Next decade poll : the 70's? Who's hosting it?

[Mindrocker]

Hi! Can anyone clue me in if it's still worth posting personal lists in these polls with a slight chance of getting a semi-decent album into the T20, or is the majority made up by first/second grade baby boomers with a clean-n-nice-vocal-harmony fetish by now? Just glanced over the last couple of threads, hence I'm wondering.

Yes the average taste of the current forum regulars has shifted somewhat more to the mainstream, but we always can try to get that Art Ensemble Of Chicago album to the final round.

Good to see you back, you've been missed.

[Jirin]

I would still say the forum's shift hasn't been toward mainstream so much as away from a particular category of non-mainstream. Specifically, noisy lo-fi off-melodic stuff.

I've found some great discoveries from your lists in the past Jade, I will certainly give anything toward the top of one of your lists a listen. I will be voting for a lot of odd folky stuff like Tim Buckley, The Watersons and Kevin Coyne, some post-punk stuff like Pere Ubu and Slits, and I will be fighting hard to get Zombie and Africa Brasil on the final list.

[sonofsamiam]

I know it's offtopic, but when are we going to do this properly for the '00s? The '70s are my favorite decade so I'm not complaining, but it would be nice to revisit more recent stuff over the next few years!

[JimmyJazz]

Well, I would think that it would be nice to wrap up the next few decades before we tackle the most recent decades! Of course, it will get tricky as time goes on, since, we can do a proper year by month poll for the 60s, but once we get to the 50s and then the 1900-1949 polls, many users will feel out of the loop and won't be able to come up with much (although I do hope many will try to participate in them).

[Listyguy]

Yeah, I think we're just following the order that was used originally. We had the second 90s poll in 2012, the second 80s poll last year, and now we're on the second 70s poll. Following the order we originally used, the 00s would be the topic of 2016.

[Jade Palooka]

we always can try to get that Art Ensemble Of Chicago album to the final round.

Now we're talking business. Okay, I'm in.

[Jade Palooka]

I've found some great discoveries from your lists in the past Jade

This is why I once got hooked by this place... great minds, great collections, great gems, great recommendations... it would be a shame if AMF lost all of its net pow(d)er because of people who experienced their peak of being after having exchanged some hand shakes with Herb Alpert.

[Listyguy]

Is anybody going to make a recommendation thread for 1970?

[Live in Phoenix]

I wasn't planning on making any recommendation threads, myself. I'll probably just be in the background and post random BS (i.e. moreso than usual).

[JimmyJazz]

So, before I start the 1970 thread tomorrow, have we decided upon an appropriate point allotment system. For the 80s poll, what exactly did we use, again? I am sorry but my memory's a little foggy about that.

[Henrik]

So, before I start the 1970 thread tomorrow, have we decided upon an appropriate point allotment system. For the 80s poll, what exactly did we use, again? I am sorry but my memory's a little foggy about that.

The '80s poll used the same point scale as your '50s film poll.

[JimmyJazz]

So, before I start the 1970 thread tomorrow, have we decided upon an appropriate point allotment system. For the 80s poll, what exactly did we use, again? I am sorry but my memory's a little foggy about that.

The '80s poll used the same point scale as your '50s film poll.

Ok, cool! So, that point format is:

1. 50 points
2. 40
3. 30
4. 20
5. 15
6. 10
7. 9
8. 8
9. 7
10. 6
11. 5
12. 4
13. 3
14. 2
15. 1

Still, I'm curious if anybody if fine with this format still, or if there are any objections.

[Live in Phoenix]

So, before I start the 1970 thread tomorrow, have we decided upon an appropriate point allotment system. For the 80s poll, what exactly did we use, again? I am sorry but my memory's a little foggy about that.

The '80s poll used the same point scale as your '50s film poll.

Ok, cool! So, that point format is:

1. 50 points
2. 40
3. 30
4. 20
5. 15
6. 10
7. 9
8. 8
9. 7
10. 6
11. 5
12. 4
13. 3
14. 2
15. 1

Still, I'm curious if anybody if fine with this format still, or if there are any objections.

