What do your ratings mean? - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

Romanelli wrote:

Liedzeit wrote:

Right, you need the time to track down Beatles Covers. Confused

One thing is clear, rating music is very childish. Nearly as childish as compiling lists of "best albums".

To answer the question. The rating is never about the music. It is always about me. 100 means, this is the kind of music that I want people to think I like.

You're beautiful.

Possibly some are in this boat. And yes, it is a bit ridiculous to grade something subjective. And when I first joined this site, you probably are right. I likely just voted on albums I wanted people to know I liked and represent what I thought was the "best".

Having said that I really do find it helpful to understand my taste/discover music/compare music according to a rating system. It keeps it a bit more honest instead of this is what I think should be a great album because of my bias without even rating song for song what the album is. Idk - call that childish, but I find value in it because I find too often people are like ooh, I like that album cause 4 out of 10 songs are amazing, yet 6 near suck. Idk and maybe that's childish - like music at varying levels and who cares what the specifics are?

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

PurpleHazel wrote:

I've read your criteria and I have assimilated film, jazz and rock history. Familiar with the visual arts and classical music too, though not to the same degree. I've also assimilated literary history which is very much on par with the other arts. And I still believe that there are not comprehensive criteria that can be applied fully from classical art and classical music to jazz, popular music, film and all modern art.

I could argue this quite easily but then ... we'd be arguing this ...

Fundamentally I just mean what I state in my criteria.

If you don't agree, it's fine.

I am glad to hear that you've seriously tackled film, jazz and rock history.

I also wouldn't be surprised if I ended up agreeing with you about literary arts. I haven't delved into it enough, and am not sure if I ever will, but it's been around so long and has been so influential that it is bound to have a good share of masterpieces.
_________________
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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

AfterHours wrote:

Graeme2 wrote:

I think it's a shame if people who are massive music fans haven't heard any album they think worthy of a 100. I mean, it's music after all, not sure what an album has to do to qualify? Bring about world peace and being everyone in the worlds favourite, being albe to make them weep instantly from the first note. A music made using newly invented instruments in completely new genre unrelated to anything ever imagined in the past.
I also don't understand the few who go around giving very low ratings to tons of stuff.
I give a very small number of albums a 100. I also rate everything I hear. This is a record for me but also a reference for other users along with the other ratings. I only rate an album I hear in full so I therefore give few very low ratings. There may be one or two things rated low that I couldn't finish. I rate most 70-85. If I'm not enjoying an album I'll probably turn it off and not rate. 65-70 is an ok average album to my taste. Still decent. A very middling album that I'm not feeling but has merit would rarely get a rating as I won't finish it.
I don't agree that an album you enjoy but is quite average based on what you like and listen to is deserving of a 50. An average album to me is still a decent album and probably more enjoyable to me than the vast majority of music in the world.

Re: Not giving perfect 10s/100s. The number, in my case, is RELATIVE TO the greatest work of art one can experience in the whole world (IMO, The Sistine Chapel). Just because I give an album a 7 or an 8 or a 9 (or otherwise) does not mean I think any less of it than you do when you give it a perfect 10. I am just conceiving of its merits (as defined in my criteria page) in relation to my body of knowledge and experience across the history of art, which of course changes and grows as this expands (thus, my ratings may change as well), and recognizing there is a work or works that are more extraordinary (when, in almost all cases, there is). I think a far greater shame is to go through one's artistic experiences and life having never discovered how many way more astonishing works there are across the history of art just because one thinks he/she has already discovered "the best" (with all the easy 10s they have given) -- which does not include everybody but is an extremely common predicament. I suppose it comes down to what one's goals/ambitions are in experiencing art.

A little more on this...

