I was just poking around my Last.fm account and noticed something interesting. For the longest time, the top 3 artists that got the most play on iTunes/iPod were Björk, Alanis Morissette, and Linkin Park. Over time, I’ve accumulated a lot of CDs, and as a result I’ve got a wider range of stuff scrobbled. And now? Somehow The White Stripes have passed Linkin Park to become my third-ranked artist–though not by much. I’m sure Linkin Park and The Whites Stripes will swap places a few times over the next little while. I kind of find all of that fascinating.

I’m not sure it’s really easy to characterize what I have in my music library. I remember a friend saying that I have an eclectic list. I agree. I could say that my library is mostly pop/rock/alternative with a heavier focus on the rock/alternative end of things. Oh, but it’s not that simple. I think I can even get more specific in some aspects (and give some examples).

• Quirky artists (Björk, Portishead)
• Lyricists (Alanis Morissette, K-OS)
• Trashy fun electropop (Dragonette, CSS)
• Retro (ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, Motown stuff)
• Garage rock (The White Stripes, The Hives)
• Angst and emo (Linkin Park, Three Days Grace)
• Soundtracks (Kill Bill, Katamari Damacy)
• Canadian Indie (Wintersleep, Die Mannequin)
• Mainstream Soul (Jully Black, Alicia Keys)

To be honest, I don’t think there’s anything really tying it all together. You know what though? I’m fine with that. I like having a wide range of stuff because I’m often surprised by what comes up when I put my player into shuffle. It allows for some serendipitous moments whenever the tracks speak to the things going on in my life.

I’m going to add a Last.fm radio of my library to the right panel. The radio station is missing a lot of stuff from artists that they couldn’t get a licence from (or something or other) but still, it’s a bit of a cross-section.