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My Past In Popular Music: Introduction
Sep. 30th, 2020 02:48 pmFor those of you who might be wondering: the "short break" I mentioned in my most recent post is mostly a short break from posting to my GoFundMe... but will also be a break from pandemic-related posts. (There will be a short vacation for a few days next week as part of this.)
In the meantime it's finally time to start a new series of posts with the overarching topic "My Past In Popular Music." This was inspired by watching a bunch of music critics on YouTube, many of whom have started making videos about the best/worst hit songs of years going all the way back to the 1950s. Since most (if not all) of these critics are under the age of 35, it occurred to me that there was one thing these relative youngsters simply couldn't provide. It's one thing to go back and revisit years from 1996 on to the present, but for most of them, if they look at a year before 1996, the knowledge they have is all second-hand. I, on the other hand, *lived* through each of those years, unless we go back to "before USA Beatlemania".
So I decided to take a larger look back at each year of my life in US pop music, though I'll probably not go any more recent than the mid-1990s. (And maybe I'll look further back as well, in which case it won't be "My" past in pop music, just *The* Past...) These posts are going to be strictly on Dreamwidth for now; I'm not ready to tackle a podcast, much less a YouTube type video. But before I make my first post, here's an overview of what those posts will be like.
A. For each quarter of the year, I will look at the Top Twentysomething songs of that quarter and rank each one on a scale of 0 to 5: Terrible, Bad, Meh, Decent, Good, Excellent. Occasionally a song will be Exceptionally Great (a rank of 6). Hopefully *lesss* occasionally, a song will be Exceptionally Horrid (a rank of *negative* 1).
B. For each year as a whole, I will list my Top Ten(-Plus) Best Hits, with Honorable Mentions. I will also list my Top Ten(-Plus) Worst Hits, with Dishonorable Mentions. In keeping with precedents previously set by a few of the YouTube critics, the format of the Top Ten+ is a bit more fungible (you can call it "cheaty" if you like)... for example, I can choose to lump everything by one artist into one entry. I can guarantee there will be some of this going on because I've already prepped one year for writing about, and realized very quickly I wouldn't survive without cheating a bit. Maybe more than just a bit.
C. And for each year I will look at the Year-End list and rank each song on it with the same scale as the quarterly rankings. The Year-End list will always include some songs that didn't make any quarterly list, and likely leave out some songs that DID make a quarterly list. The year-end list will be at least 100 songs, and almost certainly more, for reasons I'll explain below.
( Ground rules )
Again, for the quarterly Top 20+ and year-end Top 100+ there are usually six tiers of rankings: Terrible, Bad, Meh, Decent, Good, and Excellent. On rare occasions I will add Exceptionally Horrid and Exceptionally Great categories as needed.
And with that, stay tuned for my first post of actual content in this series, coming soon! If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
In the meantime it's finally time to start a new series of posts with the overarching topic "My Past In Popular Music." This was inspired by watching a bunch of music critics on YouTube, many of whom have started making videos about the best/worst hit songs of years going all the way back to the 1950s. Since most (if not all) of these critics are under the age of 35, it occurred to me that there was one thing these relative youngsters simply couldn't provide. It's one thing to go back and revisit years from 1996 on to the present, but for most of them, if they look at a year before 1996, the knowledge they have is all second-hand. I, on the other hand, *lived* through each of those years, unless we go back to "before USA Beatlemania".
So I decided to take a larger look back at each year of my life in US pop music, though I'll probably not go any more recent than the mid-1990s. (And maybe I'll look further back as well, in which case it won't be "My" past in pop music, just *The* Past...) These posts are going to be strictly on Dreamwidth for now; I'm not ready to tackle a podcast, much less a YouTube type video. But before I make my first post, here's an overview of what those posts will be like.
A. For each quarter of the year, I will look at the Top Twentysomething songs of that quarter and rank each one on a scale of 0 to 5: Terrible, Bad, Meh, Decent, Good, Excellent. Occasionally a song will be Exceptionally Great (a rank of 6). Hopefully *lesss* occasionally, a song will be Exceptionally Horrid (a rank of *negative* 1).
B. For each year as a whole, I will list my Top Ten(-Plus) Best Hits, with Honorable Mentions. I will also list my Top Ten(-Plus) Worst Hits, with Dishonorable Mentions. In keeping with precedents previously set by a few of the YouTube critics, the format of the Top Ten+ is a bit more fungible (you can call it "cheaty" if you like)... for example, I can choose to lump everything by one artist into one entry. I can guarantee there will be some of this going on because I've already prepped one year for writing about, and realized very quickly I wouldn't survive without cheating a bit. Maybe more than just a bit.
C. And for each year I will look at the Year-End list and rank each song on it with the same scale as the quarterly rankings. The Year-End list will always include some songs that didn't make any quarterly list, and likely leave out some songs that DID make a quarterly list. The year-end list will be at least 100 songs, and almost certainly more, for reasons I'll explain below.
Anyway, before I go any further, allow me to set up the ground rules.
( Ground rules )
Again, for the quarterly Top 20+ and year-end Top 100+ there are usually six tiers of rankings: Terrible, Bad, Meh, Decent, Good, and Excellent. On rare occasions I will add Exceptionally Horrid and Exceptionally Great categories as needed.
And with that, stay tuned for my first post of actual content in this series, coming soon! If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