Many albums I give, say, a 7/10, are rated 10/10 by many critics, BEA users etc. What can be lost on people seeing this, is that in most cases I probably like my 7/10s just as much as the person rating them 10/10. The difference is I don't think a "7/10" is nearly as incredible/affecting/amazing as Trout Mask Replica (highest rated Rock), Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (highest rated Jazz), Beethoven's 9th (highest rated Classical) The Sistine Chapel (highest rated Painting), Citizen Kane (highest rated film). A 7/10 might (at least at a glance) have just as high a percentage of "well-executed compositions/content" as a 9.5/10 or 10/10. But the "compositions/content" that the 9.5 and 10 are executing in the first place are much more incredible, are miracles of existence, will never be repeated (etc) and are so much more astonishing and awe-inspiring when experienced/assimilated.

It's like the following analogy (which I've used before).

Here we have Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel:

Ceiling: https://kmjantz.files.wordpress.com/201...g07-24.jpg
Last Judgment: https://censorshipinamerica.files.wordp...gement.jpg

Here we have a perfect painting of a bowl of fruit: https://www.saveur.com/article/kitchen/...ormina-art

Are they both 10/10?

At its least explanatory my ratings are based on the "degree of awe or amazement inspired" (very short version ... read my criteria for fuller understanding if you haven't already). Hopefully this clarifies for anyone that didn't understand what I meant.
_________________
Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

AfterHours wrote:

I also wouldn't be surprised if I ended up agreeing with you about literary arts. I haven't delved into it enough, and am not sure if I ever will, but it's been around so long and has been so influential that it is bound to have a good share of masterpieces.

So many beautiful things reading (both emotionally and intellectually). If you are serious about comparing Sistine Chapel against The Beatles (I kid of course), your cross medium analysis is incomplete without literary arts.

A long time ago you asked about the greatest works of all time... there are many pieces of literature on there I feel represent humanity as well, if not better, than many of the works you list.

Not a tid for tat, rather, I strongly suggest assimilating literary arts into your assimilation parties.

And having a BA in German Literature doesn't include any bias whatsoever, hehe.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

sethmadsen wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

I also wouldn't be surprised if I ended up agreeing with you about literary arts. I haven't delved into it enough, and am not sure if I ever will, but it's been around so long and has been so influential that it is bound to have a good share of masterpieces.

So many beautiful things reading (both emotionally and intellectually). If you are serious about comparing Sistine Chapel against The Beatles (I kid of course), your cross medium analysis is incomplete without literary arts.

A long time ago you asked about the greatest works of all time... there are many pieces of literature on there I feel represent humanity as well, if not better, than many of the works you list.

Not a tid for tat, rather, I strongly suggest assimilating literary arts into your assimilation parties.

And having a BA in German Literature doesn't include any bias whatsoever, hehe.

I actually don't directly compare music to paintings much at all (but actually to other music of course) except when I feel like it or when they are pretty similar in content, emotional/conceptual (for instance The Sistine Chapel naturally shares similarities in scope and emotions/concepts/themes with other massive religious music works such as Verdi's Requiem and Bach's vocal masses and so forth) ... There is obviously no comparison between The Beatles and The Sistine Chapel Shame on you

Anyway, like I say in my criteria:

The differences in rating and ranking are determined by a precise attempt at measuring the degree of amazement or awe inspired from the experience of the whole work while it is being assimilated. Both its peaks and consistency are carefully considered into the overall rating. During the process of assimilation, I observe and consider in real-time the various emotions and concepts expressed, to what degree and consistency they are being expressed, how creative and singular these expressions are, and their impression upon me. This is compared to other works and ratings, taking into account as much from the history of art as needed, to help isolate and determine an exact rating. In such a determination, the overall significance of the experience (its qualitative peaks and consistency and sum impact) is what is being compared to other works, not necessarily a direct comparison in content, especially if the content is dissimilar. Experiences do tend to differentiate -- even if slightly -- from one to the next, so a resulting evaluation marks an attempt to determine as precisely as possible the highest rating that the work consistently sustains. Therefore, I will tend to assimilate a work several times (particularly in the higher ratings) before I really settle in to a more "permanent" rating and ranking for it. Of course, even then, these are subject to change, but usually I can sooner or later come to terms with a very close estimation of its sustained value within my criteria and in relation to other works of art. After that, there are still variances with that work, from one experience to the next, but in most cases they are so minute that the rating usually doesn't change much, if at all.

