We need a new thread or game. Greatest Albums? Something, Anything!!!

Been this way for awhile. A lot of people stopped posting it seems when The Beatles vs. Dylan was at it's full force. It got pretty old and a lot of regulars that I miss stopped checking in. I hope they come back and I hope we get some new frequent posters.

It's Dead In Here?? Really??!!
With the 2008 Pazz & Jop album and songs poll, the results of the 80s poll, the wonderful HOA game (that would benefit from more participation), the upcoming 70s poll, the philosophical threads and great personal threads (like Jonah’s one about top musical experiences –I’m going to participate on this, Jonah, I’m working on it- or Moonbeam’s about Eurythmics), I couldn’t say that it’s dead in here. A different thing is that some of the posters only participate in some of the game-threads going on… I would recommend in your particular case (and please please please, no offence intended) to participate in the 70s poll. It’s going to be a wonderful poll for sure and you will broaden your tastes a lot if you try to listen to, let’s say, 10 albums per year.
About doing an all time album or song on a yearly basis my opinion is that if we don’t get a radical increase in new posters (I mean, more than 50 or so) probably our new polls will be boringly predictable. The same people voting for the same songs (I don’t really think that the inclusion of the 2008 albums and songs may produce significantly different results). A different option would be having an open poll of albums and song during the year and only post the results when we reach a minimum pre-established number of voters (50 for instance). Anyway the 70s poll is going to be enough work for me. That’s my favourite decade!!

Hey Kevin...do you have an RYM account? If so, I want to add you as a friend. My RYM username is same as it is here.

RYM what is it and where can I go to get it?

I've got a few ideas for games. I might be willing to run them if nobody else wants to, but at the end I wouldn't go through all the effort of getting images, listening samples, nifty graphs, and so on.

1) Song tag

Somebody mentions a song, then somebody else mentions a song somehow related to that song (Either by words in the name, a real connection, or some kind of free association), somebody else mentions another song related to that song, and so on. It's a kind of easy, brainless game, so people could participate without having to put hours of thought into it like with all the list games.

2) Hurt/heal

Take the top 100 artists, start them off with say 20 points, once per day you can heal artists a total of 2 points or hurt artists a total of 4 points. When an artist reaches 0 points, they're out, last one standing wins. This is also pretty fun and easy, and the only drawback is that the least noticed acts tend to stay around the longest.

3) Fantasy critic

Some kind of prediction game more detailed than just the monthly megacritic one. This could get a lot of people more invested in visiting the site, but has the drawback of being more time consuming.

4) Any number of bracket oriented vote-offs are always fun and easy, also with a minimum of required effort.

4a) But, suppose there was a more involved bracket game. Every week, an album from 2009 is put up. Users then find a way to listen to that album, and write a review for it, as well as a score from 0-10. Then at the end of the year the 16 albums with the highest averages go against each other in an elimination bracket.

There are lots of variations on that. It could be done with all time albums, 'Aughties albums. Or instead of a straight average, either Henrik's formula or the Mega-critic formula could be applied to people's ratings.

I'm seriously thinking about inducing an AM version of I'm With Stupid. The popularity of this game in other forums is atrociously insatiable..

Kevin: RYM is rateyourmusic.com. You've probably heard of it and probably even visit it, but if you don't know, it's the place where you can get a massive amount of user reviews and recommendations that aren't critic based. Pretty much that and AM are the only two sources you really need.

My RYM name is HeroicPenguin, if anyone cares. I don't use it much

and I seriously thought about rebranding it as I'm With Stupid Cupid as well

The 70s poll will blow our minds. Tell a friend!

Just one idea I had would be the "AM world tour" where we could vote on the best artists, albums, and songs to come from different cities/countries around the world, with a final poll for the cities with the most musical contributions. Could be fun, who knows, feedback appreciated.

netjade, I'm with you on I'm with stupid. Lots of joy!

Greatest albums poll scheduled for March/April and I second Honorio, not being dead in here. But new games or polls are always welcome ...

I'm kind of burned out on polls and games (not to say I won't participate!). I'd like to see some more discussion instead of lists. The one great thing about AM is that it's a small community where you can really get to know people, but that doesn't happen unless there is some good discussion!

not sure if i'm ready for another album poll already...don't think my list will have changed much since the last one

i think it'd be fun to nominate/vote for our favorite instrumentalists...there could be tons of categories, for example

lead vocalist (male, female, rock, jazz, soul, rap mc, etc.)
lyricist
producer, dj
guitarist (rock - electric, acoustic, lead, rhythm, jazz, etc.)
bassist, drummer, horn section, and so on, maybe further limited by decade (e.g. best lead guitarist of the '80s)

anyway, you get the idea. we'd just need to agree on a finite number of categories and then we could vote or nominate first then vote.

i don't necessarily like to think of music so atomistically but it could be a good way for us to talk, very specifically, about what styles or bands we like/dislike and what in particular we like/dislike about them - and a good opportunity to give individual credit to certain performers, like, say, if you think bono is an idiot but love the edge's guitar work, or if you love perry farrell's voice but can't stand dave navarro? something like that

i don't know if such a poll has ever been done on here, and i know this kind of thing is usually done by guitar player magazines and stuff like that, but it'd be nice to have such a poll where john fogerty and neil young finish ahead of steve vai and yngwie malmsteen

also, sorry to blog on here, but this is a video entirely unrelated to music that's had me laughing for days

well, as the saying goes..






..thanks, Greg...

oh god it's so great

Is that a fake or what ? Is ther any other meaning ?
And it's on FOX !!!!!

She was talking about the fist bumps they used to do on stage.

ok, I get it now
but I'm afraid I can't take this image from my head

Yeah Kev you really need to check out RYM. Go to rateyourmusic.com and set up a free account. It's like AM but much more...busy? Of course with that you get a lot of a-holes and idiots, but not enough to keep me from visiting and using the site.

I never check out the forums over there but it's a great way to catalog your collection and tastes. I like the smaller communities so the RYM message boards have never interested me all that much.

but I'm afraid I can't take this image from my head

kind of hard to me as well, nic... just remember the Moonbeam thread, imagine copious listening procedures considering Eurythmics' Be Yourself Tonight with ruthless hum along invitation cards like Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves on it and then all of a sudden this... Freudian glue, tiny artistic alterations... I think you get the point.


..
and
catchiness unrules

this thread title gives me another dumb sticky micky btw... sorry for being annoying

Back when Survivor was about to start, I suggested that we use hurt/heal rules (never heard it called that before... that's a good name for it). Schleuse properly kept it to the format he preferred, and it turned out fun. But a round of hurt/heal (perhaps with the top-100 albums or songs?) could be enjoyable.

And what's "I'm With Stupid"?

i got an idea.

we could make a vote on the greatest song covers of all time.