Point of Discussion: Topics - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

RockyRaccoon
Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Maryland

Moderator

So it was brought up in the musical random chat thread that Point of Discussion (aka Mental Masturbation) should make a return to the forums. If you're unfamiliar with what that is, here's an example.

I personally love the idea, I think PoD brings a level of critical thinking and discussion to the forums here that is hard to get in other places. With that being said, the reason that PoD kind of died last year was because of two things.

1. The response began to dwindle

2. I was the only one coming up with topics (and I was running out of ideas).

I think the two are somewhat related, as I started running out of ideas for topics, the topics became a little more forced and probably not as interesting. I think this thread would be a good place to throw out ideas for topics of discussion. I would only ask that they be, at least tangentially, music-related. After we get some topics out there, we can maybe create a poll or something to see what topics have the most general interest, and hopefully, will have the most participation.

Here are some of the PoDs of the past. We can repeat topics if that's what people wanna talk about.
Censorship
Genres
The Artist and the Art
Misogyny In Music

So throw out some ideas! What are some thing that you think would be good to talk about?
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2023 Chart

Early Psychedelic Rock

Electronic Chart

Mercury
Turn your back on the pay-you-back last call

Gender: Male
Location: St. Louis

Hmm... The title and OP bring up an interest topic. What is a topic? I've often wondered if a Topic was actually a word or simply a marginalized version of a topping (of which I'm much more familiar.) Even so if we were to look at topics at face value, I'd be hard pressed to name one which has an actual linear reason. And for many topics or toppings there's an issue I've always had about the topic's discretion in its naming. Shouldn't a topic be in agreement with what it is?

My favorite topics of discussion since I was a kid have been things like "Power Rangers", "Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego", "Spice World" (the movie), "If you could marry any member of the rat pack, who would it be?", "Where do you want to live in 10 years?", "Do you think it's true what they said about Marilyn Manson's rib?", etc. these have been topics, for better or worse, that have always interested me.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on this topic of the day TOPICS. It's a pretty broad subject. But I appreciate the chance to mentally masturbate about it with someone else for once.
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-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

FlorianJones

Gender: Male
Age: 29

Mercury wrote:

Hmm... The title and OP bring up an interest topic. What is a topic? I've often wondered if a Topic was actually a word or simply a marginalized version of a topping (of which I'm much more familiar.) Even so if we were to look at topics at face value, I'd be hard pressed to name one which has an actual linear reason. And for many topics or toppings there's an issue I've always had about the topic's discretion in its naming. Shouldn't a topic be in agreement with what it is?

My favorite topics of discussion since I was a kid have been things like "Power Rangers", "Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego", "Spice World" (the movie), "If you could marry any member of the rat pack, who would it be?", "Where do you want to live in 10 years?", "Do you think it's true what they said about Marilyn Manson's rib?", etc. these have been topics, for better or worse, that have always interested me.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on this topic of the day TOPICS. It's a pretty broad subject. But I appreciate the chance to mentally masturbate about it with someone else for once.

+1
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Overall - The 2010's - 2020

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Mercury wrote:

"If you could marry any member of the rat pack, who would it be?"

Sammy Davis Jr. and it's not even hard

anyway, I've had some disparate thoughts on what a topic re: how technology is changing the face of music consumption and what the artistic ramifications of that might be (like how Spector Sound only came about at first out of an expedience to make shit that would come across better on jukeboxes and radios, except like whatever the modern or future equivalent of that might be).

Idk. A Power Rangers discussion would be cool too I guess

meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

Let's have a discussion what gives an album staying power over repeated listens and extended periods of time, versus that fleeting pleasure of others.

I'll also suggest a discussion in regards to racial/gender/sexuality barriers within genres. Do they exist? Is it more challenging to make it for specific groups? Who's breaking these barriers? For example can white dudes with dreads actually make decent reggae? Are the walls of homophobia in rap breaking down? Is the macho world of metal still closed minded towards women?
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RockyRaccoon
Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Maryland

Moderator

meccalecca wrote:

Let's have a discussion what gives an album staying power over repeated listens and extended periods of time, versus that fleeting pleasure of others.

I'll also suggest a discussion in regards to racial/gender/sexuality barriers within genres. Do they exist? Is it more challenging to make it for specific groups? Who's breaking these barriers? For example can white dudes with dreads actually make decent reggae? Are the walls of homophobia in rap breaking down? Is the macho world of metal still closed minded towards women?

Yes! These are good, I'll use them at some point. Plus the theft one from the other thread is good too.
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2023 Chart

Early Psychedelic Rock

Electronic Chart

Satie

I'm interested in how we conceive of "experimental" music. It seems like a lot of listeners have a threshold for "compellingly experimental" and another for "wank/pretentious/etc." I'm interested in where these goal markers are, how something being labeled experimental persuades or dissuades us from giving it a listen or repeat listens. I'm also interested if there's a way to come to a consensus of what exactly it means. For me, it seems like kind of a badge of honor that rock fans add to certain albums they consider of a higher caliber as far as complexity and presentation, etc. even when an album doesn't literally experiment with the sound of the genre it's in (for example, the past two Swans albums have followed largely the same blueprint; how, then, could both be literally experimental? what does it mean that we call them experimental rock?).

meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

RockyRaccoon wrote:

Yes! These are good, I'll use them at some point. Plus the theft one from the other thread is good too.

Thanks Rocky. But wait, there's more..

I think this article I wrote a couple weeks back may be a good jumping point for another discussion about the outside factors that can directly and indirectly affect our enjoyment of art/music.
http://meccalecca.com/?p=25150

And a slight offshoot from that discussion, How does our own personality relate to the art which we enjoy? For example, I'm a very mellow person, so I've often struggled to relate to more aggressive forms of music.
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meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

Satie wrote:

I'm interested in how we conceive of "experimental" music.

You read my mind. I'd also love to see this discussion. Like what makes something actually innovative? And is something avant-garde/experimental simply just because it's challenging or against the mainstream even if it's still borrowing heavily from other works preceding it? For example is all drone/noise experimental?
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http://jonnyleather.com

RockyRaccoon
Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Maryland

Moderator

Satie wrote:

I'm interested in how we conceive of "experimental" music. It seems like a lot of listeners have a threshold for "compellingly experimental" and another for "wank/pretentious/etc." I'm interested in where these goal markers are, how something being labeled experimental persuades or dissuades us from giving it a listen or repeat listens. I'm also interested if there's a way to come to a consensus of what exactly it means. For me, it seems like kind of a badge of honor that rock fans add to certain albums they consider of a higher caliber as far as complexity and presentation, etc. even when an album doesn't literally experiment with the sound of the genre it's in (for example, the past two Swans albums have followed largely the same blueprint; how, then, could both be literally experimental? what does it mean that we call them experimental rock?).

I like it! I did a similar PoD thread on the idea of "world music"

meccalecca wrote:

I think this article I wrote a couple weeks back may be a good jumping point for another discussion about the outside factors that can directly and indirectly affect our enjoyment of art/music.
http://meccalecca.com/?p=25150

And a slight offshoot from that discussion, How does our own personality relate to the art which we enjoy? For example, I'm a very mellow person, so I've often struggled to relate to more aggressive forms of music.

I like this too! We had a similar discussion on the semiotics of music and I'd love to go more in-depth with it.
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2023 Chart

Early Psychedelic Rock

Electronic Chart