It’s been brought to our attention that at times the Countdown selections here at EF perhaps veer a bit too much towards the….unconventional? Arbitrary? Irreverent? Well so be it, that’s just how we roll, and you know what? There are a hell of a lot of other lists gumming up the internet that are just as arbitrary as our attempts at quantifying misguided marketing attempts at co-opting hip-hop culture, using Palintological reasoning to our own advantage, and making some sense of Aerosmith’s eternal relevance.

We consider these other irreverent lists as kindred spirits to our own weekly Countdowns, and to do them proper EF justice we figured we’d do a roundup of the most arbitrary ones from the past month. Yes that’s right, it’s a countdown of a countdown, so let your postmodern freak fly as we bring you our top 8 arbitrary music countdown lists found online (because 10 is too logical and you know, 8 is a special number for us). Look out, it’s about to get meta up in here.

• 8. Top 10 Music Videos By Movie Directors - first posted 10/15/08.

  A well-resarched and pretty thorough piece that pays Michel Gondry, David Fincher, Spike Jonze and others their proper respects in the pantheon of great music videos. All in all, not that arbitrary of a list…that is, except for the addendum attacking Michael Bay’s work on Meat Loaf’s video for “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).” That just makes us happy.

• 7. Five Biggest DRM Music Debacles of All Time - first posted 10/31/08.

  
  above image found HERE

  Snoooooze alert, though worthy of inclusion for its stubbornly narrow scope and the hilarity buried in the comments section (the best is the indignant rant from some guy about having to pay to play a Tetris knockoff application on his phone….the horror!).

• 6. 25 Cartoon Clad Album Covers to Blow Your Mind - first posted 10/28/08.

  
  above image found HERE

  Are you ready to have you mind blown? Because you definitely shouldn’t click that link until you’re sure you want to have your mind blown. These aren’t JUST album covers, they’re album covers with….CARTOONS, and they’re gonna blow your mind. We kid, but in all honesty it’s a pretty sweet list and worth the read.

• 5. Eight Best Get-Over-A-Break-Up Albums - first posted 10/5/08.

  
  above image found HERE

  Sorry, but this one makes the list for being on the wrong side of arbitrary, as in, why again are Neon Bible and Band of Horses Everything All the Time considered ideal post-breakup albums? We don’t get it. Oh, and splitting hairs here but wouldn’t it be easier to just call this “eight albums to help get over a breakup?”

• 4. The Seven Unexpected Moments of Guitar Awesomeness - first posted 10/10/08.

  This one was written by the same guy as the DRM list above (#7), though will probably appeal to a wider crowd. The difference between this and a done-to-death list like the top 10 guitar players of all time is that this puts a fresh, irreverent spin on the timeless argument of “who shreds best?!” while introducing some controversial candidates into the dialogue (I’m sure Yngwie Malmsteem acolytes are none too pleased to read about Kurt Cobain and John Mayer). Perfect fodder for debate, which is one of the primary goals of these lists in the first place.

• 3. Songs About Butts: No Ifs or Ands About It - first posted 10/23/08.

  
  above image found HERE, ed note: Sir Mix-A-Lot not on this actual list, but was the only unoffensive “butt” pic we could find

  Unabashedly, unashamedly, unrepentantly, a list about butt songs. And a deceivingly clever list about butt songs at that, one destined for countless hits and Google search results – it’s already been Dugg 531 times –while managing to approach the subject matter with categorical grace (it breaks the songs down by genre) and comprehensive research.

• 2. Seven Music Trends Whose Return Must Be Stopped - first posted 10/13/08.

  

  Once the second-rate snack to Mad, Cracked really seemed to come into its own and gain some swagger after the launch of cracked.com, and this is due in no small part to the site’s pitch-perfect mastery of arbitrary countdown lists such as this one.

• 1. The NME Cool List 2008 - first posted on 11/4/08.

  

  A perfect example of “arbitrary” as in “WTF?” and not as in “charmingly irreverent”, there’s no end to what’s wrong with a list like this. How do you even begin to quantify something like “cool”? Who gets to determine this? Why in the world is that awful she-goblin from Crystal Castles ranked #1? And how is the….ohhhh, do you see what’s happening? We’re now arguing and debating about this list, looks like NME accomplished exactly what it set out to do; well played limeys….

*lead image found HERE, top image found HERE