My Most Read AC Articles So Far

A few of my favorite AssociatedContent writers had posted a list of their most read articles over the years. I thought it quite fascinating to see what sort of topics readers like to read most from various online writers... So I had a look at my own AC articles stats and found quite a surprise. Granted, I haven't been covering a lot of subject that would tend to generate a lot of search engine hits (like current news or celebrity related stuff), but I was sort of expecting travel reviews/articles to do better than such non-mainstream stuff as - gasp - opera and classical music!

Most popular articles (those that have garnered the most hits)
1. A Few Favorite Opera Arias & Duets For the Opera Beginners (Published 07/25/2007. Hits to date: 11,474)
Well, I suppose the secret to this hit is its sheer length. Its 17 pages are populated by many of the well known favorite opera arias and duets in different combination. So the hits are probably coming from people googling for specific opera arias and finding themselves landed in a much-lengthier-than-expected compilation essay and finding themselves quite thankful for the option to view the whole thing in one page. It was one of my earlier and not-so-experienced opera evangelism articles, and I'm afraid my enthusiasm got the better of me!

2. Name Those Classical Music Tunes (Published 03/29/2008. Hits to date: 9,538)
Someone forwarded to me this really cool website, namemytune.com, that allows you to record up to 10 seconds of sound recording (you can upload it or hum it to the microphone) of any tune you would like others to listen to and attempt to identify it for you. I had a bit of a listening spree and identified a bunch of classical tunes and opera arias. And, on a whim, decided to compile a list of classical tunes whose identity are most requested. A few tunes on the list aren't appearing as often on the ID-requested list now, but most still are.

3. 10 Romantic Opera Pieces For Valentine's Day (Published 01/18/2008. Hits to date 6,456 hits)
I guess Valentine's Day can turn many, even pop music lovers, into classical romantics when we tune-hunt for the perfect background music for that loveliest day of the year!

4. Kill the Canaries!: Smorg's Picks of Seven Most Difficult Opera Arias for Coloratura Sopranos (Published 10/06/2008. Hits to date 4,932)
This one was a shocker. It is one of the articles I'd least suspect of becoming a hit! I mean, how many non-opera audience even know what a 'coloratura soprano' is to begin with? So, I don't have a clue on what is fueling the hits on this compilation of seven beautiful beasts of coloratura soprano arias. Perhaps it is the 'canaries' in the title?

5. Rocking Classically: Ten Rousing Classical Music Tunes (Published 05/25/2009. Hits to date: 2,691)
To be honest, I suspect a lot of hits on this compilation of upbeat adrenaline rush inducing classical music are coming from those who are actually searching google and yahoo for 'classic rock' tunes rather than classical music with rockadelic bent. I'm willing to bet that many of the stray readers who unintentionally landed on the unfamiliar ground of classical music article in their search for music more resembling Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones than Wagner or De Falla wouldn't find themselves severely disappointed upon checking out the tunes listed in the article, though. People in the older days were just as keen on having a musical good time as we post-electric-guitar generations are!

As often happens in life, the articles that I'm most proud of aren't ones that attract as much attention. Here are the AC articles I'm most proud of having written regardless of their (un)popular appeal:

1. Nursing Home Residents Were Like Us Once (Published 06/29/2007. Hits to date: 1,073)
The first article I posted here and the only one on the rather unpleasant topic of nursing home conditions in America... as seen from the eyes of an overworked night shift nursing assistant/college student. It is read a lot less than any of the five articles mentioned earlier on this essay, but it does seem to compel a disproportionate amount of thoughtful comments. I'm quite grateful for that. After all, if you live long enough here in the USA, chances are that you will end up spending your last days in one of these nursing facilities. Perhaps many will find more incentive in this account to pay-it-forward, so to speak, and make the time to go and visit their loved ones who are already there while hoping that their kids or grandkids will do the same for them.

2. Check That Data Please!: Doing Science Means Never Taking Anything For Granted (Published 03/12/2009. Hits to date: 169)
A spur of the moment write up that may seem to make a mountain of a mole hill... But the devil is in the details, especially when it comes to science! Too often do we take information for granted without spending the extra few seconds it takes to question its veracity and decipher exactly all the things that it does and does not imply. I learned many wonderfully useful things in my university studies, and the most useful of them all is the willingness to assume that my snap judgment on anything may be wrong, so I've better check it out and catch my mistakes before somebody else does. Often time the quickness of one's response to any question isn't nearly as important as its accuracy is. I've learned that - a bit later than I would have liked to (with ego scars to prove it, too!).

3. Sapho's O Ma Lyre Immortelle: Soaked In Sound And Drowned In Sorrow (Published 07/15/2009. Hits to date: 394)
Summer of 2009 was a dark time for me. Being permanently afflicted with earworm-itis (there is always a piece of music playing in my head), my restless summer nights were haunted by either the finale from Korngold's "Die tote Stadt", Ariodante's suicidal "Scherza, infida", or this broodingly dark final aria from Gounod's "Sapho". Yes, gloomy and achy tunes all, but they were actually helping me survive. I have my favorite version of each quite well embedded in my head, and whenever things got so rough that I gravitated toward self pity (you know, the 'nobody knows what it is like' sort of mentality), I listen to the mournful voices of Torsten Kerl or Vesselina Kasarova and was (and am) convinced that there are others who have been through as much or more... And then I felt so much better. It was in one of those dark moods, though, when I, for lack of better things to do, typed out what Sapho's aria conjured up in my mind as it was playing in my head. As happy with it as I am, I dare say I wouldn't like to write another article like this one. :oP