popular.
How were the top 50 songs calculated? I’m shocked that Crystal Castles featuring Robert Smith wasn’t in the top. That song has a ton more <3 than a lot of the other top 50 songs.
[…] Check out their top 50 most blogged artists here. Categories Uncategorized LikeBe the first to like this post. […]
HI there, pls name of the 2nd track on the Clock opera mix …
thnx the community & HYpe M
Hi Guys, Any chance you can post the LIST Version of this, so that if we choose to purchase it, it’s easier to see the titles and information without scrolling through?
Thanks in advance, you guys rock.
xo
Hey!
Where are the tracks? Have they been removed?
http://hypem.com/#!/zeitgeist/2010/songs-2 doesn`t work anylonger…
LOVE the postcards
Nice list. Enjoying the top 50 songs.
I think I tracked down second song in Clock Opera Mix… Me & The Moon (Clock Opera Remix)
What is the name of the last song on Blackbird Blackbird mix?? It’s not on the Top 50 songs list. Thanks!
What a wonderful way to explore music and add new colors to your pallet!
This just makes perfect sense! Thank You HM
Are you guys on loudie?
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