Are You Ever Happy With Your Chart? - Music

baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts

Maybe it's that I'm a perfectionist, but I have hated my chart for years. I keep experimenting with different chart rules and scoring mechanisms, and throwing most of them in the trash after spending far too much time on them. In fact, I just did all that again earlier today. But I do feel I need some kind of system, because just doing a gut check is a near-impossible task given the number of albums I've listened to at this point.

Is anyone in the same boat of being perpetually dissatisfied? On the flip side, have any of you come to like your charts after a long period of discontent? If so, what helped? Did you finally get it to a state that felt right, or did you make peace with your chart's flaws?
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rkm

I’m currently revisiting my year charts with a new system.

I create a playlist on Apple Music with all of the albums from my year list in order.
I listen through and delete tracks that I think of as filler.

I find:
A/ Some albums I can’t bear to delete a single track.
B/ Other albums have 5+ tracks I love and the rest I enjoy.
C/ Other albums it becomes clear that I only really like a few tracks and could do without the rest (and It becomes apparent that maybe a greatest hits album might serve me better).
D/ Other albums I enjoy as a whole listening experience, but they don’t necessarily have big standout songs (and wouldn’t be served well by replacing with a greatest hits album).

The above has helped me rank things more objectively than I had been, but still, I tend to place things higher if they have a lot of personal meaning or memory attached.

YoungPunk

Everyone's answer should be no,

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

baystateoftheart wrote:

Maybe it's that I'm a perfectionist, but I have hated my chart for years. I keep experimenting with different chart rules and scoring mechanisms, and throwing most of them in the trash after spending far too much time on them. In fact, I just did all that again earlier today. But I do feel I need some kind of system, because just doing a gut check is a near-impossible task given the number of albums I've listened to at this point.

Is anyone in the same boat of being perpetually dissatisfied? On the flip side, have any of you come to like your charts after a long period of discontent? If so, what helped? Did you finally get it to a state that felt right, or did you make peace with your chart's flaws?

I feel ya.

Honestly I think it really comes down to the fact that we are trying to quantify something that isn't really quantifiable. Anyone who claims they have done so without any degree of error (great or small) probably has narcissistic tendencies or a superiority complex.

I feel like the best anyone can do is a ball park, even with all the math/scoring/ranking system ideas out there. I mean this site tackled it quite creatively with the shear mass numbers of an aggregate of charts. It likely is the closest (imo) we'll get to a best albums chart, even if it is wrong (if that makes any sense). I don't fall for the logic that all the people created charts on here are plebs, except for me of course, and so of course popularity is dumb... idk - I feel that kind of thinking is just as limited as the thinking that the overall chart is the best version... yes I just contradicted myself and yes I still believe both have truth to them. Laughing

Ball park guestimates and the JOURNEY of getting to something you are happy with, even if only in that moment or like a week, is what keeps me plugging away at it.

And no I really don't like Journey.

Also maybe sleep on it for a bit before "rage quit"? Not saying you did, but maybe you hit a frustrating point/wall and you need the white throne of reason for a bit (hehehe - something I've talked about with fellow problem solvers... you hit your head against the wall, and then go use the restroom, come back to the problem, and viola - problem solved). Sleep on it maybe before throwing away a bunch of hours? idk - maybe not.

Also there's some what I'll call real veterans on this site... hoping they pipe in...

Last edited by RoundTheBend on 04/14/2018 03:45; edited 2 times in total

YoungPunk

@seth

I don't like Journey either!

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

rkm wrote:

I’m currently revisiting my year charts with a new system.

I create a playlist on Apple Music with all of the albums from my year list in order.
I listen through and delete tracks that I think of as filler.

I find:
A/ Some albums I can’t bear to delete a single track.
B/ Other albums have 5+ tracks I love and the rest I enjoy.
C/ Other albums it becomes clear that I only really like a few tracks and could do without the rest (and It becomes apparent that maybe a greatest hits album might serve me better).
D/ Other albums I enjoy as a whole listening experience, but they don’t necessarily have big standout songs (and wouldn’t be served well by replacing with a greatest hits album).

