I'm not a 100 percent sure Loophole, you'd have to ask Moonbeam, but I don't think it would be much harder to give every song the average amount of points.
An unordered list is better than no list at all
And in a way, it is even better (although less practical for calculations) than an ordered list.
But I gave an order, very unsure. So far I have ranked a little more than 200 titles
Just submitted my list and guess what? It's ordered!
The ordering was the difficult part, not to get to a selection of 200 songs. No comments from my side, I had a hard time to find suitable comments to the top 10 or so songs.
Ordered list is on its way, and yeah, it's 1000. I'm really happy with it though, and think it's about as representative as I can get with where I'm at these days. Here's a year breakdown for the curious...
Hopefully the emphasis on 65-74 doesn't make me look like a total classic rocker -- it's probably more of a reflection of the great soul, jazz, and Tropicalia stuff I love so much from that era. (And yes, it is a peak period for some of our much-loved "acclaimed" artists, who do make their mark.)
Anyway, that was a lot of fun, mainly as I dug out a lot of stuff in the last weeks while attempting to order.
The lists are really starting to pour in! I've gotten at least a dozen in the past few days- which is great! My own list is still taking some time, although the process is fun.
I was actually surprised it had more votes in my list than 1971, but '71 remains my favorite year and had way more tracks in the upper regions of my list.
I've come to the realization that relative few things in my Top 200 will likely make the final list, but that's OK. Maybe some people here will check out some of the more seemingly obscure stuff, and I'll be sure to do the same with everyone else's lists. The learning opportunity involved with exercises like this is so great.
Aaaaaaaargh I forgot Like Dylan in the movies (biggest recent grower).
Well, not surprising but I have 94 songs upon 200 which has been made on the 00s... with 2005 as the winner year (which has surprised me, I thought 1997 would win, but well, no song from the most acclaimed of this year so "only" 17 songs made the list)
I've only just discovered Neil Young's excellent repertoire (I know, shoot me), and recently listened to "Rust Never Sleeps" for the first time, and I feel I should give him a few inclusions too. I think I'll have to expand my top 300.. sonofsamiam, here I come!
R.E.M. is my favorite band, but that seems to be based on albums only. Stipe & Co. only have 9 songs in my top 200, The Beatles win with 10 songs. Way too many, if you ask me. Well, I've already submitted my list, better luck next time ...
I haven't submitted mine yet, but my current draft has 1 Beatles song. There's one Beatles song bubbling under, so they could get in with two (probably not).
My bands with the most songs are Blur and New Order with 9 songs each.
How many artists is everyone representing? I've got 112 in mine.
Moonbeam, can I submit my list before 31st in th evening (GMT) or will it be too late for you ?
What time do you stop (I'll send my list at the last minute)
Top artist: Songs in my top 200
Bob Dylan: 2
Bruce Springsteen: 2
David Bowie: 2
Elvis Costello: 2
Elvis Presley: 2
Leonard Cohen: 2
Marvin Gaye: 2
Pixies: 2
Public Enemy: 2
Stevie Wonder: 2
The Beatles: 2
The Kinks: 2
The Rolling Stones: 2
The Smiths: 2
Van Morrison: 2
I'm in the middle of application writing and term start and what-not, so unless a minor miracle happens (like January suddenly having 32 days), I'm unlikely to make it, but I'll follow the unveiling of the results with undiminished enthusiasm.
I guess PM means post midday (lunch time). I believe AM lives in Greenwich, ENGLAND, not Greenwich Village new York...so 4.39 PM means that I have one day and 7 hours and 21 minutes left to midnight to post my list, which, Moonbeam, I already did a few days ago...I use to be wrong about these things...so correct me...
Another idea is that it's 24.00 hours on the LAST place in the world that is the limit...in any case, don't be late, submit your list as it is in time.
I got mine in. Let me know if you haven't received it, Moonbeam.
I went up to 350, but here's some statistics for my top-200:
7 entries: Beatles, Beck
6 entries: Bjork
5 entries: Pavement, Prince
4 entries: Arcade Fire, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Kinks, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Sly and the Family Stone, Super Furry Animals, The Who
I took my philosophy of doing it fast and dirty to its logical conclusion--last night, I threw everything out and started over. The list of 200 I just submitted was assembled and ranked in about 3 hours. No agonizing, no fine-tuning, done by the seat of my pants.
It's the only way I could have done it without going nuts. And I'm pretty happy with the result; I'm sure in a couple of days (or a couple of hours) I'm going to think of something I should have included, but so be it.
(Given my method, I didn't mess with figuring out years or statistics, but songs ranged from 1930 to 2007, and I'm pretty sure R.E.M. had the most songs--eight.)
Sorry if this has already been addressed: Are we talking the 31st of January according to the timestamp this site goes by, the time where Moonbeam is, or anywhere on earth?