There were times during the '80s poll that I was frustrated with this point system. On the other hand, there were a few times that a song or album got in because of my involvement. I mean, I presume this system is set up so that we're not just talking about the same albums & songs for every final, and to spread the listening opportunity around so that 1981 doesn't just come in with like 2 albums. Nevertheless, I think there were a couple instances where something ended up on a number of people's lists in the mid-range, like Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia**," yet it didn't add up to many points -- is there anything that could be done about that?

**A better example would be Suzanne Vega's "Luka," which was on six ballots to "Schizophrenia"'s five, but none of them were higher than a #5 vote while "Schizophrenia" had one #1 vote. Luka finished #28 overall, which surprised me as things can, when the final tallying takes place.

[Live in Phoenix]

Like, what if you counted down the last slots from 15 points instead of 10 points. Like so:

1. 50 points
2. 40
3. 30
4. 25
5. 20
6. 15
7. 14
8. 13
9. 12
10. 11
11. 10
12. 9
13. 8
14. 7
15. 6

The "love it" tier would still have 30-40-50 points, but I wouldn't quite have the feeling that I've had at the last slots as if I was hardly awarding points and was hardly voting anymore.

[Henrik]

I would be fine with this, although I can't help thinking that everyone then has a 16th album/song that would be worthy of 5 points, and so on. But counting 20 albums/songs instead of 15 means a lot more work for the host. Also, since (I assume) 15 albums/songs will move on to the decade final it makes sense that only everyone's top 15 get points.

[JimmyJazz]

Well, since no one else has weighed in on this, I think I will simply stick with the usual formula, for the reasons that Henrik stated above.

[Moonbeam]

For the purposes of simplicity, I'm happy with the current formula. I'm always partial to a Pazz 'n Jop style formula, but it's a lot of work to manage.

[Gillingham]

Yeah, I think we're just following the order that was used originally. We had the second 90s poll in 2012, the second 80s poll last year, and now we're on the second 70s poll. Following the order we originally used, the 00s would be the topic of 2016.

It would be really nice to do a 'first half of the decade-poll' for 2010-2014 after this year. Hope we'll manage to do that as well.

[Jirin]

I like having the points drop off a little more quickly. It makes the poll about 'What albums are people's absolute favorites', rather than 'What albums have the most people listened to'.

I think the music that a few people absolutely love should get in before the music that a lot of people just like.

[Henry]

I like having the points drop off a little more quickly. It makes the poll about 'What albums are people's absolute favorites', rather than 'What albums have the most people listened to'.

I think the music that a few people absolutely love should get in before the music that a lot of people just like.

To some extent I agree with the "absolute favorites" position. But, I also believe that the large points drop artificially elevates hidden gems due to tactical ranking.

[Listyguy]

I like having the points drop off a little more quickly. It makes the poll about 'What albums are people's absolute favorites', rather than 'What albums have the most people listened to'.

I think the music that a few people absolutely love should get in before the music that a lot of people just like.

I agree completely. I'd say that for most years of the 80s poll where I listened to, say, 20 albums, and maybe 8-10 of them were great. So I favor the system that was used last year.

Also, shouldn't the 1970 poll be opening today?

[JimmyJazz]

I like having the points drop off a little more quickly. It makes the poll about 'What albums are people's absolute favorites', rather than 'What albums have the most people listened to'.

I think the music that a few people absolutely love should get in before the music that a lot of people just like.

I agree completely. I'd say that for most years of the 80s poll where I listened to, say, 20 albums, and maybe 8-10 of them were great. So I favor the system that was used last year.

Also, shouldn't the 1970 poll be opening today?

Don't worry, I'm getting on it!

[JimmyJazz]

I like having the points drop off a little more quickly. It makes the poll about 'What albums are people's absolute favorites', rather than 'What albums have the most people listened to'.

I think the music that a few people absolutely love should get in before the music that a lot of people just like.

I don't know, I mean many of my lists are filled with quite a few favorites, be it in music or film. I'm pretty open minded and have large lists , and I don't think that certain albums or songs are superior and inferior to each other just because of artificial rankings that I could change next week. Obviously for the purpose of polls I rank my albums or songs, but honestly I much prefer alphabetical and chronological listings of stuff in many cases. Rankings are useful in polls such as these however, which are statistical in nature. Maybe I'm just a different personality. Still, I'm going to go with the usual points formula.