The above has helped me rank things more objectively than I had been, but still, I tend to place things higher if they have a lot of personal meaning or memory attached.

I like it.

I do the same thing (my spotify account is just filled with such things), except instead of deleting tracks, I just rate them on this site, and score them up and keep track of it in a spreadsheet.

Sometimes the numbers don't lie, and sometimes 6 months later I look at it and I'm like, this is complete rubbish.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

YoungPunk wrote:

@seth

I don't like Journey either!

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

baystateoftheart
Neil Young as a butternut squash

Age: 29
Location: Massachusetts

sethmadsen wrote:

Also maybe sleep on it for a bit before "rage quit"? Not saying you did, but maybe you hit a frustrating point/wall and you need the white thrown of reason for a bit (hehehe - something I've talked about with fellow problem solvers... you hit your head against the wall, and then go use the restroom, come back to the problem, and viola - problem solved). Sleep on it maybe before throwing away a bunch of hours? idk - maybe not.

Basically I'm somewhat unhappy with my current system, which I've been using for months. When I think of a new system I try it out on my top 25 or so to get a rough idea of how it will change things. But all of my new systems so far have seemed to make the order worse, so I haven't moved any of them from my spreadsheet to BEA. I've spent a lot of time spent thinking things through and making calculations, and there's nothing positive to show for it, but at least I've ruled out a lot of ways I don't want to organize my chart Laughing

What I'm working with now is a formula that weights track ratings, so it has blind spots. It doesn't take into account when albums are greater than the sum of their parts or when albums have a lot of replay value, both of which I've tried and so far failed to incorporate in a satisfactory way.
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YoungPunk

Yeah you need to get Carly Rae Jepsen out of there...

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

baystateoftheart wrote:

sethmadsen wrote:

Also maybe sleep on it for a bit before "rage quit"? Not saying you did, but maybe you hit a frustrating point/wall and you need the white thrown of reason for a bit (hehehe - something I've talked about with fellow problem solvers... you hit your head against the wall, and then go use the restroom, come back to the problem, and viola - problem solved). Sleep on it maybe before throwing away a bunch of hours? idk - maybe not.

Basically I'm somewhat unhappy with my current system, which I've been using for months. When I think of a new system I try it out on my top 25 or so to get a rough idea of how it will change things. But all of my new systems so far have seemed to make the order worse, so I haven't moved any of them from my spreadsheet to BEA. I've spent a lot of time spent thinking things through and making calculations, and there's nothing positive to show for it, but at least I've ruled out a lot of ways I don't want to organize my chart Laughing

What I'm working with now is a formula that weights track ratings, so it has blind spots. It doesn't take into account when albums are greater than the sum of their parts or when albums have a lot of replay value, both of which I've tried and so far failed to incorporate in a satisfactory way.

That sounds really interesting. I'd like to know more if you care to share, but if not, that's cool too.

What I've been hitting my head against is that I did this huge rating party in 2016 (mostly to escape life if I'm honest with myself) and I felt like because I was consistently doing it, I had a pretty good benchmark set, meaning what I heard and what I put on paper really felt like it matched.

I'm trying to use the same rating system now on Medieval music, etc. or my 2017 list... and to be honest, I don't think either one of those have a good benchmark set to really compare... and maybe what I'm realizing in this scenario at least is 2017 music and medieval music aren't the same thing, so of course I won't be able to use the same bench mark... any way, that's my rant about my frustrations currently on my rating/ranking systems.

Also 2017 was the first time I really decided to review a bunch of music (like 150 albums) from a single year... in the past I did that for an entire decade.

What I realized is I can't really pass judgement the same on 2017... it's uncharted territory if that makes any sense. Sure there's the do I like it or not, but because it was so new, it seemed like I had to let it breathe a little, be a little more lenient and open my mind a little more about it... so it changed my benchmark for sure.

Last edited by RoundTheBend on 04/14/2018 04:04; edited 1 time in total