Q101: Outro

I don’t have much more to say about Q101 than I did in my intro.  However, when I decided to write this mini-series, I had always planned on an epilogue of sorts to wrap the mini-series up in a nice, little bow.  I went through a couple tasks to create some material for this post.  I’m not going to publicly share this post because the content isn’t worth advertising.  If you’ve stumbled upon it for yourself, consider it an Easter egg I’ve hidden amongst other posts. 

Since I’m a nerdy numbers guy, I went back through the lists and compiled some stats.  I’ll share my thoughts on some of the interesting things that jumped out to me. 

Mandie Stats

• Total number of songs in common = 18/85
• Years with at least 1 song in common = 11/17
• Year with most songs in common = 2005 (3)

My companion on this Q101 journey was my co-worker Mandie.  I again want to thank her for giving me a brief reprieve from the daily rigors of work.  We always shared our lists with each other after year was completed, so I knew we had some favorites in common.  You can see all of her lists and her write-up here.  15 of our shared songs were prior to 2006 (out of a possible 60 songs), which is right around the time I started to notice a considerable drop in the music quality.  The fact that we shared at least 1 song in common 11 times is a higher number than I would have guessed considering how many songs you can choose from each year.  Great minds think alike?

Artist Stats

• Artist with most songs in a top 5 = Foo Fighters and Breaking Benjamin (4)
• Artists with 3 songs in a top 5 = Goo Goo Dolls, Linkin Park, and Seether
• Artists with more than 1 song in a top 5 = 15

The Foo Fighters are most deserving of the honor to be the most represented band.  They aren’t my favorite group but they’re up there, so I’m cool with it.  I can’t help but feel that Breaking Benjamin made the list as many times as they did only because of the watered-down musical landscape of the late ‘00s.  Goo Goo Dolls and Linkin Park are 2 of my favorite bands and the stat above validates that.  Seether?  Not so much.  They’re another beneficiary of the era in which they existed.   Many of the ‘90s alternative giants and my favorite groups, such as Green Day, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Bush, made the list more than once.  So did later favorites like Jimmy Eat World and Silversun Pickups.  There were some notable absences in the list of groups included on more than 1 top 5.  Pearl Jam, Oasis, and Fall Out Boy jump out to me based on how much I enjoyed all of their music.

Now that I had ranked the top 5 within each individual year, I wanted to answer the question of which Q101 year was the greatest.  Back when they played the countdowns, the station would always hold a vote for people to submit their favorite year.  The winning year would get replayed on New Year’s Day and 1994 won EVERY year.  1994 was a very good year so I had little complaints.  I’ve always preferred 1995 myself, but I needed to prove to myself that it was indeed my favorite.

I ranked the years in a few different ways to help gather the data I felt I needed.  First, I pitted the top 5 of each year against each other.  When you are considering the best year, you want to compare the best of the best.  These elite songs are often what you remember most about a year in music.  I, somewhat arbitrarily, decided this rank to be worth 30% of the composite score.

The 2^nd ranking I did was a sub-total of rankings.  When I listened to each year, I not only ranked the top 5; I ranked every song I had in the list.  That served me well for this purpose.  I was able to compare cross-sections of each year.  For example, I could compare my 10^th favorite song of each year and my 20^th favorite song each year.  A year with a strong top 5 may be very top-heavy.  Going deeper into the ranks gave me an idea of how well the year sustained its musical quality.  I stopped at the top 50 for a couple reasons.  I didn’t have many songs past 50 (in my library) for some of the later years.  Plus, the ranks really start to lose their meaning the further down the list you go.  Everyone’s top 5 or top 10 is fairly set in stone I’d imagine.  But do you REALLY like the 60^th best song more than the 61^st?  It probably depends on which day of the week you made the ranks.  Since is this more of an overall review, I deemed it to be the most important piece of the equation.  It counts for 50% of the score.

The final ranking I did was a completely objective one.  I ranked the years in order of the number of songs I had in my own personal music library.  Logic would suggest that a song would be in my library if I thought enough of it to buy the album on which it was on or I chose to download the song.  It also probably reflects how much I was in tune with what was being played on the radio that year.  A year with more total songs would also simply give me more to listen to.  Quality is still greater than quantity though, so this ranking only accounts for 20% of the total.

When you put it all together and the dust settles…2001 is the best year!?

Top 5	Rankings Collection	Songs in Library	Composite Score
1995 1996 2001 1999 1997 1994 1998 2004 2002 2005 2006 2009 2010 2003 2008 2000 2007	1995 1994 2001 2002 1996 1998 1997 2000 1999 2004 2005 2003 2006 2009 2007 2010 2008	1998 2002 2000 2001 1996 1997 2003 1994 2004 1999 2006 1995 2008 2005 2007 2009 2010	2001 1995 1996 1994 1998 1997 2002 1999 2004 2000 2005 2006 2003 2009 2010 2008 2007	14.9 14.7 14.5 12.8 12.5 12.2 11.9 11.2 9.2 6.9 6.9 6.5 6 4.6 3.3 2.9 2

I’ve always clung to the belief that 1995 was the best year but it was narrowly beaten by 2001.  I actually felt a little bit angry when I calculated the formula and saw the results.  1995 MUST be the best.  It holds a revered place in my heart and shouldn’t be threatened.  You’ll see that 1995 contains my favorite top 5 and my favorite top 50 (essentially).  Its undoing was the curiously low number of songs it has contributed to my library.  I suppose that can be attributed to the fact that I was still an alternative newbie at the time with limited musical access.  2001 was consistent across the board in all 3 categories.  In the fateful final category, 2001 had the advantage of being smack dab in the middle of the golden years.  1996 also deserves a shout-out for coming in just behind the leaders in the clubhouse.

As you can see, the yearly rankings follow an almost chronological pattern.  The ‘90s are better than the early 2000s which are better than the later 2000s.  The romanticized years of my youth have really held up over time.  Just put it on Lithium when scrolling through Sirius XM stations and I’ll be a very happy boy.  Q101 is sort of back now but under a different name.  I’ll still get some of my old favorites but there’s so much unfamiliar new stuff.  Listening to the station now makes me feel like that 30-year old who still shows up to high school and college parties.  Q101 – you will always be a part of who I am and I salute what you were.  Thanks for the memories.