Are You Ever Happy With Your Chart? - Music

Rhyner
soft silly music is meaningful magical

Gender: Male
Age: 36
Location: Utah

baystateoftheart wrote:

...just doing a gut check is a near-impossible task given the number of albums I've listened to at this point.

baystateoftheart wrote:

But all of my new systems so far have seemed to make the order worse...

Maybe use a scoring system to get them to their approximate ranking, and then move them up and down from there using your gut until it feels right? A combination of the two could be better than either alone.

SquishypuffDave

Gender: Male
Age: 33

To answer this, I'd have to really dig into what motivates me to put a chart together in the first place. Mainly I use mine to remind myself of albums I've listened to in the past and enjoyed, and would hopefully also enjoy listening to again, throwing repeat successes near the top. But at the same time it's also a public recommendation machine, so I try to order it in a way that gives an even spread of diversity and makes it feel a bit like a gallery.

Comparing marginally different ratings doesn't really work for me, my preferences change constantly. If I really like something I'll throw it on the chart, and if I cool off then I'll remove it. The order within my chart is more about presentation than anything else.

PurpleHazel

NoisyBeast wrote:

What is it exactly you don't like about your charts?? They're YOUR charts, so you should LOVE them!!! Throw out the "Rules"! Rate the albums you've heard, rank the way YOU prefer, and update the chart(s) as you find new albums which deserve top ranking. Have fun listening to great music, take notes & update accordingly!!

From what he said, I assume he's tried ranking his charts the way he prefers at least a few times. Comparing your post to the OP, it seems like you and he are on opposite sides of the contentment spectrum.

baystateoftheart wrote:

I've tried ditching one half of the formula or the other, or cutting it from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. I've also tried incorporating replay value as 25% of the formula and conceptual impressiveness/unity as another 25% of the formula.

The brainpower you've exerted on this! I find it hard enough processing your system and the tweaks, let alone putting something like that into action myself!

The problem to me of using tracks (as you and rkm have in some contexts) is that it doesn't completely factor in how great a track is. Even a 10 point scale isn't sensitive enough for me. If an album has two of my all-time favorite songs, those systems aren't going to completely reflect that.

PurpleHazel

Maybe age has something to do with it, but I have core favorite artists (and albums) and any honest all-time favorite albums chart of mine (I see my overall chart as a favorites chart -- don't believe in the concept of an objective best album chart) is always going to include albums from those artists. Those core artists include Coltrane, James Brown, Mingus, Miles Davis, Hendrix, The Beatles, Zappa and P-Funk. I rank my charts using my gut, but it's also been a process of honing what my favorite artists and albums are over the course of my lifetime.

I'm satisfied with most of the individual albums on my chart, but as a whole I feel my chart has too many obvious choices. But unless I figure out a way to be even more honest with myself than I already am, then I have to accept that my overall chart isn't going to fundamentally change (meaning the upper reaches of it), though I've added albums I've discovered in the last year.

Last edited by PurpleHazel on 04/14/2018 08:00; edited 2 times in total

Johnnyo

Gender: Male
Age: 65
Location: London Town

rkm wrote:

I’m currently revisiting my year charts with a new system.

I create a playlist on Apple Music with all of the albums from my year list in order.
I listen through and delete tracks that I think of as filler.

I find:
A/ Some albums I can’t bear to delete a single track.
B/ Other albums have 5+ tracks I love and the rest I enjoy.
C/ Other albums it becomes clear that I only really like a few tracks and could do without the rest (and It becomes apparent that maybe a greatest hits album might serve me better).
D/ Other albums I enjoy as a whole listening experience, but they don’t necessarily have big standout songs (and wouldn’t be served well by replacing with a greatest hits album).

The above has helped me rank things more objectively than I had been, but still, I tend to place things higher if they have a lot of personal meaning or memory attached.

You definitely need a system. I started with a spreadsheet when I 1st joined bea in 2011. Simple, straightforward. Seven years down the line the thing has become a monster. Different tabs for each year, decade, custom charts. It’s become an industry all of its own but I have to say I enjoy it so........

Oh, and never ever satisfied with any of the charts, as it should be

PurpleHazel

Johnnyo wrote:

You definitely need a system. I started with a spreadsheet when I 1st joined bea in 2011. Simple, straightforward.

What's your system? Track-based? Ratings-based? A more complicated formula?

Johnnyo

Gender: Male
Age: 65
Location: London Town

SquishypuffDave wrote:

To answer this, I'd have to really dig into what motivates me to put a chart together in the first place. Mainly I use mine to remind myself of albums I've listened to in the past and enjoyed, and would hopefully also enjoy listening to again, throwing repeat successes near the top. But at the same time it's also a public recommendation machine, so I try to order it in a way that gives an even spread of diversity and makes it feel a bit like a gallery.

Comparing marginally different ratings doesn't really work for me, my preferences change constantly. If I really like something I'll throw it on the chart, and if I cool off then I'll remove it. The order within my chart is more about presentation than anything else.

Interesting how many different “systems” people have for deciding on their charts but at the end of the day, they are yours. Very personal, reflecting your own tastes and what has influenced you over the years. I love seeing others peoples charts and hopefully they might enjoy mine as well. Keep posting.

Johnnyo

Gender: Male
Age: 65
Location: London Town

PurpleHazel wrote:

What's your system? Track-based? Ratings-based? A more complicated formula?

I start by rating an album 100 - 80. Nothing below an 80 generally gets into my charts. The overall charts is all 90+. So i’ve Now got four columns, 1-100, album name, artist and a 100-80 score. So let’s say I have 25 albums that are 100. I then number them in an initial order that I think they should be, this can be quite rough to start with, sort it into 25 - 1 (column 5) and then compare the albums that are next to each other, renumber until I get a list i’m Pretty happy with.

This sounds like a lot of work and it was initial but now it’s pretty straightforward. New albums get slotted in where my gut tells me they should be, and column 5 gets resorted.

Phew, when I write it down it seems mad but it works, for me anyway. Need a lie down after all that.

LordMark

Gender: Male
Age: 36
Location: Ontario

I can't even manage my yearly charts, so you can imagine how difficult it is for me to manage my overall chart.

I'm constantly trying to do a "1 album per artist" chart, but it just doesn't work out. I just can't make a BEA chart that has only 1 Radiohead album, 1 Beatles album, 1 Velvet Underground album, 1 Tool album, 1 Led Zeppelin album, 1 Nirvana album, etc. And my favourite albums from those artists (and others) is constantly changing.

However, when I ignore the "1 album per artist" rule, I feel like my chart has absolutely no diversity.

And as someone who likes to root for the underdog, I'm always trying to not include too many albums that are ranked highly here on BEA. Unfortunately, that doesn't tend to work out either, as proven by the fact that about 40 of my favourite albums are in the BEA 100 while only a handful are outside of the top 1000.

Lastly, my musical obsessions are constantly changing. Some albums get better with time while others age horribly.

travelful
BEA's Official Florida Man

Age: 27
Location: Davenport, Florida

LordMark wrote:

I'm constantly trying to do a "1 album per artist" chart

A recipe to never be happy with your chart. Your chart is now immediately a false representation of what you deem to be the top 100 albums.

Personally only including 1 Kanye album or 1 Pink Floyd album would make me very unhappy, because my chart is a lie. Of course some artists are going to have more than one album in the "top 100 greatest albums", that's a given.