So, are we keeping the same scoring system as last year?

Also, who are the poor bastards who are going to tally the results?

I assume we'll do both albums and songs once again.

For those of you who are newbies, the scoring systems used last year were:

For Albums (20 Albums):

1. 40 points
2. 35
3. 31
4. 28
5. 25
6. 22
7. 20
8. 18
9. 16
10. 14
11. 12
12. 10
13. 8
14. 7
15. 6
16. 5
17. 4
18. 3
19. 2
20. 1 point

For songs (30 songs):
30-21: 5 points
16-20: 6 points
11-15: 7 points
6-10: 8 points
2-5: 9 points
1: 10 points

Or, if you don't want to order your song list, 7 points per song.

Discuss.

Looks good.

I nominate someone else to tally up...

No need to post lists here, I just want to know if anyone has any suggestions regarding the year end poll format, and who wants to volunteer to tally the results.

Once we settle on a format, we'll start an official thread for lists around mid-December.

I'll compile the albums list for this year.

Here are some ideas/suggestions:
--We should consider limiting the songs selected to one per artist. This will get a wider variety rather than multiple songs from the same artist that takes away votes from other worthy candidates.
--We had a section the past two years that had members write blurbs for the top albums. We then released a list of MC's top 20 albums with write-ups from members. It got more participation last year and I would like to see it come to fruition again. So naturally we need someone to gather blurbs, recommend certain members to write about specific albums and compile everything. Anyone up for it?

Any suggestions and ideas are welcome.

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
We should consider limiting the songs selected to one per artist. This will get a wider variety rather than multiple songs from the same artist that takes away votes from other worthy candidates.

I don't know how I'll be able to choose between "Titus Andronicus" and "Joset of Nazareth's Blues". I say no on this idea.

Don't be a girl; just pick one song. By the way, both of those songs suck.

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
Don't be a girl; just pick one song. By the way, both of those songs suck.

Ouch.

I'm a newbie here and love this idea. Can't wait.

I say no to the one song per artist thing too.

quote:

Originally posted by EricG75:

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
We should consider limiting the songs selected to one per artist. This will get a wider variety rather than multiple songs from the same artist that takes away votes from other worthy candidates.

I don't know how I'll be able to choose between "Titus Andronicus" and "Joset of Nazareth's Blues". I say no on this idea.

I've always been embarrassed that our songs list is usually made up of numerous songs from the four or five most popular albums. I agree with the one song per album rule.

I suggest each song list be allowed to have one artist featured up to 3 times. That way we get an idea of that person's fav singles album. Have that artist have one song in each block of ten(1-10, 11-20, 21-30). The rest of the list is 27 diff. singles/artists.
I mean, back in the day could you NOT include Billy Jean, Thriller OR Beat it!

quote:

Originally posted by jayman:
I suggest each song list be allowed to have one artist featured up to 3 times. That way we get an idea of that person's fav singles album. Have that artist have one song in each block of ten(1-10, 11-20, 21-30). The rest of the list is 27 diff. singles/artists.
I mean, back in the day could you NOT include Billy Jean, Thriller OR Beat it!

This idea makes perfect sense to me. Or if we need to compromise, maybe limit it to two songs per artist.

As a (relatively) new member, I look forward to the lists.

Why overcomplicate what is already a ridiculously overcomplicated system? It is illogical to limit "songs from one artist" to an arbitrary number. Either the rules should not be changed, or limit it to one per artist.

If you do limit it to one per artist, realize that your problem is not going to change, as people are still going to vote heavily on a small number of popular albums, and everyone has differing opinions on what the best songs are.

I think one song per album is too limited. There ARE years when a single album generates more than one of the top songs of the year. Just to take an obvious example, one could have listed at least "Paranoid Android", "No Suprises", "Airbag", "Let Down", and "Exit Music" from "OK Computer".

This year, one could (IMO) quite legitimately list "Golden Age", "Red Dress", "Family Tree" and "Halfway Home" from "Dear Science".

But I hate when a list comprises only songs from a few albums. And I also hate when all the top songs end up being from the top albums, when there are lots of great songs each year that do not come from great albums. (For example, a great indie pop single like The Joy Formidable's "Austere" is not on an album this year, yet.)

I could live with a compromise of, say, a maximum of two songs per album.

quote:

Originally posted by Peewee:
I also hate when all the top songs end up being from the top albums, when there are lots of great songs each year that do not come from great albums.

