Most blogged artists: Kanye West, Warpaint, Sufjan Stevens

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Rapper Kayne West overtakes indie artist Sufjan Stevens as the most blogged artist on September 17, according to The Hype Machine. Experimental troupe Warpaint and Swedish indie act The Radio Dept. take second and third, while other top acts in the blogosphere include Chromeo and Houses.

At the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, Kanye West premiered a new song, "Runaway," as well as the trailer for a film of the same name. A studio version of the song has since been shared as a stream and free mp3 download, and the film clip can now be found at the rapper's website. "Unless you've been living under an Earth-size rock lately," writes Audio Muffin (www.audiomuffin.com), "you know that after about a 12 month hiatus Mr. Kanye Omari West is back . . . and back in a big way." KickKickSnare (www.kickkicksnare.com) blogs, "West's performance at the VMA's was pretty impressive in our opinion, and thus the track is spreading online like wildfire." West will likely maintain his popularity in the blogs, thanks to his G.O.O.D. Friday program, where he plans to release a new song via Twitter every Friday until December 25.

Sufjan Stevens has held strong in the blogs since releasing a 60-minute EP titled All Delighted People in August. He also announced plans to release a full-length album, The Age of Adz, on October 12. The indie-folk singer and musician has shared one song from that album, "I Walked," as a free download at bandcamp.com, and is now offering up a second track, "Too Much." The Walrus (www.walrusmusicblog.com) writes, "Steven's music recalls early '00s Radiohead and Postal Service, but that's not a bad thing," adding that the new track is "filled wtih tons of things I love - stuttering electronic beats and robot farts."

The 10 most blogged artists on The Hype Machine on September 17 at 9:00am GMT:

Kayne West (+1)
Warpaint (+1)
The Radio Dept. (+2)
Sufjan Stevens (-3)
Megafaun (+1)
Chromeo (+2)
Houses (+3)
Marnie Stern (-4)
The Black Angels (unchanged)
Weekend (-3)

Launched in 2005, The Hype Machine aggregates information from more than 1,000 music blogs worldwide. Known for identifying up-and-coming artists, the site enables music fans to easily find out what music is hot in the blogosphere and to instantly hear and buy mp3s.

http://hypem.com