Chicago Is Popular On The Internet

By Veronica Murtagh in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 7, 2010 8:00PM

The popular music blog aggregator, Hype Machine, has been a longstanding resource for us when it comes to finding new music. Sure, on a first it glance it may seem overrun with buzz bands and a dizzying amount of remixes, but go ahead and search a few of your favorite artists, and you're sure to find a blogger amongst their ranks who shares your affinities.

Across the week the music machine has been gradually unveiling their impressively presented year-end Zeitgeist which compiles 2009's Top 50 Artists, Top 50 Albums and overall Top Songs, compiled via site playcounts and the actions of registered users.

We were pleased to see some Chicago talent represented across all three categories. In the Top Artists category, Kanye West came in at #43, Sufjan Stevens at #39, Andrew Bird at #32 and Wilco at #27. We especially like the commissioned original artwork approach to this category. Andrew Bird and Wilco were both repeat players in the Top Albums category with Bird's Noble Beast at #27 and Wilco's self-titled at #21.

The Top Songs category found rising electronic duo The Hood Internet nabbing a spot. The Hood Internet's Comfortable Up Here was the second most popular track for the month of June on Hype Machine, which translates to A LOT of ears when you consider that the site nets 1.7 million unique hits a month. Only 29 songs were awarded placement on this year's list.

Tomorrow Hype Machine will unveil the top ten spots on their Top Artist and Top Albums lists and while you wait around to see if any Chicago names take top honors, check out a streamed mix of all the Top Song winners, including The Hood Internet, here.