Best Ever Albums

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:37:55 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 20:37

creator wrote:

I'm not sure that it's possible to organize it in thread form... I mean, the history of music is a pretty expansive topic. 😁

I assumed that members would communicate through PM or set up a document on google docs, which allows multiple people to edit and discuss it in real time. I may be missing the point, though; what was your original intention?

First and foremost, it should be a conversation -- I just want to get people talking about where music comes from rather than simply throwing album recs around. I have personally found that understanding a music's origins can really help me to appreciate it and I don't think that music history and music appreciation should be left completely separate.

The second goal is to provide users with album recs. Suppose a particular user is a big fan of Bob Marley, but wants to know more about Jamaican music. Or suppose a user really enjoys psychedelic rock, but wants to explore past Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane -- they can go to the history thread to learn about the 13th Floor Elevators and Red Crayola.

While the former goal requires that we preserve the linear thread format (so that the conversation makes sense), the latter is easier if the content of the conversation is consolidated. The question I'm trying to answer right now is how we do that consolidation. Do we put it in chart form? Do we make separate threads with genre/decade summaries? Or something else, like a PDF or Google Doc?

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

creator — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:27:05 GMT

Author: creator

Posted: 05/13/2014 20:27

sp4cetiger wrote:

Whew, this is kind of making me dizzy thinking about it. It would be nice to have threads running in parallel; that is, some people working on the '50s, some on the '60s, and so on, but it seems like it would be difficult to organize in thread form. Certainly it could be organized after the writing is all done, but I wouldn't want to leave things in a mess (or worse, unposted) in the event that we never actually finished the project...

I'll have to think about it a bit... maybe a subforum with dedicated genre/decade threads really is the way to go.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:17:34 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 20:17

creator wrote:

I was thinking that we could separate it into decades.

A Guide to the 1950's
A Guide to the 1960's
etc.

And then we could separate each of those into genres. For example, the 1970's could have sections for progressive rock, roots reggae, post-punk, punk rock, and whatever other genres were significant to that period. Of course, many of those genres spanned multiple decades, so they may appear in other guides. Each genre could even be worked on by multiple people; for example, if meccalecca wants to discuss NYC punk and another member wants to discuss British punk during the 1970's.

I also wouldn't mind compiling everything into a PDF or chart at the end. :)

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:08:47 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 20:08

noWaxJim wrote:

Yeah, fortunately that won't have much of an impact on the project as a whole if it happens. I had originally planned to write everything myself, so anything that others can contribute is just bonus.

Quote:

Of course, seeing as this site is based on charts, simple solution would be to stick everything in a chart like "History of Music - Punk Picks" or "Jamaican Joints" or whatever...

I think this is a good idea as a supplement. Anybody who is hesitant to contribute should remember that the text that they write can easily double as chart notes.

Still, it's difficult to communicate a historical narrative in chart form, so I also think it would be good to consolidate the text somewhere. A sub-forum probably isn't necessary, but we could add a link to the consolidated text and thread in one of the existing sticky threads. The history thread itself shouldn't need to be stickied right now, since it will get bumped every time I add a summary.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

creator — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:04:19 GMT

Author: creator

Posted: 05/13/2014 20:04

sp4cetiger wrote:

I could, but it would make the individual entries much longer and even less forum-friendly. One thing we could do is, every few years, put together all of the substantive posts and a list of recs into a single summary for each topic (e.g., punk, prog, Jamaica, etc.).

Thoughts anyone?

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

meccalecca — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:54:37 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 05/13/2014 19:54

noWaxJim wrote:

Of course, seeing as this site is based on charts, simple solution would be to stick everything in a chart like "History of Music - Punk Picks" or "Jamaican Joints" or whatever...

I think that's the way to do it. I've started my NYC late 70s chart and I think it'll prove useful in the future for sure.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Jimmy Dread — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:52:28 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 05/13/2014 19:52

sp4cetiger wrote:

Either that or get albumaster to open a whole new sub-forum for it... this sounds like it could be quite a substantial undertaking, much like Mancsoulsister's book when unfortunately never saw the light of day. You'll get people commit then at the last minute bail out.

If it stays in the Music forum I fear it will get buried under a pile of album/chart of the day posts before too long. Either that or make it a sticky.

Of course, seeing as this site is based on charts, simple solution would be to stick everything in a chart like "History of Music - Punk Picks" or "Jamaican Joints" or whatever...

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

meccalecca — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:49:49 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 05/13/2014 19:49

noWaxJim wrote:

Don't forget this piece of genius, mecca... 😁

Ahh yes. I started compiling a list. Had Branca but had totally forgotten this short-lived treasure. Breaking down New York is tough.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:47:16 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 19:47

creator wrote:

Also, have you considered consolidating years? I think we could produce a much more coherent history if we took a range of years instead of a single year.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Jimmy Dread — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:43:05 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 05/13/2014 19:43

meccalecca wrote:

I've started working on New York City during the mid to late 70s, which will primarily focus on the punk scene. I'm not limiting it to a given year or two sense it doesn't make sense to. So, if you're doing punk of any sort, you might as well ignore the New York scene.