I'm giving it a stab but we're coming down to the wire.
I just submitted mine as a google doc. I'll probably update it with some notes over the next day or so, but I won't play around with the order of the songs so you can add those to your master uber list whenever you want.
Just an update! I have now received 24 lists, and the consensus is starting to form. Slush, I've been unable to access your list, as I don't have a google account. So far, 2885 songs have been chosen by at least one poster!
The lists I have received and recorded so far:
Andre
Anthony
BillAdama
Doug
Eduard
Fred
Giuseppe
Henrik
Honorio
John
Jonah
Lonesome Panda
Mark Propp
Midaso
Miguel
Mitchell Stirling
Mo
Neoptolemos
Otisredding
Ozphoenix
Pop Elton
Schleuse
Schwah
Vgrd
Nicolas, that's fine! I'm not going to be too strict about it. Truth be told, I probably won't be able to post the results until Monday, Australia time.
I wouldn't say you should change in all your Dylan albums in Moneybrother albums, but you could definitely chuck out some of his 80's albums for Blood Panic and To Die Alone, if you're out of shelf space.
Just sent my list, so if you could let me know if you got it, that would be great. The songs list seems a lot more arbitrary to me than the albums list, with mood being a much bigger deciding factor. I could see many of the songs outside my top 30 moving up or down as much as 40 for 50 spots on any given day. Oh well, I'm sure I've left off about 10 songs I forgot, but I was pretty thorough. This was much harder for me since I was starting basically from scratch, unlike with my albums list. Looking forward to final result.
Eight Beatles songs by the way, but there was one other artist that scored nine songs. Now that I type that, I'm even rethinking my list at this late date. Too late now.
Well, my statistics are a bit too revealing. I made a conscious effort to not have so many songs from the 2000s, but since I did a lot of this based on iTunes counts this decade is overly represented (I did cut it down from about 110 out of 200 songs). Plus, it has been since 2005 that the real music nerdiness has come. Oh well, there needs to be some counterbalance to all those Beatles songs
1965: 7 songs
1977: 7 songs
1985: 6 songs
1998: 8 songs
2005: 18 songs (I think you can thank this on the fact that this was the year when I overcompensated and became a total music nerd, so I know this year's music best).
My list is a top 100, that's the best than I can do.
I love lists but I've never made a list over 100 (except for my "top ex-girlfriends" ) and I'll never make a list over 100.
More seriously, I'm not really into songs lists, I prefer albums lists. Like many people here, I think songs are too hard to rank.
If a list should contain 200 songs, people tend to want to rank all the songs they love and then even a top 200 is never enough. And a top 200 (or more for some crazy people who want to rank 1000 songs!) is very hard and boring to read for the other people. I prefer when the number of songs (or albums for top albums lists) is more restricted. I would have loved better a poll like this : as Nick Hornby in his book "31 songs" (a very good book), everyone has to make an unranked selection of 31 songs ("why 31 ?" : ask to Nick Hornby) that have been important in your life. I would have loved that.
No matter, my list is done, it's a top 100, there are songs from 1957 to 2006 (the '60s and '70s are well-represented), there is just one song by artist (except one artist who have 2 songs). I've a fine list I think. These are all great and fantastic songs. I've made my list in 3 hours (2 hours to make the selection and 1 hour to rank), no headaches. It's my january 31 list, no more. Tomorrow's list probably would be different.
And a top 200 (or more for some crazy people who want to rank 1000 songs!) is very hard and boring to read for the other people.
Why is it that people assume their opinions about list can be ascribed to everyone else? (This coming from one of those "crazy people" who submitted 1000 songs.)
I'm sorry, but just because it's hard for you, doesn't make it somehow "wrong" for everyone else -- I love seeing the big lists, it shows a lot of breadth, and even more importantly is likely to steer me in new directions.
I mean, if any forum should be safe for posting big lists free of criticism or questioning, it should be this one.
"There Is Nothing More To Say" from Begin is also quite great, but I can see the criticism about the super-soft-pop on there. They're sort of the halfway point between The Beach Boys and The Free Design (not a bad thing in my book).
I'm sorry Sonofsamiam, I didn't want to hurt you. I don't try to denigrate this poll or the people who make big list. I just wanted to point the fact that the too much of too much of too much top songs, top albums and top of everything maybe isn't the best way the draw people's attention to something.
And however I'm someone who's a list fanatic. But the overabundance disturb me a little. That's just my point my point of vue. I respect everyone's opinion.
Just looked at my list and noticed that the Husker Du entry has a blank in the place of the song. The song should be "Turn on the News." I also sent an e-mail on this. Thanks.
I'm sorry Sonofsamiam, I didn't want to hurt you. I don't try to denigrate this poll or the people who make big list. I just wanted to point the fact that the too much of too much of too much top songs, top albums and top of everything maybe isn't the best way the draw people's attention to something.
And however I'm someone who's a list fanatic. But the overabundance disturb me a little. That's just my point my point of vue. I respect everyone's opinion.
No big deal -- I certainly wasn't hurt, just a tad annoyed. I actually suffer from list exhaustion too, at least as far as sheer number of lists. That's why I save up my reserves for just songs & albums, because that's where the most fun is at.
OK, I'm going to reveal the last song on my list. It's Robin Williams! with..."Shakespeare (A Meltdowners Nightmare). Yes, he actually utters some kind of singing in the middle of all the talking. Recommended.
Artists (top 200) 120 artists
Beatles 11
Springsteen 10
Tom Waits 7
Georges Brassens 6
Jacques Brel 6
The Divine Comedy 5
Leadbelly 4
Bob Dylan 4
Neil Young 4
Stevie Wonder 4
Robert Johnson 4
The Kinks 3
Jimi Hendrix 3
David Bowie 3
Robert Wyatt 3
After countless hours of tabulating and re-tabulating, the list seems to be complete! A total of 36 lists have graced my presence, all of which have been very fascinating. The vast wealth of knowledge present in this forum is evident in the nearly 4,000 songs that were nominated. I've definitely got my homework ahead of me!
I received lists from the following:
Ajackson
Andre
Anthony
BillAdama
Dumbangel
Eduard
Fred
Georgie
Giuseppe
Henrik
Honorio
John
Jonah
Lonesome Panda
Mark Propp
Maurice
Michel
Midaso
Miguel
Mitchell Stirling
Moonbeam
Neoptolemos
Nicolas
Otisredding
Ozphoenix
Pop Elton
Rendle
Rocky Raccoon
Rune
Schleuse
Schwah
Slush
Sonofsamiam
Stammer
Toni
Vgrd
I'm going to crash for awhile, and though I may post some preliminaries, the big list won't be unveiled until Monday, most probably.
My list might be done by Monday. (Work, being the main problem). I know it won't be included in the stats, but that probably won't make a difference. I'll throw it up with the individual lists in case anyone is interested.
Rolling Stones 5
Clash, Nirvana, Pixies, REM, Replacements 4
GBV 3 (Plus one Pollard Solo)
Janes Addiction 3
'60s 44
'70s 39
'80s 55
'90s 48
'00s 14
I don't think the low number for the current decade is a reflection on my opinion of the quality of music being put out now but just a need to see which songs pass the test of time criteria.
Based upon previous discussions regarding the relative importance of the artist having written his or her own material, I knew I might elicit a reaction similar to yours. That's why I posted my question just now. To be even more provocative, I listed the cover version one place higher on the list than the original. I clearly disagree with your analysis that I have listed what boils down to the same song twice. If, as I believe to be the case with my pair, the cover version takes a very different approach to the song, you've got two very different recordings. I like both of them a lot (obviously), but for quite different reasons.
Hard to talk about this without ruiningthe surprise (and perhaps I should since I don't think either will make the master list), but I'm more curious as to what John believes my pair to be (assuming he was replying to my post).
Given prior discussions regarding the relative importance of the artist having written his or her own material, I suspected I might get a reaction similar to yours. That's why I wrote the post. To be even more provocative, I listed the cover version one placement higher than the original.
Obviously, I disagree that the two recordings essentially boil down to the same song, if, as I believe to be the case with my pair, the cover takes a very different approach to the song as written.
It's hard to talk about this without ruining the surpirse (and perhaps I should, since I doubt either of them will make the final list), but I'm more curious as to what John thought I was talking about (assuming he was responding to my post).
The list has been compiled! I was thinking about starting to unveil it today, but it's Super Bowl Sunday, so I'm not sure if all of our eager posters will be able to participate as we go. I need your opinion on this- should I start?
Because I am stuck in the office during the Super Bowl (this week I am finishing up the last week of a month-long trial), and because I will be in Court all day tomorrow (see above), I vote for now. But recognizing that mostly everyone else will be either (1) asleep (because they live in the Eastern Hemisphere where the don't watch the game), or (2) watching the Super Bowl (because they live in the United States and haven't sold their soul to a corporate law firm like I have), you should probably wait.
I live in Norway, and couldn't care less about the Super Bowl. I don't sleep either, it's not midnight yet, and I haven't got work tomorrow. Start now.
About Superbowl.. I've heard it is the most watched television show in the world, but that's unbelievable to me. I have never met a single person, except a couple of Americans, who even cared about the sport.
There's no way that the most watched event is not the World Cup Final. Maybe they're talking about yearly event. But even that must lose out to the Champions League Final in recent years.