OK, I’m asking for help with more genre-division madness (since drewcannon3 opened the door a crack on Henrik’s division game).
I have a pile of 32 albums. What I want to do is to divide them into four groups of eight, based on musical similarity. Strictly speaking, I can’t do it based on genre alone, so I’ve come up with groups to which I’ve assigned – not quite randomly – the names of colors.
As you’ll see, they’re organized partly by genre, but also by “feel.” Obviously, these are based on my own subjective sense of which albums belong together…and even so, I’m not at all sure I have them right.
This is very vague, so let me just show you the groups as I have them divided up currently:
BLACK GROUP
The Clash, s/t
Joy Division, Closer
Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures
Pixies, Doolittle
Portishead, Dummy
Radiohead, Kid A
R.E.M., Murmur
Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
BLUE GROUP
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
Otis Redding, Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul
The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers
Sly and the Family Stone, There’s a Riot Goin’ On
Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life
BROWN GROUP
Beck, Odelay
Jeff Buckley, Grace
Carole King, Tapestry
Love, Forever Changes
Joni Mitchell, Blue
R.E.M., Automatic for the People
Neil Young, After the Gold Rush
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
RED GROUP
The Band, s/t
David Bowie, Hunky Dory
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction
John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band
Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain
The Stone Roses, s/t
The Strokes, Is This It
(If you noticed that these are the albums ranked between #41 and #72 on AM, award yourself five points.)
I’m sure everyone here can deduce my rough guidelines for these groups. So, my question for the collective wisdom of the Forum is: what albums do you think need to be moved around – swapped between groups? Remember, I need four groups of eight albums each (yes, this is for a project I have in mind…currently at a VERY preliminary stage).
I'm not exactly sure what feel the red and brown albums should have.
The Blue and balck groups look good, but I think "Forever Changes" is "Bluer" than Led Zeppelin II.
A would also make a case for GNR in the black group.
Black group: Maybe Guns N Roses belongs there more than REM. Otherwise, a very well defined group.
Blue group: Swap out Captain Beefheart for The Band.
Between the brown and red group I'm less certain what you're going for. I might switch the more poppy ones into one (Carole King, Prince, Stone Roses) and the more quirky alternative ones into the other (REM, Wilco, Bowie, Beck, Love, etc).
