The Album Discussion Party - Games - Forums : Best Ever Albums

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

This is my first attempt at organizing something like this, so any suggestions are most welcome.

Sometimes on BEA I feel our discussions about albums are about as in depth as: It's good, but only kind of.

I don't want this to take too much of people's time and it should be fun, but I wonder if we created some kind of discussion that follows some kind of pattern of discovery that allows for the music to come more alive? Totally open to suggestions and I'll edit this original post to help with that format/have this as a discussion of the format and then create a new thread with the process.

The hope/goal is that as we make these discoveries together we understand the album much more than we would have had we not had an open discussion about it.

Sometimes verbally processing how we feel about something helps us solidify our thoughts or change our mind about something we maybe had a prejudice about.

So what are your thoughts on improving in-depth album discussions? What could be used to help break down one liner comments into a discussion?

Is it helpful to:
discuss each track?
discuss genre?
discuss production/recording techniques?
discuss political/historical/cultural impact or influences?
discuss musical theory aspects like time signature/key/chord structure, etc.?

Or is this all terribly boring? Is the project altogether interesting to anyone?

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

sethmadsen wrote:

So what are your thoughts on improving in-depth album discussions? What could be used to help break down one liner comments into a discussion?

Is it helpful to:
discuss each track?
discuss genre?
discuss production/recording techniques?
discuss political/historical/cultural impact or influences?
discuss musical theory aspects like time signature/key/chord structure, etc.?

Or is this all terribly boring? Is the project altogether interesting to anyone?

No I wouldn't find this boring. Once in awhile, there's an AotD I like and I share a couple thoughts. But I never go into detail because I feel nobody would read it, or if somebody does no discussion would come of it. So there's a big 'So what?' question looming over it. On my overall chart, I go into a little more depth on select albums, and a couple users have complimented me for that. But that's about it.

indieshins

Age: 25

YES- Great idea! I always find myself holding back when I comment- I want to discuss everything in detail, and I love discovering new stuff. When I hear other people's opinions of albums, I often start to hear new things in them and start to like them (or dislike them, as the case may be). I really appreciate this idea. keep me updated!

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

Any ideas on the format? I'm afraid if I put it together I'd smother it with my terrible personality.

Any ideas on how to turn it into a good discussion instead of listing facts, etc. Also I think the point is to learn why people hate or love an album... how do we foster a good environment where both view points are respected.

Also what selects the album?

Ideas:

1. Anyone can submit, then we review the album for a week (listen to it at least twice) and in that week we learn more about the album? Do this at a weekly interval. The difference is instead of a single post, the hope is that it actually fuels discussion... even if you hate it. How do you discuss an album past it's week? Would that get messy/should each album have it's own thread?

2. On a schedule of the BEA top 100? Sometimes one learns more about life when discussing the obvious... getting back to basics/discussing the obvious, yet learning more about the sites top ranked albums? Preference to top rated?

3. We could be a bit more adventurous and have the "random" album generator of the site choose the album for us. That could loose all of us on the interest level though if the random selection turns out to not interest anyone.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

StreetSpirit wrote:

So there's a big 'So what?' question looming over it.

Yeah, this is a concern I have as well. How do we get a discussion going instead of trying to outdo people on our knowledge on an album, etc. Sharing is caring... haha. If it is a piss war, that'd be the worst.

StreetSpirit wrote:

On my overall chart, I go into a little more depth on select albums, and a couple users have complimented me for that. But that's about it.

Yeah - BEA community totally has interesting comments on albums. Interesting view points. Like Drones by Muse. I remember someone saying that it reminds them of like Rush Limbaugh hysteria and I always thought of it as more a George Orwell type thing. Having that hysteria comment made, helped me realize a different view of the album, and while I disagree, it helped me put my prejudices in check/see it from another perfectly interesting point of view.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

indieshins wrote:

YES- Great idea! I always find myself holding back when I comment- I want to discuss everything in detail, and I love discovering new stuff. When I hear other people's opinions of albums, I often start to hear new things in them and start to like them (or dislike them, as the case may be). I really appreciate this idea. keep me updated!

