Most-Read Articles of 2024

And here I thought 2023 couldn’t be beat! When I went through 2023’s numbers this time last year, we were looking at a mind-boggling 394 articles posted for the year—more than one per day!—and a nearly 60% increase in page views over the previous year. In 2024? We published a mind-boggling 394 articles—yes, the exact same number, and no, I didn’t do that on purpose—and a 56% increase in page views over 2023’s numbers. Just wild. (And those 394 articles includes a 143-day streak—July 8 to November 27—where we posted at least something new every day, 172 articles overall during that timeframe, which is by far our longest and most consistent posting streak in site history.) Concert photography and movie reviews were once again the majority of what we published this year, but we also saw an uptick in reviews of new comics and live theater, which adds some nice variety. If it’s art in St. Louis we love to cover it! A huge, heartfelt thank you, thank you, thank you to all our wonderful writers and photographers, and to you, dear reader, for checking out what we have to offer. Please stick around!

Without any further ado, here are the articles that were read the most in the year that was 2024:

1. Longtime readers of these number posts (which surely has to include someone besides me?) surely know that our champion for five years running was an article on a Smithsonian documentary on the historical basis of Master and Commander. I am happy to report that we finally have a new champion: George Napper’s review of Godzilla Minus One. While the review was greeted with mild interest when it was first published in December of 2023, interest in the article starting trending up shortly before the Oscars in March (where it took home the Best Visual Effects award) and then just exploded in April and May. George called the film “a triumph in pretty much every conceivable way”—check out his full review if you need any more reasons to check it out.

2. A perennial favorite, Sarah Boslaugh’s review of Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of Exploitation Pictures went from #9 in 2020 to #3 in 2021 to #4 in both 2022 and 2023, but it hopped back up the list to #2 this year. There doesn’t seem to have been any particular inciting incident in this one rising up the charts…it’s numbers just ticked up in March and then stayed there all year, pretty consistently quintupling the previous year’s numbers. Titles like Sex Madness and Elysia: Valley of the Nude really capture people’s attention, don’t they?

3. On a similarly spicy note, the top entry actually published in 2024 is Erica Vining’s list of her top 10 dark romance reads of 2023. At first Erica wasn’t sure this would even fit with what we usually publish on the site and it didn’t get much traction for the first few months, but then the steamy summer weather hit and readers hunting for some steamy reading recommendations flooded to this one. If you read and enjoyed this one, be sure to check out Erica’s 2024 list, as well!

4. The top concert review of the year was Melissa Cynova’s review of A.J. Croce’s December 2023 concert at The Factory performing the songs of his father, folk legend Jim Croce. Concert reviews tend to get read the most when they’re new, but this one held consistently high most of the year, and even peaked in October, a full 10 months after the show. Be sure to also read Melissa’s interview with Croce ahead of the show, too.

5. Facebook is home to a lot of diehard classic rock fans, and those fans flooded to Laura Tucker’s review and photo gallery of Foreigner, Styx, and John Waite, live at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre this past June. Four-plus decades in the biz and these bands still know how to bring it.

Burton Cummings, live at The Factory. Photo by Laura Tucker.

6. Speaking of rock n’ roll legends photographed by Laura Tucker, the legendary Guess Who frontman Burton Cummings thrilled a soldout crowd in September, and readers flooded over to check out her review and photo gallery. The concert was just days after Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman won back the rights to the Guess Who name, and was jam-packed with fan favorites from the legendary Canadian rockers.

7. The former champion, Sarah Boslaugh’s look at the Smithsonian documentary on the historical basis of Master and Commander, comes in all the way down at #7 this year. It did about half of the amount of traffic as the year before which just wasn’t enough with such stiff competition, but as long as people keep googling “real master and commander,” it’ll probably keep showing up on this list.

8. St. Louis rapper Sexxy Red made an appearance at the Enterprise Center in September, and interest in that led to a whole lot of people checking out Bryan J. Sutter’s pics from her previous stop at the Chaifetz Arena in October of 2023.

9. Who doesn’t love N*SYNC? Back in June, Diane Ruff interviewed Joey Fatone about his “Legendary” tour with fellow boy band survivor AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys and it’s about as candid and charming an interview as you could ask for. Be sure to check out Diane’s review of the show as well, with pics by Jen Ruff.

10. I had no idea how hotly anticipated this show was, but Laura Jerele’s preview of metal legend King Diamond’s October show at The Factory was a massive hit. If you were there and want to relive the moment, or if you couldn’t make it and wish you had, Laura’s got you covered with a review and photo gallery, too.

Five new articles, three that carried over from late the year before, and two old standbys: a pretty good mix, I’d say! Here’s the list of just the top 10 articles first published during 2024:

1. Erica Vining’s Top 10 Dark Romance Novels I Read This Year

2. Laura Tucker’s review and photo gallery of Styx, Foreigner, and John Waite

3. Laura Tucker’s review and photo gallery of Guess Who legend Burton Cummings

4. Diane Ruff’s interview with N*SYNC’s Joey Fatone

5. Laura Jerele’s preview of King Diamond, live at The Factory in October

6. Courtney Dowdall’s review of Elvis Costello and the Imposters’ “truly life-enhancing show” at The Factory last January

7. My novel-length review of The Decemberists live at The Pageant in May (with photos by Laura Jerele!)

8. My wide-ranging interview with punk/alt-rock legend (and former Hüsker Dü and Sugar frontman) Bob Mould ahead of his September show at Delmar Hall. Also check out my review of the show with photos by—you guessed it!—Laura Jerele.

9. Diane Ruff’s review of A Legendary Night featuring Joey Fatone of N*SYNC and AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys, with photos by Jen Ruff

10. Newcomer Lucia Johnson has only done one article for us so far, but it’s a good one: check out her review and photos of the Tedeschi Trucks Band live at the Fabulous Fox Theatre

We’re not even two weeks into 2025 and six of last year’s top 10 are still sitting in this year’s top 10, but that means we have four new contenders, including two theater articles currently sitting at the very top. A portent of things to come? We’ll see when we check in again this time next year. Thanks for reading! | Jason Green

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *