I have a lot of things I want to get down, but I know that I tend to be long-winded. So to appease the short-attention-span crowd, there will be a condensed version of my "essay" at the very end. Scroll to the bottom now if you want to read that.


A friend of mine clued me in to this site (acclaimedmusic.net) about two-and-a-half years ago, and I first started posting on this forum about a year ago. A couple of things struck me when I first visited the forum. First, the people here on this forum know MUCH more about popular music than me, and I thought I was well-versed! Second, the people on this forum play a lot of different games that showcase their encyclopedic knowledge of music. After looking through a few of them, I wanted to get involved, but knew that my limited knowledge hindered me. I'm not really in a position to judge the merits of one album over another because in most cases, I haven't taken the time to really listen to those albums, if I've listened to them at all.

For an example of what I'm talking about, in one of the more recent rounds of netjade's "I'm with Stupid" game, she asked us to "name the weakest link (song) on Exile on Main Street." I still have not listened to all of that album, and I was sure that the answer I gave — I chose a song at random — would make it patently obvious that I didn't know such a highly-acclaimed song. (As it turns out, someone else went with "Sweet Black Angel," so I didn't look nearly as silly as I thought I might have.)

(Side note: I don't mean to say that I am completely ignorant when it comes to music. I just have a much more limited range in music. Thanks to this site though, I'd like to think that I'm becoming more well-versed. For example, thanks to this site's high ranking of the album, I decided to listen to The Velvet Underground and Nico, and boy am I glad I did!)

I started doing the Ken Jennings trivia game, and that seems to have had some positive feedback. However, I was more interested in participating in a more larger-scale game, perhaps even being the driving force behind said game. Also, the trivia game is about to end, as the current round will be the last one. So I started thinking of possible games.

While I might not have the expertise to fairly judge albums, I'm a little more confident in my abilities to judge individual songs. Since discovering this site, I've been trying to acquire all of the Top 3000 songs, as well as the "bubbling under" titles. So I've been doing a lot of downloading (Legally, of course! Why would you think otherwise! PLEASE DON'T COME AFTER ME!), and I've been scouring my local libraries' CD collections. Currently I have the top 1071 songs on the list, and I have about 93% of the total list, more than enough for what I have planned (more on that later).

Since I feel much more sure of myself in regard to individual songs, I started thinking of some kind of song-related game. My first thought was a "which highly acclaimed songs does this forum dislike the most?" kind of game, but quickly threw that away. Then I discovered that a couple of years ago, schleuse had created Bracketology.

Oh, how I wish I could have been here for that! THAT is my kind of game! And it looks like it was very well-received, too. And then I started thinking...

How about Bracketology '09?

The first thing I wish to make clear is that if I were to go through with this, my intention is NOT to take anything away from the original incarnation of the game. That was clearly a well-loved game. However, everyone's musical tastes change over time, and there might be new people on this forum who didn't have a chance to participate the last time. Besides, I see that there have been other lists on this forum that have been re-created over the years (top 100 albums of all time).

So here's my idea for Bracketology '09. Same rules as last time: four songs enter, one song leaves. Eventually it gets pared down to one song. There will be one change though. Where the first Bracketology had 256 songs, my plan is to do one round more: 1024 songs.

I have a few reasons for expanding the game. First, the top 256 songs are currently largely the same as two years ago. If I were to do 256 songs again, it would probably yield the same results as last time. Not fun. Secondly, expanding the field to 1024 songs gives the possibility for some very interesting upsets. For example, I've already got the brackets made up, and I know that in one of them, I'd be voting for a song that is currently ranked in the 1000s over a song that is ranked in the top 20!

The biggest drawback to doing a game of this size is obviously the amount of time it is going to take. Heck, the first round has 256 brackets of four songs each! I have a possible solution for this. In the first bracketology, people voted on four brackets at a time, with a voting period of one week. Doing this for the expanded bracketology would mean 64 weeks, or over a year! So instead, my plan is to do eight brackets at once for the first and second rounds and four from then on. Obviously this incarnation of the game will take up more time than the first, but hey, I got nothing better to do!

So here's where I am. Is anyone up for Bracketology '09? I figured I'd ask before I jumped into something like this. If I get a mostly-negative response, then I'll drop it. But if people are interested, I'm willing to do all the leg-work necessary to do this game.

Let me know. What are your thoughts? Does anyone foresee any problems that I have not envisioned? Or should I get started on this?