I do too. I like to hunt down great songs from albums that didn't quite make the cut for my top 20 albums. Man Man's "Top Drawer" and the War on Drugs' "Arms Like Boulders" will fall into this category for me this year.

I strongly disagree with the idea of limiting it to one song per artist. I understand that the idea of compiling the best songs of 2008 list is to choose songs that we think are the best from the current year. Why should I not be allowed to support the songs that I really think deserve this great great honour only because they are by the same artist? I mean, for example, if we decided to apply this rule last year we wouldn't have both "All My Friends" and "Someone Great" on the final list, two songs that, I believe, truely deserved to be on that list. We're not voting for the best artists but for the best s o n g s. And I don't see how it would prevent people from posting great songs from not such great albums. I mean, c'mon...

http://www.fakebands.com/graphics/Franklin_and_Gob_in_the_studio.jpg

I agree that there should be a limit to the number of songs listed per artist. It should be one per artist, in order to achieve more variety. And if an album really did produce two of the best songs of the year (for example, Someone Great and All My Friends from LCD Soundsystem last year), then enough people will end up voting for one or the other that the best song list will still include them, albeit not as high up on the list.

One song per artist makes sense, and it isn't really that restricting, since we all listen to so much music that we won't have trouble making a list of 30 songs by 30 different artists.

I know I'm going to lose on this issue (I'm still cross over my failure to convince people that the number of reviews necessary to make the Metacritic Best of 2008 list should be raised), but I thought I'd look at it empirically. I was very disappointed in our 2007 list because of it's lack of diversity, so I thought I would quantify it for everybody.

Six of the top eight albums had multiple songs in the top 20:

1. Radiohead In Rainbows
Reckoner (4)
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (14)
All I Need (18)

2. The National Boxer
Mistaken for Strangers (6)
Fake Empire (9)

4. Spoon GaGaGaGaGa
The Underdog (3)
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb (13)

5. Arcade Fire Neon Bible
Intervention (7)
No Cars Go (16)

6. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
Someone Great (2)
All My Friends (5)

8. Okkervil River The Stage Names
Unless it Kicks (12)
Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe (19)

That's 13 out of 20 (or 65%) of our Best Songs list came from these six albums. This list does not represent the sort of diversity that we have on these boards. At the least, it's not very imaginative. If I was checking out the site for the first time and came across this list, I would think that this site is made up of like-minded indie music snobs (*pause for chorus of unfair comments that this site is made up of like-minded, Pitchfork-lovin', indie music snobs whose lists all look the same*), and I would be less likely to contribute here.

I say let our songs list reflect the diversity on this site. We should limit the songs to one per album (if you think Los Campesinos! should get one from each album, I'm okay with that).

I've created a poll so we can receive a direct response on this song dilemma. Please vote there.

quote:

Originally posted by The Fall of Troy:
That's 13 out of 20 (or 65%) of our Best Songs list came from these six albums. This list does not represent the sort of diversity that we have on these boards. At the least, it's not very imaginative. If I was checking out the site for the first time and came across this list, I would think that this site is made up of like-minded indie music snobs (*pause for chorus of unfair comments that this site is made up of like-minded, Pitchfork-lovin', indie music snobs whose lists all look the same*), and I would be less likely to contribute here.

I say let our songs list reflect the diversity on this site. We should limit the songs to one per album (if you think Los Campesinos! should get one from each album, I'm okay with that).

Although I agree that lists with more diversity are much more interesting and personally will limit myself to one song per artist, I don't think imposing a limit on everyone will necessarily guarantee a more diverse list. People will still be more likely to pick songs off the more popular albums of the year and won't always pick the same ones. That being said, last year we had two lists: one with the limit of one song per artist and one without. As long as we do the same this year, everyone should be happy, right?

I wrote a program that can do the tallying for everyone, but it relies on several things.

1. Everyone formats their list the exact same way, I don't care how the format is (unless it's ridiculous), but everyone's format would have to be the same.

2. Everyone makes an effort to spell their album names correctly.

I wrote recognition software which works fairly well, but in order for it to work it needs a master list of all the albums that could possibly be on someone's list, from such a list spelling wouldn't be such an issue. I won't have time to touch the software until after my finals (dec 13.) though. Anyway, it's feasible but yeah, it's probably too much to ask that everyone spells their favorite albums and artists names correctly (or in the same way).