Don't forget this piece of genius, mecca... 😁

Link

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

meccalecca — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:02:06 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 05/13/2014 19:02

creator wrote:

I'll take art punk in 1978, though there will most likely be some crossover with anyone doing punk rock or post-punk.

Edit: On second thought, I think that art punk would have too many crossover albums with post-punk during that year. I will check my collection and see if there are any other genres I can explore.

Also, have you considered consolidating years? I think we could produce a much more coherent history if we took a range of years instead of a single year.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

creator — Tue, 13 May 2014 12:54:47 GMT

Author: creator

Posted: 05/13/2014 16:54

I'll take art punk in 1978, though there will most likely be some crossover with anyone doing punk rock or post-punk.

Edit: On second thought, I think that art punk would have too many crossover albums with post-punk during that year. I will check my collection and see if there are any other genres I can explore.

Also, have you considered consolidating years? I think we could produce a much more coherent history if we took a range of years instead of a single year.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2014 12:36:12 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 16:36

Mies wrote:

I've already checked out the previous threads, with the previous years, and I think you are doing a very good work.
I'm afraid I haven't enough aknowledge to contribute in a great way, but I could write something about Prog Rock in 1974, as some of my favourites were released in that year.

Thanks!

I want to emphasize that there are no prerequisites to contribute here and professional quality writing is not expected. Even if you know much less about something than the resident experts, they can always put in their two cents in response. Part of the goal here is just to share the writing burden. I enjoy writing the thread summaries, but it can be time consuming and the more that others can contribute, the faster we can progress the thread. Also, it's good to get a variety of perspectives in the summaries, since I have many prejudices about music that are far from universal.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2014 12:23:48 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 16:23

I've already checked out the previous threads, with the previous years, and I think you are doing a very good work.
I'm afraid I haven't enough aknowledge to contribute in a great way, but I could write something about Prog Rock in 1974, as some of my favourites were released in that year.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

meccalecca — Tue, 13 May 2014 10:27:04 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 05/13/2014 14:27

sp4cetiger wrote:

Note that a year's punk write-up could be split into two or more if others are interested in writing about it (e.g., British and American side).

Yeah, actually I was thinking it'd be interesting to write about New York City during the mid to late 70s, incorporating hip hop and stuff like Steve Reich and Philip Glass into the mix. This may take a while. And will most likely just reflect what Will Hermes wrote in Love Goes To Buildings on Fire (I highly recommend this book).

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Mon, 12 May 2014 20:46:21 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 00:46

sp4cetiger wrote:

Well, I don't want to mix it in to the current thread because I want the conversation to move chronologically with the music.

No worries! I think you're right. I was just getting greedy. 🤣

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Mon, 12 May 2014 20:28:06 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 00:28

RepoMan wrote:

Go on!!! Flashbacks r awesome!

Seriously, I've been on a major Bert Jansch s/t & John Fahey Transfiguration bender. I basically just stumbled onto those two albums though & would love to get your spin on 60s folk. I'm sure I'm not alone. What do u think Sp4cetiger?

Well, I don't want to mix it in to the current thread because I want the conversation to move chronologically with the music. When I started the new history thread, I debated going all the way back to the beginning of the project and writing summaries from there. The reason I ultimately decided against it is that I feared there would be too little interest in the earliest music that I listened to, which went back as far as the '20s.

If there is enough interest in the earlier music, though, I could start a separate thread to run in parallel to this one. It would probably require a lot of writing support, since it's hard enough for me to keep a decent pace on the one thread. Also, I would work with larger time increments for the earliest music (e.g., 3-year intervals, maybe even full decades for the '20s and '30s).

What do others think?

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Mon, 12 May 2014 20:13:55 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/13/2014 00:13

noWaxJim wrote:

Folk (shame I missed the '60s)

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

Anonymous — Mon, 12 May 2014 19:05:31 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 05/12/2014 23:05

Thanks benpaco and mecca!

Note that a year's punk write-up could be split into two or more if others are interested in writing about it (e.g., British and American side). It's a big topic.

benpaco wrote:

I'd be happy to take Post Punk 1979, promise I know more than Unknown Pleasures. THAT SAID I'd happily turn this over to CellarDoor if he has any interest.

EDIT: I could take new wave 1979 too, actually.

I put you down for both for now. This is all negotiable, so others with interest in these topics can feel free to speak up as well and we'll try to work something out that isn't too redundant.

Re: Sign up to contribute to the history of music review

benpaco — Mon, 12 May 2014 18:56:39 GMT

Author: benpaco

Posted: 05/12/2014 22:56

I'd be happy to take Post Punk 1979, promise I know more than Unknown Pleasures. THAT SAID I'd happily turn this over to CellarDoor if he has any interest.

EDIT: I could take new wave 1979 too, actually.