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Just saying …

Claims by the MPAA that illegal downloads are killing the industry and causing billions in losses are once again being shredded. In 2009, the leading Hollywood studios made more films and generated more revenue than ever before, and for the first time in history the domestic box office grosses will surpass $10 billion.

As the year comes to a close, several social media companies decided to take a look back and reflect on the events, people, technologies that captured our interest this year. Twitter (Twitter) took the first crack when it revealed the most discussed topics of 2009. Facebook (Facebook) was next when it released its Facebook Memology for the year.

Both reports are interesting and have a lot of useful information, yet nobody’s really taken the time to analyze just what these trends mean. What did our society care about, and why? What scared the crap out of us? How were our tastes different this year than they were last year?

While I could take days analyzing trending topics (weeks if you give me the raw data), I only have so much time for this column. This is why I wanted to share with you some of my conclusions about this year’s trend data from Facebook and Twitter.

Great infographics on 20 things that happen in 1 minute!

PLEASE see my related post on last.fm 2009 data download!

Because nothing dulls your sense of indie cool quite like spending a few days in your childhood bedroom staring at some old ‘N Sync posters, we’ve got Last.fm’s handy month-by-month chart of listening trends in New York City vs. the world. It explains why you might want to leave NYC the next time you’re looking to score tickets to see Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, or Phoenix. It also reveals that New Yorkers are responsible for the year of the Gaga, intel which is either amazing or horrible depending on how you feel about her. After the jump, have your hipster superiority restored.

Welcome to Last.fm’s Best of 2009, the hottest and most popular artists of the year based on your scrobbles.

We compiled the list by looking at scrobbles for albums released between 1st October 2008 and 16th November 2009. We took out live albums, greatest hits collections, EP’s and singles before pulling them together into the lean, mean format you see before your eyes.

We’ve also looked up the top tracks, month-by-month scrobbles and event attendance for every artist in the Top 40, so you can see how you fit in with the global artist listens.

So sit back, turn the volume up to 11, and get ready to salute the Top 40 artists of 2009 based on your scrobbles.