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Best Albums of 2003, Scientifically
thdexter writes "Two guys statistically analyzed the best albums of 2003, from some thirty top-10 lists, giving value to how often an album was mentioned by editors and recording its mean place. White Stripes came out on top, with Outkast below. Full results are available on the site."
True that. The whole list seems to be devised of how many times an album was mentioned. Let's put it this way (with no offense to the WS):
"Elephant from the White Stripes was horrible."
"The new White Strips album, Elephant, came in, and man is it bad.
"Elephant seems to be the weak link in the otherwise strong chain of White Stripes albums"
Etc, etc. Even though all of those are bad, sinse it's mentioned so much the list catagorizes it as good.
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
Who listens to the latest music anyways? It all sucks. I gave up on pop in 1995 and have never looked back. Besides, if you think about it, the latest music they play on the radio isn't necessarily good anyways. Fate will decide that. If you listen to classic rock and oldies, you are guaranteed the best music from that era. Instead, people who listen to what's on the radio now are merely guinea pigs for deciding what will become classic music. I have no patience for this and prefer to wait for this all to get sorted out. I guess that's why this list could be useful, but I think I'll wait for it all to get consolidated into a best of 2003 CD for 10 bucks :)
One week of the year? Every week of the year? Which chart? Not exactly what Id call a proper survey although the basic idea is a good one.
I do have to wonder though, surely with the charts being based on airplay and sales they must get mentioned every time they are played soo I would expect high listed songs to be mentioned more hence increase their mean? Does this survey seem a little biased to anyone else?
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
Let's see if I can find a way to summarize the year's best music to my ears...
:: this is by far the best soundtrack ever produced for this film. Mixing jazz, pure psychedelia, and even throwing in a Art Ensemble of Chicago cover, this album ties everything that is meaningful about the psychedelic experience into a beautiful package. A must listen.
#1 : Do Make Say Think's Winter Hymn, Country Hymn, Secret Hymn. Amazing production, and a very contemporary look on the merging between what dark jazz promised with a certain hopefulness that lingers long after the album is over.
#2 : Howard Hello's Don't Drink His Blood - Deceptive in its pop simplicity, but with this dark streak. Again, mostly instrumental but with highly processed singing in places that borders on sinister. A real sleeper on the radar.
#3 : The Cinematic Orchestra's Man With a Movie Camera
#4 The Microphones' Mount Eerie -- In addition to the wonderful vinyl pressing, with hand-stitched sewn sleeve, this album is a complete trip through the forces of nature and man's place within it. Deep and meditative, good for listening once every two months or so when you are ready to confront your closet.
There were dozens of other great releases this year, but those were the ones I was most thankful for.
On the reprint front, we were given a brilliant repackaging of the Soft Machine's BBC Radio Volume 1. Fantastic music from this forgotten band, at their very best.
d. Taylor Singletary,
reality technician techra.el
That list looks pretty good. Mabey I didn't read enough into the links on the site, but I wonder where they got those list that they analyzed. It doesn't look like your usual, pop-music pushing fare. There are some good, and - gasp - original artists on there.
The White Stripes and The Strokes deserve their accolades, what with being the poster boys for the garage sound. Radiohead is, of course, always welcome in a top albums list. Blur was a welcome surprise, as I never heard much attention given to the album. Mabey I was asleep.
The real original artists on the list, however, are The Rapture and The Postal Service. Both have this techno rock blend going on that is great to hear in an era where most music sounds good. Definately buy both albums if you haven't. The Postal Service was a collaberation between two guys who sent tapes back and forth in the mail to create the album. One of them was the singer in Death Cab for Cutie. From what I heard, it was just sort of a fun side project never inteded for release, but they ended up liking the sound so they put out the record.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
They simply quantified references to certain artists/titles within a small batch of source material and then declared it to be a top-10 list. What would be a more accurate description of their list would be "most often referenced albums in music editorials". Trying to quantitatively rate music based upon the analysed opinions of the music press is pointless. Music itself is a very intimate and personal medium, experienced differently by all listeners. Trying to rate a particular albums's ability to reach its listeners requires a much deeper understanding of psychology than is currently possible. That being said, the top-10 list has value in that it's quite good at showing what is en-vogue at present. Atleast, in the opinion of the music media. Then again, my favorite music is sugary JPOP and trance as found in Dance Dance Revolution, so I won't venture an opinion as to the music selected by the list :)
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
Using a method like this, you can't possibly divine the quality of a product (an album in this case). You might be able to obtain some information on popularity, but as we know, nothing is more unrelated than how much the public likes a thing and how good the thing really is.
we discovered a new way to think.
This is a couple of peoples who colected statistics of most sold albums/etc. I don't see why it means it's the best. It's all a question about advertisement, luck, and so on.
There are many great and unknown bands around the world that is very popular other places. I could use myself as good example.
I listen a lot to a band called Blind Guardian. This band has a relatively big popularity, especially in Europe. With a majority of the fans based in Europe, it could also be left out in the statistics, as I guess it's based upon a majority of american statistics.
As a bottom line: These statistics are no good for any normal person, since everyone has their own taste for music.
Best album in 2003 was my family photo album.
I am sorry, but the music industry is beyond rescue. When there are songs people don't even bother kazaa-ing for free, you know the industry is dissolving to hell.
I wish there was some way to draw some attention to Blind Guardian's music.
