Just How Seriously do I take this music stuff: Best of the left out
Some, some time ago, I think it may be a year or more, there was the "best 100 albums" thing that had gripped LJ, and everyone had made their lists of the top 100 albums...
Now, if you've been in my living room, you know how seriously I take my tunes. So, when that all started, I thought- well, what are my 100 favorite albums? Mind you, not the 100 albums I think are the best, or the most culturally diverse, or what have you...
But the 100 albums that, if any of them started playing in my presence, I would be excited about. So, in my own way, I set about the task of figuring it out.
So, I went through the CD collection, and the tape collection (oh yes, I still have many, many cassettes), and I pared down to a starting list of about 250 albums. I made some rules for myself:
1- no greatest hits (although I break this rule with Who Made Who)
2- I must currently own each album
Now, without realizing it, I have mostly left off soundtracks, except for the aforementioned AC/DC, and The Last Waltz, but I'm not too terribly worried about it.I also tried to really be honest about whether I listen to the whole Album, which is why there's only one U2 album in the list, or one B.B. King, or so few Pink Floyd, or so many Sophie B Hawkins & Sarah Mac. Or for that matter, so many Def Leppard.
From there, I broke the list into groups of 10, and ranked the groups of ten against each other (1-10). Then I sorted the list again in terms of preference- then I put it away for awhile. Later, I brought the list out, broke it again into groups of ten, and the new groups against each other (11-20), keeping a cumulative total of their ranks. Resorting that list by that cumulative total, I again put the list away.
Tonite, I did the final rankings, breaking the most recent list into groups of 10 and ranking them within the grou (21-30). The results are hardly suprising to me, a couple zingers that I decided to leave alone for the sake of some subconscious message or something.
Ok, so who appears most in the list? I was curious:
Alan Parsons Project had 11 albums, while "post" project Alan had all 4 of his albums.
Barenaked Ladies had 7 albums
The Beattles had 5
Billy Joel had 4
Boston had 4 albums
Chicago, I had to be realistic, I had them for 5 albums.
Most anybody else with multiple albums had 3 or less
But, I'll start with the best of the left out, ie. Albums 101-250.
Alan Parsons Project Litters the latter half of the list (it's OK. plenty others snuck in, shhh...):
#101
#102
#106
#134
Who finished last?
Somebody had to be #250...
Many albums were doomed by the third round, which by then, really had be stopping and really thinking about why I liked certain albums and how those reasons fith with each other. Notably:
Finished #162, dispite pulling a 4 in round one and a 14 (again 4th) in round 2.
I'll post the full list on my site, in batches, and let you know as each batch goes up.
Now, if you've been in my living room, you know how seriously I take my tunes. So, when that all started, I thought- well, what are my 100 favorite albums? Mind you, not the 100 albums I think are the best, or the most culturally diverse, or what have you...
But the 100 albums that, if any of them started playing in my presence, I would be excited about. So, in my own way, I set about the task of figuring it out.
So, I went through the CD collection, and the tape collection (oh yes, I still have many, many cassettes), and I pared down to a starting list of about 250 albums. I made some rules for myself:
1- no greatest hits (although I break this rule with Who Made Who)
2- I must currently own each album
Now, without realizing it, I have mostly left off soundtracks, except for the aforementioned AC/DC, and The Last Waltz, but I'm not too terribly worried about it.I also tried to really be honest about whether I listen to the whole Album, which is why there's only one U2 album in the list, or one B.B. King, or so few Pink Floyd, or so many Sophie B Hawkins & Sarah Mac. Or for that matter, so many Def Leppard.
From there, I broke the list into groups of 10, and ranked the groups of ten against each other (1-10). Then I sorted the list again in terms of preference- then I put it away for awhile. Later, I brought the list out, broke it again into groups of ten, and the new groups against each other (11-20), keeping a cumulative total of their ranks. Resorting that list by that cumulative total, I again put the list away.
Tonite, I did the final rankings, breaking the most recent list into groups of 10 and ranking them within the grou (21-30). The results are hardly suprising to me, a couple zingers that I decided to leave alone for the sake of some subconscious message or something.
Ok, so who appears most in the list? I was curious:
Alan Parsons Project had 11 albums, while "post" project Alan had all 4 of his albums.
Barenaked Ladies had 7 albums
The Beattles had 5
Billy Joel had 4
Boston had 4 albums
Chicago, I had to be realistic, I had them for 5 albums.
Most anybody else with multiple albums had 3 or less
But, I'll start with the best of the left out, ie. Albums 101-250.
Alan Parsons Project Litters the latter half of the list (it's OK. plenty others snuck in, shhh...):
#101
#102
#106
#134
Who finished last?
Somebody had to be #250...
Many albums were doomed by the third round, which by then, really had be stopping and really thinking about why I liked certain albums and how those reasons fith with each other. Notably:
Finished #162, dispite pulling a 4 in round one and a 14 (again 4th) in round 2.
I'll post the full list on my site, in batches, and let you know as each batch goes up.