Like a book club but for music lovers, the idea is to chat up and vote on albums of all genres to listen to, experience, and review as a group of friends on, let’s say, a weekly basis. My aim is to organize a queue of albums over a meaningful spectrum of genres, age, and acclaim. Rap to rock. Old and new. Mainstream phenomenons to cult classics and hidden gems. We’ll pool album ideas and vote, discuss goals for the club and execution, then the first album week of the thread will begin. I’ll put forward my first album suggestion, too, with Oliver Tree’s “Ugly is Beautiful”. It’s a pop/hip-hop album with a wide variety of sound to offer from one man who’s main idea is to present this music through a character, Oliver Tree. He’s an eccentric misfit with a very distinct, almost awkward candor. It’s charming and infectious stuff. Note: In the spirit that I’m aiming for this thread to strike, I wanted to say I don’t intend to vote for or suggest only albums I am interested in or have already heard. There are some I’d go to bat for, and will like everyone else, but I’ve also never heard a full System of a Down or Green Day album front to back, for instance. I’ve thought I should for a long time now, too. I thought this would be a cool way to genuinely try to branch out. That’s my pledge, even when I have a suggestion that’s very familiar to me already. Let us know your suggestions both on the idea of doing this and on albums to listen to. A guideline suggestion when it comes to participating that comes to mind for example is, once a week begins, hold thoughts until the week is up for a better conversation experience. Or maybe that’s not it, let me know!
Hi All! THX @ScatterMatter for the initiative, the suggestion, and the creation of the thread itself I'd always found the book clubs very cool, but never had the time to join one. But for me, music is quite different, I can set it anytime and try lots and lots of genres. My experience is also as Scatter said, there are some things I have been missing out front to back for ages, like, say, Guns'n´Roses or... IDK Suede, King Crimson... obviously lots of stuff. To start with, piqued by curiosity and giving the creator the right to begin, that same Oliver Tree’s “Ugly is Beautiful” would be a nice fit. Let's get together.
Concept is awesome. Practicalities may go through a bit of trials and errors, but we won't know unless we try ^^ A few ideas that come to mind Making up a few arbitrary broad categories (Hip Hop, Electronic, Metal, Rock, Pop, etc), and rotate between them Having a cycle split into 2 or 3 steps (or even 4) Step 1 : suggestions for the current category (maybe with a max limit per participant) Step 2 : selection among the given suggestions (maybe a survey) (Step 2.5 : schedule a listening party for those who want / can listen to the album simultaneously, via shoutbox times ) Step 3 : reflect on the chosen album Just my 2 cents, I'm fine with any way of proceeding
I like all that. It would make sense to vote on genre rotation as well as anything specific. I want to make a small but effective list of genres with broad umbrellas, vote, put up album suggestions of the chosen genre, and vote again. Maybe rankings from polls can be used as order of weekly rotations. I’m not sure how to organize listening parties deeper than setting a date and time but I like that idea a lot, too. Last thing, I didn’t mean to swipe week one with my own album suggestion. If it fits the genre we decide on, I’ll put it in the poll, but I definitely wasn’t going to default to it for take-off. Edit; I added the genre poll. I was thinking of keeping it as simple as possible with other genres being implied to be grouped under each category. Or should it be more detailed?
Regarding the listening parties: Given that we're spread around the globe, maybe we can set a timeframe, like 24 hours, when we all can half meet on the shoutbox and see who's where on the album ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ NOTE: I first voted pop, but i'll fold to anything we chose
I think as broad as possible is a good approach. Out of the big players in the somewhat modern/mainstream music world, I think maybe electronic is the big absent from the categories above, but it can always be counted under Other ^^ What's in the survey is a pretty good way to start.
That was round about what I was thinking. And however the rankings go in genre maybe will just rotate without the need for more rounds of voting?
Let’s say hip-hop won week one. Next poll, what genre should we do second? edit: I can’t seem to change the poll to a different question. It’s currently got hip-hop winning week one. Let’s switch for week two? Unless someone can run how to edit the question by me. edit edit: Or maybe we proceed with nominations and just exclude hip-hop next week.
I figure the group is bound to be mixed on reception of some albums at the best of times. So, I don’t want writing about them to feel obligatory to participate because of that, making the talk that comes after the biggest question mark for me. Best case scenario, I’d probably rate the album and or each song on it like we did for From Zero, for example. If the album we do really strikes a chord, by all means, go all out and put it to words. I’ve noticed that… Usually when the objective of a thread is talking about a specific collection of music, a format that fits the average enthusiasm levels people have for it surfaces organically. I’ll voice any major ideas I get for the talk going forward, of course, though!
I suggest taking the poll order: 1, Hip hop 2, Pop, 3, Metal... etc. For the poll of the record itself... maybe a list and a random number site?
I was thinking that even if we don’t figure out everything about genre order we can just vote again next week and exclude the genre we just did. I think we can move on to nominations, now. Throw ‘em up with whether you think we should choose randomly or by popular vote? I think I’ll nominate “good kid, m.A.A.d city”. Though, I’m curious about older hits just as much as finally looking at Kendrick.
I think that, given that these albums may be unknown territory for most of the ones that don't propose, we shall set a numbered pool and randomly choose one. I propose: A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Love both suggestions so far, with a slight preference for Low End Theory. Such a landmark pivotal album in Hip-Hop history, which modern listeners may be less aware of nowadays. For the sake of diversity, I'll add another suggestion : Nas - Illmatic Hard to choose from so many classics honestly, but I have a soft spot for the 90's
Ok guys, so far we have: Oliver Tree - Ugly is Beautiful A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city Nas - Illmatic
I wasn’t going to include Oliver for hip-hop week, though he does have a lot of hip-hop songs, so I put up Kendrick. The hype being put on Low End Theory has me curious.