Play List, Youthography’s monthly offering features high rotation music we think are important indicators of contemporary youth culture. At the end of each month, look for our list of popular songs to give you a snapshot of this. November is that time of the year when new releases are dominated by greatest hits packages, box sets and compilations of holiday songs. Right now, seven of the top 20 sellers in Canada and seven of the top 10 in the UK fit into this category. That doesn’t mean there isn’t great music out there to try out, just expect most of what is climbing the charts right to be old, not new.

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Youthography’s Top Picks for November 2006

Jay-Z “Show Me What You Got” – Kingdom Come, Roc-A-Fella
Jay Z continues to expand the empire with a new single, a new album and a new title: Co-Brand Director for Budweiser Select.  This is an illustration of the ultimate in crossover branding: the commercial for Budweiser Select featured the “Show Me What You Got” video with various product shots. Further, the video features Danica Partick of Indy car and Dale Earnhardt Jr. of NASCAR in the video, further expanding the reach of hip-hop into more subcultures and, for Budweiser, creating two strong brand associations at once.
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Gary Jules “Mad World” – Donnie Darko, Everloving
The cover of a Tears For Fears song featured in the commercial for XBOX360’s top-selling game Gears of War is a very different take on anything associated with shoot-em-up video games. Microsoft and Epic Games could have gone with the standard aggressive heavy-metal riffs but instead they chose a song that tapped into the games underlying darkness, mystery and mayhem. This cover was featured in the superhero-for-emo-boys movie Donnie Darko, which proved to be another smart move in drawing in the cult following of the films target as a way of creating buzz and positive association.
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Hinder “Lips of an Angel” – Extreme Behavior, Universal
They are huge in the U.S and have sold over 65,000 albums here. While not necessarily one of our favourite songs, you can’t ignore success and the slow but steady climb of a new act with a radio friendly single. And it allows us to mention a trend we do love: when anime fans create new content by making videos for their favourite songs, known as AMVs on the internet. Check this InuYasha fan video here
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Also Playing

Cold War Kids “Hang Me Up To Dry” (Robbers and Cowards, Downtown Recordings)
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Grizzly Bear “Easier” (Yellow House, Warp)
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Field Music “Tell Me, Keep Me” (You're Not Supposed To, Memphis Industries)
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TV on the Radio “Let the Devil In” (Return to Cookie Mountain, Interscope)
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Sufjan Stevens “The 50 States” (Live version of the theme song to their ‘50 States’ project, Asthmatic Kitty)
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Dan Sartain “Gun vs. Knife” (Join Dan Sartain,  One Little Indian and Swami Records)
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The Hold Steady “Chips Ahoy”  (Boys and Girls in America, Vagrant Records)
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k-os “Sunday Morning” (Atlantis, EMI)
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Attack in Black “Broken Things” (Widows, Dine Alone Records)
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Beck “Cellphone’s Dead” – (The Information, Interscope)
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Diddy F Christina Aguilera “Tell Me” (PD5, Bad Boy)
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The Killers “Bones” (Sam’s Town, Island)
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Team Canada “Dancing Black Dog” (Classic Material Vol. II)
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For more information on Youthography’s Playlist, please contact Mike D'Abramo at 416 206 1256 x241 or email
dabramo@youthography.com.Youthography is Canada's most significant young consumer marketing and communications consultancy-offering full service research, strategy, marketing and advertising for a wide array of companies, brands, products and institutions.