So much better, in my view, than the plethora of common market-as-you-go albums out there.
It was a great year for my music collection too. I purchased the back catalog of a bunch of artists and now I have an amazing 200 albums (note that I had a total of fifteen albums in October 2002).
My favorite releases this year were:
And my favorites that I purchased this year (but are not from this year) are:
And, naturally, my favorite albums overrall (at least until I get more albums). This list is unordered because it is really hard for me to rank any of these above the others, they are just my ten favorite albums.
Aside from Dream Theater and Iron Maiden I bet that no one else knows who any of those bands are. It sucks being a metal head in todays pop punk and fake metal world. I'm so lonely.
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
I have all of Iced Earth's albums as well as the Dark Genesis boxed set. The three disc version of Alive in Athens is awesome. The album is worth it if only for the versions of the pre-Barlow songs because the versions on Days of Purgatory kind of ... suck. Maybe they would sound better if I hadn't owned the originals first, but the Stormrider stuff (except for Stormrider itself because Schaeffer re-recorded the vocals for that, just like on the original album) didn't sound right. But the live versions of the songs sound amazing .
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
2002 was truly awesome. Opeth in particular is interesting; I had never heard a band that could go from Death Metal to Prog Rock in the same song and do it well until I heard them.
Opeth is even kind of mainstream nowadays; my friend Ryan's 16 year old sister listens to them (hmmm...a 16 year old girl with good musical taste but related to my best friend). I don't think the stupid hot topic nu metal kids like them much because they aren't "heavy" enough because they've only ever heard stuff from Damnation (at least the ones that I know around here).
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
The Almighty Punchdrunk is Gene Hoglan's one off project. One listen and you'll fall in love with it; it's like Strapping Young Lad only heavier. The album can be had from Hevy Devy Records and I highly recommend it.
Zao is a Hardcore band turned Metalcore turned Crap. There is one original member left: Jesse Smith. A few of my friends knew him and the reason they started to suck at the end was because he hated the band. They kept breaking up after every album only to finish up whatever tour they were obligated to do and then have half the band leave and three new guys show up to fill their places because Jesse Smith decided not to call it quits. The vocalist from the third album onward, Dan Weydant, had a problem with never showing up for shows so they had a backup that toured with them and that eventually replaced Dan Weydant when he quit until he decided to unquit and record one more album...and then the whole band decided to call it quits...and then magically they recorded a really crappy final album (Parade of Chaos) and a re-recording of their first album to fufill their recording contract (along with a recently released "Greatist Hits" compilation for a band with six albums and three split sevens). And now, out of nowhere, they decided to unbreakup and then go on tour. And Dan Weydant left again, but it seems like he really did this time. The new stuff sounds better than their last album did at least, maybe Jesse Smith decided to like the band again. Bleed Zao the only site on the net with any current news on Zao.
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
Actually, it's number 2 :)
...and so on, down to
...and so on.
s Sorted.txt which is over 3000 entries, rated entirely mathematically. I wanted to figure out what albums people kept buying most, and study their sound engineering.
:)
If you take all multiplatinum albums ever, by number of platinums, and weight them by the number of years they've been out (sales has increased over the years and you want to reward continued sales and re-sales of the same album in your figures) you get:
675 Eagles, Eagles Greatest Hits
660 Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
594 The Beatles, The Beatles (White Album)
506 Pink Floyd, The Wall
494 Michael Jackson, Thriller
432 Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
420 The Beatles, The Beatles 1967-1970
420 Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
405 Elton John, Greatest Hits
400 Boston, Boston
399 AC/DC, Back In Black
392 The Beatles, The Beatles 1962-1966
390 Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
384 Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
375 Eagles, Hotel California
374 The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
360 Bee Gees, Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
352 The Beatles, Abbey Road
336 Billy Joel, Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II
324 Various, Great Band Era
324 Journey, Frontiers
312 Meat Loaf, Bat Out Of Hell
308 Led Zeppelin, Houses Of The Holy
300 Carole King, Tapestry
290 Simon & Garfunkel, Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits
275 James Taylor, James Taylor's Greatest Hits
258 Elvis Presley, Elvis's Golden Records, Volume 1
256 Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin I
255 Bruce Springsteen, Born In The U.S.A.
252 Patsy Cline, Greatest Hits
252 Kenny Rogers, Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits
250 Doobie Brothers, Best Of The Doobies
230 Van Halen, Van Halen
221 Prince & The Revolution, Purple Rain Soundtrack
217 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Deja Vu
216 The Beatles, Rubber Soul
216 Billy Joel, The Stranger
215 Johnny Mathis, Merry Christmas
001 K-Ci & JoJo, X
001 Joe, My Name Is Joe
001 Jill Scott, Who Is Jill Scott?: Words And Sounds, Volume 1
001 Jennifer Lopez, J. Lo
001 Jagged Edge, J. E. Heartbreak
001 Ja Rule, Rule 3:36
001 Godsmack, Awake
001 George Strait, Latest Greatest Straitest Hits
001 Fuel, Something Like Human
001 Everclear, Songs From An American Movie Volume One
001 Erykah Badu, Mama's Gun
That's from _my_ statistical wank: http://www.airwindows.com/analysis/EvergreenAlbum
Sorry- The Eagles Greatest Hits is 'the best album of all time' if you are looking at customer-driven sales numbers. Led Zep IV is number two by the numbers