As regards literature, it's more a time thing than anything else. Maybe one day I'll get moving on it... Films are hard enough to tackle -- literature is an absurd undertaking, probably more time consuming (to do seriously) than Film + Painting + Classical + Jazz + Rock COMBINED. So you might say that I've sacrificed literature in order to consume 5 other art forms instead.

I could tell you that Dante's Divine Comedy is probably 9 or 9.5 ... Possibly the same with T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland ... Milton's Paradise Lost ... the best plays of Shakespeare ... The Trial ... and, I'm sure, many others ...
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boyd94

I'm a Eng Lit grad student with a view to a PhD and career in academia, and I strongly suspect that I won't even get through the whole literary canon in my lifetime, nevermind all the great works that don't get canonised for whatever reason.

I think there's a tipping point where you can spend so much time consuming art, even great art, that it accrues diminishing returns and diminishes your life.

Tha1ChiefRocka
Yeah, well hey, I'm really sorry.

Location: Kansas

boyd94 wrote:

I'm a Eng Lit grad student with a view to a PhD and career in academia, and I strongly suspect that I won't even get through the whole literary canon in my lifetime, nevermind all the great works that don't get canonised for whatever reason.

I think there's a tipping point where you can spend so much time consuming art, even great art, that it accrues diminishing returns and diminishes your life.

Amen. Im in the same boat (im an English Education Major) i feel so much pressure sometimes to read everything, but it gets to be draining if you try to find meaning where there isnt any. I focus more on reading the literature that i enjoy, and not only the "canon", a word i have come to despise.

boyd94

Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:

Amen. Im in the same boat (im an English Education Major) i feel so much pressure sometimes to read everything, but it gets to be draining if you try to find meaning where there isnt any. I focus more on reading the literature that i enjoy, and not only the "canon", a word i have come to despise.

Sure. I'm delving into my own research interests which gives me added impetus, and I'm lucky enough to enjoy the bulk of my assigned reading.

I agree on the canon, I use it for lack of a better term. I think the deeper I go into the academic world the more its gloss falls away, which I'm fine with. Any institution is just a collection of flawed people.

sunnydhamm

Gender: Male
Age: 28

I reserve 0-50 for interludes. That may not be the best way to go about it but I don't really find any song un-listenable, and I can't bring myself to rate a 30-second soundbite the way I'd rate a full length song.

My average rating is 76, but I'll rarely rate a song higher than 75 on first listen. Generally, it has to really mean something to me before I rate it 80 or higher. And I'm highly selective with my 100s, seeing as out of my 3700ish ratings, I only have 11 100s.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

AfterHours wrote:

sethmadsen wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

I also wouldn't be surprised if I ended up agreeing with you about literary arts. I haven't delved into it enough, and am not sure if I ever will, but it's been around so long and has been so influential that it is bound to have a good share of masterpieces.

So many beautiful things reading (both emotionally and intellectually). If you are serious about comparing Sistine Chapel against The Beatles (I kid of course), your cross medium analysis is incomplete without literary arts.

A long time ago you asked about the greatest works of all time... there are many pieces of literature on there I feel represent humanity as well, if not better, than many of the works you list.

Not a tid for tat, rather, I strongly suggest assimilating literary arts into your assimilation parties.

And having a BA in German Literature doesn't include any bias whatsoever, hehe.

As regards literature, it's more a time thing than anything else. Maybe one day I'll get moving on it... Films are hard enough to tackle -- literature is an absurd undertaking, probably more time consuming (to do seriously) than Film + Painting + Classical + Jazz + Rock COMBINED. So you might say that I've sacrificed literature in order to consume 5 other art forms instead.

I could tell you that Dante's Divine Comedy is probably 9 or 9.5 ... Possibly the same with T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland ... Milton's Paradise Lost ... the best plays of Shakespeare ... The Trial ... and, I'm sure, many others ...

hehe indeed. Reminds me of the song Infinite Content. There really is just too much media to consume.