Meeanee, Napier, New Zealand Superthread

[cobl04]

That might be the worst song in the history of mankind. Fuck.

 

[Axver]

Yeah, hell, even Brokencyde have the sense to sing about GETTING DRUNK, not GETTING HUNGOVER. Christ.

 

[Reggo]

I like flame wars. Show us what you got.

My mind's on photoshop now, not rym. but Axver knows what I'm talking about here, cause he's listened to this album. I have so much respect and adoration for Tre Cool that I would still give One Planet One People by The Lookouts a 2.0.

 

[Reggo]

That's it. $20 or not, I'm entering, dammit. Now to think of a good idea. I have such a plethora of pictures of them, I can't imagine not being able to come up with something.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

It's Mumiy Troll time.

 

[Reggo]

Never mind. I found it.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Great Russian band. Even Axver liked the one album of theirs he listened to.

They're quite addictive to listen to.

 

[LemonMelon]

I wish I had more negative ratings in my RYM account. But seriously, I've got to be pretty damn bored or irritated to give an album anything in the two range.

 

[Reggo]

Clearly, you've never heard One Planet One People. A 2.0 is a very generous rating.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Hey at least the sentiment in the album title is good.

 

[Reggo]

Hey at least the sentiment in the album title is good.

You could say that, yeah. You should hear this, Vlad. It's Horrible Music Hour written all over it, but it's barely over 20 minutes long.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I was surprised at the fact that the other ratings were actually positive.

 

[Reggo]

I was surprised at the fact that the other ratings were actually positive.

Well... it's hard to express, because if the recordings were cleaned up and Tre and Kain Kong and Larry Livermore decided to sing instead of shriek into the microphones, then yeah. Also, if you like lo-fi screaming punk rock, then it will suit you as well. It's totally DIY, you know. Larry wrote, played, recorded, "mixed", produced, pressed, and released it with the help of 12 and 14-year-old kids who had never played bass or drums before. And that appeals to punks, too. The lyrical content is very anti-establishment, too. It's just so damn hard to hear. Or I'm deaf.

 

[Reggo]

Green Day T-Shirt contest has no rules, just a due date.

 

[Axver]

I wish I had more negative ratings in my RYM account. But seriously, I've got to be pretty damn bored or irritated to give an album anything in the two range.

Your ratings are so much more generous than mine ... and I often think mine are a bit generous, especially compared to some folk on the RYM forums.

 

[Reggo]

Gotdang it, it's not even 10:30 yet. I should not be tired.

Yeah, whatever. I'm piking. Night.

 

[LemonMelon]

Your ratings are so much more generous than mine ... and I often think mine are a bit generous, especially compared to some folk on the RYM forums.

With regards to newer music I'm especially kind. I don't even trust ratings from albums released after about 2005 or so because the scores are so much lower, on average. Everything I mentally convert to scale now. The #1 album of the past three or four years wouldn't crack the top 20 of some years in the 90s. I laughed hard the other day when I saw a 3.50 that was like #200 for its year, and it had a generous amount of ratings. That would be in the 30s now.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I'm not sure if any of you agree but I was quite staggered with seeing NLOTH under 3.0. Say what you want but there is no way it deserves to be in that position. Same goes for Zooropa and Pop.

 

[LemonMelon]

It's still got a higher score than Mylo Xyloto.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Not to mention Radiohead albums being rated very high. I mean, Hail to the Thief gets 3.75 or so? And fucking Amnesiac getting over 3.8?

It's personal opinion I know but perhaps I bitch too much about Radiohead.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

It's still got a higher score than Mylo Xyloto.

Hahaha, well, at the very least, that's to be expected.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

At least people rate Mumiy Troll albums correctly.

 

[Axver]

With regards to newer music, especially. I don't even trust ratings from albums released after about 2005 or so because the scores are so much lower, on average. Everything I mentally convert to scale now. The #1 album of the past three or four years wouldn't crack the top 20 of some years in the 90s.

Heh, yeah, there's a thread on this like every two weeks on the forums. I think it's mainly because there's no canon established, no time for albums to grow, and music is so fragmented that as soon as an album comes to the attention of people beyond core fans, it cops it a little. Ratings for current albums will rise with time ... it already seems like that's happening to albums from 2004-06 when the "new albums get lower ratings" thing first started to become really pronounced.

 

[LemonMelon]

music is so fragmented that as soon as an album comes to the attention of people beyond core fans, it cops it a little.

This is an interesting point.

