where I’ll put thicker stuff
In my mind, this page is supplementary to The List. The List is the core project, and this, writing these dumb little essays, is something I do just because. I set aside an amount of time every day to spend on organizing The List and the site and all that jazz, but sometimes there’s not much to do. These are what pop up when I’ve got extra time burning a hole in my pocket.
Don’t expect anything that resembles a legit review*. I don’t particularly care for the typical review, at least not for music. They’re often just a convoluted way to justify your opinion with your big vocabulary and perfect understanding of all context of everything. They don’t really mean anything, you know? They don’t construct an argument, they present an opinion in the wrappings of an argument. They take so much care to describe the specific sounds with words, but I have a hard time seeing that as anything other than posturing. Words aren’t the language that was designed to describe sound, music is.
What I write here, again, is about me. It’s about me trying to understand why I feel the way about the music I feel things about. It’s about me trying to construct a model for effective music, a model for me. A model so that I can then use words to describe music.
*I’ve tried my hand writing some stuff that kinda resembles a legit review, and I’ve taken all of those down but one. I just don’t believe in them, I think they’re dumb. The Killers are my one exception to this. I’m only leaving that one up because The Killers are special to me in a special way and I think the review communicates that well. I think it’s more clearly about my relationship to The Killers than it is about their music, which is good. Plus, I spent a good chunk of time on it and I don’t hate it. So it can stay. Nothing else, though. Probably.
Anyway.
here’s the stuff:
No More English! (for three months)
I’m gonna be living in Taiwan for the next three months. I’ll be studying Mandarin. I’m super excited, and I’m determined to make the most of it. I want to develop some competence with the language, I want to develop some competence with the culture, and in general I just really want to do a…
On the Reduction of Infinite Music (into Musical Canons)
THE COMMENT “What? You haven’t heard of or listened to so-and-so? They’re huge! How could you have not listened to so-and-so? They’re a cultural phenomenon, they’re a fundamental part of modern music! If you haven’t listened to so-and-so, if you don’t know x song, how can you say you know music at all?” This is…
New FAQ page
Pretty much what’s on the tin. A new page with FAQs. I’ll be updating it more at need, but I think I’ve got some good essential info in there to start off for now.
On Ever-Changing Tastes and Preferences
I try to understand the biases I may have in my rankings. I don’t care about trying to avoid them. Ultimately my rankings are more about my preference than about what I suspect is quote-unquote “good”. Of course I’ll take note of those biases as part of my rationale, but they’ll still be a part…
Formalizing RELISTENS (aka Formalizing EDITS take two)
Let’s try this again, shall we? I started formally keeping track of my edits, my EDITS, a while back, and that was great, that was the right call. It was so much the right call, in fact, that I realized I needed to be even more formal and procedural with my editing process. I realized…
Formalizing EDITS
Until now, I’ve made my edits and adjustments opaquely and without any amount of formality. Which is good, because it helps me avoid getting too locked into an initial impression and because it makes it easier for me to do useful work. But it’s bad because it means I keep a less thorough record and…
On Charisma
When I use the word charisma, it’s with a fairly particular definition. Charisma is the quality of magnetism, of attractive force. When something draws others into itself, it is charismatic. I believe that charisma is a huge element of media, of music. It’s the hook, the bait, it’s what keeps an audience engaged and attentive…
On Lyrics
Lyrics are interesting because I don’t really listen to them, and that’s always mildly surprising to me. I care about words, I think they’re important. I think poetry has great potential for beauty and I derive immense satisfaction from its potent combinations of words and phrases, its truths and its lies. I love words. And…
A Revamp
I’ve overhauled my rankings from B- and below, for a couple reasons. I noticed how many artists were being funneled into B-, noticed how I still had never used the D or F tiers, noticed how I mostly avoided C tier. I’d been putting everybody I didn’t like into C-Tier, and if somebody didn’t offend…
A History
I’ve decided to make a post each time I update The List with a new artist. Nothing much, just artist, rank, and which number artist they are as I’ve ranked them, chronologically. This makes me feel like I’m doing more on this site, yes, but I think more importantly it gives me a record, a…
On Pleasant and Interesting
When I listen to music, when I consume any kind of media, really, there are two primary components from which I derive value. Those are, you guessed it, pleasure and interest. If something- a movie, a painting, a novel, a song, is “good”, it means that that thing is pleasant and/or interesting. If something is…
Triple Digits!
I’m just excited and proud of myself, is all. One hundred artists ranked! That’s 100, one-zero-zero, folks! I’ve been consistently working on this project every day for the last year now (a little longer), though I started it less officially a month or two (or something) before that. I’ve since listened to a loooooot of…
On Trust
This is probably self explanatory and unnecessary, but I think it bears mentioning. I enjoy judging artists off of a fairly comprehensive understanding of everything they’ve published. The hitch is that nobody is perfectly consistent, and so you’ll get people who suck but get better, you’ll get people who are better and then suck, and,…
On Covers
First, definitions. A “cover” is a work that is largely derivative of a different, largely original work. Of course, nothing is original and everything is derivative, but I think this definition is functional when taken in good faith. Also a work that is largely derivative of a different, largely original work is what I’m calling…
On Performance and Composition
This is brief, but I use these words specifically enough that I think it’s worth making a space to clearly define them. The most concise simplification is to say that performance is execution and composition is design. The two ideas are easy to see as counterparts to each other. What’s supposed to happen and what…
On Craft and Art
I’ll start with my definitions. Craftsmanship is technique, the ability to make vision into substance. The ability to make effective craft. Artistry is a quality of vision, a frame, a set of priorities, one geared toward producing art. There are two primary qualities of vision: that of the craftsman and that of the artist. The…
Band: The Killers (S+)
The Killers are my favorite band, and they likely will never stop being my favorite band. It’s possible I’ll hate every future song they ever release; it’s possible I find another band that just blows them out of the water; it’s possible they’ll turn out to be actual, literal murderers. There will still be a…
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