Okay, for the short-attention-span set: would anyone be interested in doing a revival of Bracketology?

Yeah, I think this would be great, and I would love if you hosted this. I didn't get to participate in the first bracketology, and expanding it allows for some pretty crazy upsets. Eight brackets a week sounds good.

I'm in !
I did not play in bracketology either (although it was back then I started spending time on the forum) and it is also easier for me to play songs game than albums game, especially when it involves albums released before 1989.

I'm definitely in. Bracketology was a riot, and it'll be even better with more songs.

Hey, Matt. I’m very flattered by your proposal to resurrect bracketology (and by the positive response your idea’s getting so far). It was the first, and still the most enjoyable, project I’ve run on this site. But I hereby relinquish bracketology to you, with my blessing (frankly, my schedule is too crazy to run it myself again). Although I’ll absolutely participate!

Expanding it to 1024 is brilliant (and I agree with Nassim—I don’t think album bracketology would really work). A couple of questions: Are you going to require comments? Will you re-seed after each round, or will it be NCAA tournament style?

Not, of course, that you have to replicate the earlier version—this one’s your baby. You run it as you see fit, and I promise not to kvetch or to offer unsolicited advice. Looks to me like you have it well in hand already.

Great to hear. I was worried you might think I was trying to steal some of your thunder by doing this again.



My plan was to do it very similar to how you did it. Ballots must have comments.

And re-seeding just seems like way too much work. I was planning on doing it NCAA Tournament-style. Part of the fun of that tournament is when both the 4 and 5 seeds in a bracket are eliminated in the first round, because you know then that either a 12 or 13 will be in the Sweet 16!

As for the original seeding, it'll be 1, 512, 513, and 1024 in the first bracket; 2, 511, 514, and 1023 in the second; etc.

I'd participate in it again for sure - it was loads of fun the first time...

i'd love to play!

The original game was what drew me to this site.

I'm in, absolutely.

I haven't been around long at all, but I would participate.
The previous version was a great read.

I missed it the first time around, but I'm definitely game for this one.

Beam me up!

Great idea!
I didn't participate in the first version, it happened exactly in the time I was beggining to know better this forum, but now I'll definitely take part of it! With 1024 songs we will for sure have some big surprises!

I guess it's going to be happening then. I've been working the past couple of days on this and I've even got this all set up on a Geocities site, in case any of you wanted to actually see the brackets. Unfortunately, Geocities is going to be shutting down in late October, so I'm going to have to port it over to something else at that time. Anyway, if you guys want to see the brackets and whatnot, the (temporary) website is...

http://www.geocities.com/mrschroeder1982/bracketology.html

Warning: the site is still under construction, so if you find a few broken links on the site, please give it some time. Also, I apologize that the site isn't glitzier or more glamourous. When it comes to HTML, I don't have the skillz to pay the billz, so to speak.

I'll make another couple of posts in regard to all of this before the game actually gets started. Speaking of which, I'm thinking that the game will begin this upcoming Sunday at 12:01 AM Pacific time (my local time). I'm too lazy to figure out what time that is for other time zones.


EDIT: The original post said 12:01 PM (just after noon). I meant to say 12:01 AM (just after midnight).

Oh, another thing. I've decided that the each week's brackets will be chosen randomly. Just to keep you all on your toes.


EDIT: One last thing, if anyone sees any errors, typos, etc. on the site, please let me know.

Holy crow--the geocities site is a great idea, as is posting the brackets randomly. I feel like Wilbur and Orville Wright would have watching a space shuttle launch. This will be a lot of fun.

And I'm glad that several voters from the previous version are on board. I hope this will be a reunion for as many of us as possible.



(But wait...no blocs for Strauss or Stravinsky?)

(Actually, I'd plump for Schoenberg and Shostakovich as well, but I know better than to push my luck...)

(See, I'm making comments already.)

I had a feeling there would be some people who weren't on board with which composers I chose.

Yeah, I miss Grieg as well.

Me too.

Luckily we have Sibelius bloc. Very good choice.

I'm definitely in for this game.

One idea, maybe after this is done somebody should start a moderate songs poll that starts at 1025?

I'm in.

And I like BillAdama's suggestion of a moderate songs poll, too...

Well Bracketology was the game that drew me in to the forum in the first place... so let's have it be the game that draws me back in after a 2-3 week absence.

(sorry everybody... work and vacation got in the way)

Have to start listening to these songs again, though, before I vote.