"Hmm...what's this album at #3? Deathspell Omega? That's a silly name, but I'm a hipster who listens to everything without prejudi-


AHHHH FUCKKK MY EARSSS AHHHH ownrate:"

 

[Axver]

Pretty much it.

Also, if you look at classics from the past, you'll find they are mainly listened to by people who are interested. People who hate reggae aren't exactly picking up heaps of reggae albums from the 1970s, so its classics do very well, as most raters are fans. People who hate metal aren't exactly picking up heaps of metal albums from the 1980s, so thrash metal classics do very well (especially compared to contemporary death and black metal), as most raters are fans. People who hate doowop certainly aren't picking up much doowop from the 1950s, so there are doowop singles out there with truly massive ratings from the fans.

Meanwhile, a black metal album or a hardcore hiphop album or some weird Japanese harsh noise/powerviolence comes out tomorrow, its fans love it, they rate it high ... then an indie kid or a folk fan sees it on the charts and suddenly it has a rating of about 3.20, even though it's just as good or better than some album of the same genre from 1994 with a rating of 4.05.

I also think there's a herd function at work for at least some people. You see an album rated above 4, you question your low rating. If you're dithering between a 3 and 3.5, you might skew towards that 3.5. But if you see the overall rating's only just broken the 3 mark, then giving the lower score isn't going to do much more damage. I've seen a whole bunch of reviews expressing attitudes that seem to conform to this, and to be honest, sometimes when I've dithered between two ratings, seeing the overall rating has perhaps given me a little nudge one way or the other (much as I try not to let it).

 

[LemonMelon]

People who hate metal aren't exactly picking up heaps of metal albums from the 1980s, so thrash metal classics do very well (especially compared to contemporary death and black metal), as most raters are fans.

The funny thing is that there aren't enough hipsters to overcome the large contingent of metal fans on RYM, resulting in a glut of metal albums up front during these years of chart chaos. Again, interest generally wins out, and RYM loves its metal and psych. A few indie favorites slip in also, if they're good enough. But once a canon is formed for this period that includes albums like Bad As Me and Strange Mercy, you'll see those scores rise as people with interest in the album give it a spin.

Notice that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's score has risen noticeably since it ran away with the top spot for 2010 and now is already being considered a classic. People are going in with bias and the herd is speaking for them. Amazing album, but that's the way it goes.

 

[cobl04]

RYM sounds like fun.

 

[LemonMelon]

I probably go there as often as Interference, albeit only for a few minutes a day total in order to find something new to listen to. And once in a while (every few months) I'll go on a RYM binge and make a long list for myself over the course of a couple hours.

The boards are hilarious, but I don't participate much.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Should get a tumblr too because I've one.

 

[Axver]

The funny thing is that there aren't enough hipsters to overcome the large contingent of metal fans on RYM, resulting in a glut of metal albums up front during these years of chart chaos. Again, interest generally wins out, and RYM loves its metal and psych. A few indie favorites slip in also, if they're good enough. But once a canon is formed for this period that includes albums like Bad As Me and Strange Mercy, you'll see those scores rise as people with interest in the album give it a spin.

Notice that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's score has risen noticeably since it ran away with the top spot for 2010 and now is already being considered a classic. People are going in with bias and the herd is speaking for them. Amazing album, but that's the way it goes.

The problem with some metal albums is actually metal fans themselves. You see some albums that simply "aren't metal enough" cop it so hard. There is a decent contingent of old school metal fans, the kind of guys who mainly listen to Iron Maiden and Metallica, who even come down hard on some death and black metal albums, never mind Agalloch or Orphaned Land or Deathspell Omega. And then there are those metal fans who are just suspicious of anything that gets more than ten or so ratings (there's at least some truth to the exaggerated "tr00 kvlt black metal fan" stereotype). I've seen some really bizarre things happen to truly great metal albums that don't satisfy a certain year's elitists - only to rise a couple of years later once things settle down.

Though probably the biggest recent gainer - both of a natural tendency of 2000s/10s scores to rise, and of a herd mentality - is Arcade Fire's Funeral. It's the only post-2000 album to crack the top 100, but that didn't happen in 2005 or 2006 ... think it finally made it in 2010. MBDTF should keep rising in the future. It'll be really interesting to see what RYM's charts look like if it's around in 2030, when 20 year olds then look back on what will be their parents' music and to see what albums are passed on as classics while what ones are forgotten or seen as too "of their time".

RYM sounds like fun.

It's great fun, I can credit its charts and forums with so many wonderful discoveries.