Totally... sometimes other people's opinions don't help and then other times it totally opens a door I had closed.

dihansse

Gender: Male
Age: 60

Good idea Seth: why don't we start with ex album 101 just to stay out of the absolute canon?

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

sethmadsen wrote:

Also what selects the album?

Ideas:

1. Anyone can submit, then we review the album for a week (listen to it at least twice) and in that week we learn more about the album? Do this at a weekly interval. The difference is instead of a single post, the hope is that it actually fuels discussion... even if you hate it. How do you discuss an album past it's week? Would that get messy/should each album have it's own thread?

2. On a schedule of the BEA top 100? Sometimes one learns more about life when discussing the obvious... getting back to basics/discussing the obvious, yet learning more about the sites top ranked albums? Preference to top rated?

3. We could be a bit more adventurous and have the "random" album generator of the site choose the album for us. That could loose all of us on the interest level though if the random selection turns out to not interest anyone.

I like the idea each album getting it's own thread, much like Rocky's PoD threads being on one specific topic. But instead of leaving it to one user to start every one, I think whoever wants to start one, should. This is BEA. We're all album lovers here. We must have something to say that's more than a few words.

I also like the idea of letting AotD deciding the album, but doing one every day would be impossible. Perhaps all we really need is a group of users to not hold back and engage with the AotD, and allow AotD threads be the threads you're trying to establish here. That would make things random, but not too random as AotD is often a popular one most of us already know anyway.

sethmadsen wrote:

Any ideas on the format? I'm afraid if I put it together I'd smother it with my terrible personality.
Any ideas on how to turn it into a good discussion instead of listing facts, etc. Also I think the point is to learn why people hate or love an album... how do we foster a good environment where both view points are respected.
Is it helpful to:
discuss each track?
discuss genre?
discuss production/recording techniques?
discuss political/historical/cultural impact or influences?
discuss musical theory aspects like time signature/key/chord structure, etc.?

seth, This would be a good start. These points would hopefully lead to some discussion.

Anyway, it's late here in CA and I'm tired. We'll talk about this later. But I really hope this idea takes off.

Tap
to resume download

Gender: Female
Age: 38

you could do it where someone proposes an album with a specific idea in mind, something they're really interested in discussing with regards to another album. like "what changed in the music of Aphex Twin with the switch-over to computers". then, you find other people who are also interested in discussing this, and then find some way to party up. maybe the initial person writes up something, who then pm's it to someone who expressed interest to write up a response to, followed by someone else who expressed interest to add a chunk from their point of view, and then back around to the first person a repeat. Like so:

Person 1: blah blah blah hey that thing
Person 2: blah blah blah I know right
Person 3: blah blah blah but what about that other thing
Person 1: blah blah blah omg you're right

And so on, except with substantial things. Or you could do it where maybe the people get together for a skype and discuss it and maybe that gets transcribed, or just one person writes it up or whatever. Or probably plenty of ways I'm not even thinking of, and yeah it could be done solo but the point is to build a really strong foundation of a focused approach on discussing an album, and you've got a group of people who made a thing together focused on an idea but giving different perspectives, and so everyone else has a lot to respond to that's all focused around one idea. I dunno maybe it's an overly focused approach, but I think a lot of the time the problem is that the thing is just presented and everyone's like "here's my take" and it's all just setting up different foundations that never get built upon, and it seems like the point of this is to avoid that. but yeah I dunno if I'd even have time to participate in something like this, but if anything in here sounds good you should use it because discussion is cool, so take or leave whatever sounds good or bad here.

Skinny
birdman_handrub.gif

Sounds like something that might get me more actively involved again, but not if it's just the top 100. Those albums have been discussed to death, by more articulate people than us. Maybe just a nomination system?
_________________
2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.