Would folks here be interested in an album of the week/album listening club?
I've run similar weekly discussions in the past elsewhere to varying degrees of success. I've been really happy with how Fresh Album Fridays has been going so far, so thought there might be some interest in centering discussion around one certain album each week.
There's a few ways of doing this that come to mind - if anyone has any other suggestions let me know
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It's entirely random from the top 2k-10k albums on RYM. You tend to get a very interesting spread of albums this way.
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In the past I've done a 'time travel' version where each week is a year ahead from the last, with each album being chosen randomly from that year's top 20 or so albums. It's a fun novelty, but decades can get a little samey for 10 weeks.
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Albums are user nominated, hopefully with a write up from that user. I'm least keen on this idea - I like how random albums keep things on an even playing field. A personal touch is nice, but requires some organization and consistent interest (might end up being the same few people).
Also there's timing the discussion. There's a couple options I can think of
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Each week the new album is declared, and the thread remains the place to discuss that album until the next album is posted.
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A new discussion thread is created a week after the album is declared, while also declaring next week's album. This gives people time to hear the next album, and acts as a reminder for anyone behind, but maybe sours any chance for immediate impressions - folks might feel less inclined to write their thoughts a week after hearing something.
Eager to hear any and all thoughts.
Sign me up. I've had posts here expose me to all sorts of cool stuff.
yeah ditto. found some awesome recs on here so far so down to keep that going.
I'd be down for that. I do sit in the rock, metal, dance, hard-dance area of music and would love to break out of it a bit more.
I’m in! I’ve been trying to broaden my musical horizons recently, and this would be a fun way to do it.
I’m open to any format. I also think the discussion going live with the announcement (rather than waiting a week) is the better way to do it. I can see myself listening to an album and jotting thoughts as I go. If I had to wait a week to post them, a lot of their resonance and immediacy would be gone. It would also let people who give the album repeated listens over the week chances to check back in and add thoughts or new noticings.
I would be down for this! I love listening to new stuff and picking it apart, definitely right up my alley!
I'm in. From doing these in the past I generally find it's best to let users do the selection rather than leaving it up to dull charts and stale numerical systems like going by decade. The only caveat should be that if you nominate an album, it's because you've got that album on heavy rotation and it's either not wearing out or only getting better with multiple spins. Stick to nominating stone cold masterworks whenever possible. Tastes vary, but generally speaking any album that can pull that off for any one individual is worthy of a spin, regardless of the genre.
In fact, take a look at how /r/letstalkmusic does it. Whenever you visit, the album cover of the current listening pick is right there at the top of the sidebar, click to jump to the discussion thread. Deimos doesn't want to deal with the copyright headaches that come with image hosting (a wise choice imo) but those album covers are available on literally hundreds of sites for the linking. I'd say Songlink is the best choice. That's what they are there for and it'll help people find a stream for the albums as well.
Appreciate your thoughts here on the format - but in my gut I think I disagree. I don't frequent LetsTalkMusic, and looking at the previously nominated albums almost all them are what I would describe as 'dull' or 'stale' choices.
Don't get me wrong - great albums - but I would want this less to be 101st discussion about Atrocity Exhibition, or Funeral, or Ys, and more about the majority of people hearing something for the first time. Maybe the tastes of Tildes members would be less codified, but all the surveys done suggest we're a pretty similar bunch. It's fun gushing about the greats with people who love the same music, but I'm not sure that's what I had in mind for this.
I did a test run for top 7500 albums on RYM and I got a number of interesting albums from a range of genres, most with <5000 ratings and none of which I've heard before. But, on the other hand, in my experience niche albums of less popular genres (particularly jazz or classical) tend to generate the least discussion, and notorious albums that folks have heard before lead to more engagement (I'm as guilty of this as anyone else).
Anyway, I won't be rushing into this, will keep checking back here before making any decisions.
It might be good to find out if people are more interested in using the listening club to discuss "big name" albums (in the same way a book club might read bestsellers or classics) or if people are wanting to use it for discovery (which would be more about surfacing less well-known stuff).
I, personally, lean towards the discovery angle. It's easy to find best-of lists with common names (the aformentioned Atrocity Exhibition, Funeral, Ys, etc.), and get opinions on them. I've enjoyed AlbumLove because it's given me a lot of stuff to listen to that's more "off the beaten path" and that I wouldn't have found otherwise. That interests me, personally, more.
On the other hand, I can completely see how someone would feel the opposite: why join a listening club and not listen to big, important albums? I could see them turned off if we just keep choosing things that are too niche or esoteric.
I'll also say that I think there's some value in going with what your vision is rather than trying to play to the crowd. Trying to please everyone can end up watering things down or diminishing passions and making it so nobody's really happy. If you feel strongly about how it should be run, go for what you want and see how it goes. We can always adjust down the line if necessary, and there's also nothing stopping us from diverging if necessary. If we do a "discovery" music club, for example, there's nothing saying we can't also do a parallel "cultural touchstones" one too, so that everybody can join the one that they prefer (or both!).
Well, we could up the ante a bit to compensate. The /r/listentous format was to pick one track that was catchy, one that was popular, and one that was obscure for each election ( a good example ). That worked out really well at turning up mountains of gems, but it was for tracks there not albums. We could do the same thing with a listening club, one album in each category. It's certainly not out of my way to listen to three albums in a week. ;)
We could also do artist appreciation threads on a monthly basis. Dive into their discography. That would be a fine way to handle big ticket artists with a massive catalog like Floyd or Dylan or Weezer. Those artist threads could run alongside the weekly album club. That would give us four images in the sidebar with four threads attached, which fits more nicely than three. I think I like the idea of having a more busy/active listening club like that with more music in the pot.
I wouldn't say I feel too strongly about the format at this stage - as mentioned these things kind of live or die by how much engagement they generate. I want to encourage discovery/discussion without it becoming homework.
I don't want to avoid popular albums from appearnig - having a random system also makes it fun when a big/highly ranked album gets selected. On an old forum I used to frequent, every few years the AOTD would be OK Computer, and it would always be a bit of an event, regardless of what you feel about OK Computer.
What I'm thinking is I'll publicly share how I've generated the album choice in each thread in case anyone thinks it needs tweaking. RYM lets you tweak how it's chart weighs popularity, and I might crank that up to slightly favour albums that have generated prior interest, at least to start with. It also means we might get some albums with (comparatively) low scores that lots of people have bothered to rate. (For example, I saw 'The Flying Cup Club' at #4040, an album with die hard fans but a quirky sound some people are strongly against - I think that's an interesting aspect for discussion).
I think I'll stick with 'Album of the Week' to stress it's generative. 'Club' does moreso suggest picks.
We could split the difference and rotate between album lists and user suggestions. Easiest way would be to pick a list and work our way down and create a post for folks to add a suggested album and switch off.
I like your thinking about highlighting lesser known albums to discover. I think the one benefit to talking about big albums is that an album which is huge in one genre is not necessarily well known to people who prefer other genres, so there’s an element of discovery there still.
Could always do both in the one club. One week a new or unknown discovery album, the next week an important, well-known and/or genre-defining one. Or mostly unknown with a one-a-month big album, or whatever schedule!
I would be so up for this! would love to get a new view on things and see what other people think. I love the idea of random albums, we might find some gems.
Absolutely down. I love seeing what other people are enjoying and finding new things, or gaining new perspectives on records I already know and love.
Definitely, sign me up!
I’m in! What a cool idea!
id love that!
I think it is a great idea.
I would also be very interested in this and would totally participate!
Yes please!
I love this idea, I'm definitely in!