On February 1st, 2009, Boston’s new House of Blues opened its doors for its first public event. After just one year, that club has become the world’s most popular music venue.

Live Nation, owners of the House of Blues franchise since 2006, opened the new club in the former location of Avalon, one of Boston’s more popular nightclubs. Concert promoter Don Law hoped to book as many as 300 shows in 2009 and, while he fell short of the mark by some 50 shows, the results are impressive nonetheless—no club in the world sold as many tickets that year as the House of Blues in Boston.

The most popular club in the world may have gotten some of its help from the location, next to Fenway Park, and the nostalgia of former patrons of Avalon. It’s also one of the few midsized venues in the city—most of the other venues in Boston can only host a smaller or much larger crowd.

Apple iPod Touch – $229-$399

“The funnest iPod ever”—a slogan that, had I heard it before making my decision, might have convinced me not to buy one. Having most of the features of the iPhone, including the accelerometer that allows the Touch to register simple movement, the most popular MP3 player is more like a PDA that happens to play music better than it does anything else. Three different models of the 2nd Generation iPod Touch are currently available, from 8 GB (the most popular) to 32 GB (which falls somewhat below the iPod Nano).

Apple iPod Classic – $249

The iPod Classic has a few intriguing features—Genius playlists and Cover Flow presentation, most notably—but its real selling point is its capacity. At 120 GB, the 6th generation of iPod Classic is a digital music player for users who think more is more and the most is even better. In fact, given no options with more memory, users have only one choice to make when purchasing an iPod Classic—black or silver.

Apple iPod Nano – $149 or $199

For those users who can’t stand having some great lump of technological wizardry bulging from their pockets, the iPod Nano is a popular compromise. Already possessing all of the features of the iPod Classic in a smaller package with less memory, the 4th generation iPod Nano also has an accelerometer that, as with the Touch, allows users to view their music collection or videos using the screen in either portrait or landscape mode. The iPod Nano comes in nine different colors, the most popular being black and blue, and two different sizes—8 GB or 16 GB.

SanDisk Sansa Fuze – $79.99-$119.99

See? I told you there’d be a non-Apple product eventually.

SanDisk’s Sansa Fuze may owe its popularity to its price—it is, after all, the cheapest MP3 player on the list that also plays videos. The Fuze has a few other features that make it stand out, though. It comes with a 30-day trial subscription to Rhapsody which, unlike Apple’s iTunes Store, doesn’t require users to pay per track. It also has a built-in microphone, a feature that even the vaunted iPod Touch doesn’t have. The Sansa Fuze can be purchased in 2 GB, 4 GB or 8 GB and five different colors.

Apple iPod Shuffle – $49-79

Much controversy surrounds the 3rd generation of the smallest iPod, which could see it lose its place to the Sansa Clip once stores run out of the 2nd generation model. The first and second generation Shuffles cater to users who want to fiddle with their music as little as possible—going so far as to lack a screen with which to navigate your music selection. The third generation takes the minimalist approach one step further and offers no controls on the device itself. Instead, Shuffle owners must use a remote included as part of the headphones that come with the shuffle. This has the unfortunate effect of requiring users to purchase new Apple headphones should the included pair ever become lost or broken. While the 2nd generation Shuffle came in a plethora of colors and a couple of different memory sizes, the 4th generation is only available in 4 GB and in two different colors—black or silver.

In the 7 years since its release, iTunes has become one of the most used media players in the world. This is in no small part due to iTunes’ proprietary relationship with the iPod. Another factor is the iTunes store, one of the first retail sources of downloadable media.

A recent Soundscan report has revealed the first track to exceed 2 million sales through iTunes. Of course, such a track would need to be a timeless classic, but not too timeless—old people don’t have iPods, right? It would need to be something released within the last ten years or so with both the musical acumen and lyrical genius to appeal to both teenage girls and aging hipsters.

Of course, it could also be Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”

I can only attribute this phenomenon to the Sopranos series finale in which the song was featured. It certainly isn’t so popular based on its own merit.

Right?

Right?

Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music

68.4 million views

Judging by the video, this song is about Rihanna adjusting her boobs in the bathroom. Also, she claps. I like to think that, had the video continued another 10 minutes or so, we would see Rihanna getting the clap in a dingy bathroom.

Best Comment: hello AMANDA what ups AMANDA YOU SEEL MAD AT ME IF YOU SEEL MAD AT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME ON THE WEEKEND.AND MY DAD SAID YES IF TO HUNG OUT WITH YOU TONIGHT. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love

68.5 million views

Leona Lewis and her crack team of multiracial stripper neighbors have terrible luck with men. This is probably why Leona likes to make out with walls, floors and radiators. Luckily for them and us, African-American Stripper set the building on fire and they won’t be whining anymore.

Best Comment: This song describes wat im going threw.My FAVOURITE SONG. Every word she says is so TRU

Lo que tú Quieras Oír

76.2 million views

I think the title means “Daddy Left Because Mommy Never Gets Off The Phone.” I’m not sure—I used a screwdriver to forcefully remove any Spanish I didn’t forget immediately after high school.

Best Comment: WHAT IS THIS??

Evolution of Dance

98.9 million views

The video is described as “The funniest 6 minutes you will ever see!” Honestly, I think it’s more likely that 98.9 million people are hot for the balding comedian in the pink shirt.

Best Comment: hey plz come watch my video so i can win a bet for $100.00!!!! i need 1000 views my next monday

Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend

101.6 million vides

Whoever decided to mix punk rock and cheerleading is a marketing genius who needs to be shot, strangled and tried for crimes against humanity. I’m going to go throw up what’s left of my brain and then maybe I’ll spend the rest of my days in a monastery where I’ll never, ever have to see anything like this again.

I hate you, The Internet.

Best Comment: It enchants this song to me !

Napster was once the most popular way to download music, but due was shut down to the rampant illegal file-sharing, and Napster has been relaunched as a legal online music market, hoping to compete with Apple’s most popular online music download service.

The biggest downside with the popular online music store is that unlike mp3s, tunes you download from Apple’s Music Store will not play on other portable players that are not iPods. The iPod has quickly become the most fashionable portable digital music player, but as other competitors research and create their new portable devices, many users will be left with digital music collections that will only play on Apple brand devices, since Apple has not licensed its FairPlay DRM technology.

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