The next year-based tournament.

[Listmeister]

So, did you enjoy the Best of 1974 tournament? We'll be posting the results to that in a few hours. Meanwhile, before I hand the keys over to Sp4ceTiger, who is going to be running the next year-based tournament, we have one last poll to decide which best of year tournament to do next.

The nominees (with a few exceptions) are generally those years whose best album had the worst showing in the BEA charts, per decade.

1955-1958. First exception, in that it's not a single year. The first huge BEA hit was Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, 1959. The standard length LP started gaining traction in 1955, and this tournament would cover the early years of rock and roll.

1962. Before this there was Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry. After this there was the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and everything else. Not much was going on in 1962... or was it?

1967. Far and away the best year ever for albums. Can anything unseat the favorite, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?

1978. Not just about Disco and Punk, the BEA favorite is a Springsteen album. What was the best of 1978?

1983. Another in-between year, you had Thriller (1982) and Punk and the early years of MTV on the one side, and Rap and Hip-Hop and Hair Metal on the other.

1996. The pop charts were crap in the mid 90's, as the best songs on the radio were inelligible for the Billboard charts because they had not been released as singles. They fixed that in 1998. But in 1996, Albums were the only thing weren't listening to, and still nothing from that year cracked BEA's top 100. Let's explore this.

2008. This in an interesting year for me because it was when I started listening to pop music methodically, listening to every song in the top 50, a practice that I have continued to this day. BEA had been up and running for a few years. Most of the BEA members will remember 2008, so who wants to go back and revisit that year?

Now, it may be a few months before we start the next year tournament. Whichever one we decide to do, I can't wait.

[RepoMan]

[meccalecca]

Loved the first tournament. It worked out beautifully.

My vote goes to a 1955-1958 Tournament. It's ancient times for most of us, except the one or 2 elderly members of BEA. There's some amazing records from that time that rarely get a mention, so I think It's really bring a lot to the table. But I'd be happy with pretty much any year.
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[Norman Bates]

Any. Congrats on the awesome '74 tourney, LM.

[Patman360]

[Skinny]

1983, wanna unearth some eighties gems. Thoroughly enjoyed the '74 tournament, cheers.
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2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.

[Kool Keith Sweat]

[WindowAbove]

I'm thinking either '78 or '08

[denmarkman]

My vote's for '96. Would love to see any of these, though.

[Happymeal]

1996 even though I know I'd vote MM for that whole for the most part. The 90's was a brilliant group of years.