2011 Year-End List-Making Process-Discussion Thread

How do you formulate your lists? What kind of statement are you attempting to make about 2011, music in 2011, your attitude toward music in 2011, what kind of person you are/were in 2011 as reflected through your music listening, etc., etc.? How many outlets do you have to make lists for? Do they differ substantially? If so, how and why?

i'll start with your last question: because.

I am about 90 percent done with the first lists I was asked to supply, for The Wire. Top 10 albums of the year, Top 10 reissues of the year. My albums list is about 70% metal, leaning toward meat 'n' potatoes death metal and punkish grind, and a few jazz titles. My reissues list is all jazz and Latin music.

If I'd had room (say, a Top 20), my albums of the year list would probably have contained Latin pop, some minimal (but loud) techno, and J-pop and/or K-pop titles, as well as more jazz and more metal; there are definitely albums, like Deicide's To Hell With God and Gui Boratto's III, that I wish I could make space for but can't.

When I'm making a list for The Wire, I know that my role, to some degree, is to be a knuckle-dragging American caveman, and while I don't go out of my way to be that guy, I really do listen to more metal than anything else, and I'm not gonna pretend I've heard more than 5 percent of the music covered in the magazine all year. So filling out a Top Ten for them is in some ways an exercise in futility - I know nothing I choose is gonna make the Top 50 they publish in the magazine (the one exception, ever, was in 2006, when someone besides me gave Celtic Frost's Monotheist the nod, and it made it in at like #47 or something), but my list will at least stand out from all the others published on the website.

I do the list the same way every year: I keep a running document of stuff that sounds really great to me, with a couple of notations by date e.g. "as of July this rules" etc. I organize it this month or next. The thing my list won't really reflect this year is that I listened to classical music more than anything else; that's not a field I keep current on as far as release schedules. So like my favorite things to listen to this year were collections of Scriabin's piano music and Freddy Kempf playing Prokofiev and this Russian pianist named Yevgeny Sudbin, and the Ultima Thule podcast (which I put on my year-end list last year). I think my lists in recent years reflect that I'm pretty tuned out as far as what the state of music is generally, so about me that probably says that I'm somewhat withdrawn and solitary in how I listen. That extends to metal as well as other genres, I don't really feel tuned in to what people are enjoying in metal; I loved the In Solitude record this year, and the Hate Eternal & Goreaphobia & Goatmoon & there's a new Ride for Revenge due in December, but most of the lead-review metal releases are things I don't care about at all; my dB ballot tends to end up giving 10 points to somebody who otherwise might have had, like, three altogether. This isn't "contrarianism" though at least not by design, it really is just me listening to what I like and not listening to what doesn't do it for me.

i keep an ipod playlist throughout the year and then i look at it

i got nothing. necro deathmort and pj harvey, that's about it. hell, i don't know, i only do pazz & jop and i'll find ten records somewhere for that. i don't think i even send anything in for decibel anymore. actually, last year i think they made me do one. most of it wasn't metal.

i slip in and out of consciousness as far as the current year is concerned.

scott the goreaphobia album, c'mon that shit rules

i could easily do a top 500 of albums i loved this year that didn't come out this year. and that i heard for the first time this year. but they don't have a poll for that.

i don't think i heard it. i liked that midnight album a bunch. i would vote for that somewhere.

i'm not normal though. other people will come here and be normal. i just can't get used to listening to music on a computer. i doubt i ever will. and thats how promos come now. i could email a zillion labels and they would send me a zillion albums via a zillion download links, but i don't do it.

i have to review an album this weekend and i have the download and i've been putting it off for two days and i REALLY like the group and i know it will sound horrible and i will have to pretend to be excited about it. and if i burned it to a cdr it would still sound horrible.

the future belongs to the lex!

I ordered the Goreaphobia from Sevared, to properly enjoy a metal album I like to blast it on my boombox

i feel like an idiot. sorry, phil! disregard my posts.

What kind of statement are you attempting to make about 2011

I've been drawing up year-end singles/songs lists for different publications (three, with some overlap) since 1985. The amount of new music I hear in any given year has varied, and the way I've arrived at a final list has varied too, depending upon how much I heard and how much of it I liked--there were a couple of years in the 00's where I had to scramble. But I've never tried to make any kind of a statement about any year, and I can't even imagine trying to do so. There are people who can do that, but not me. I mean, I've certainly listed songs that reflected the news of the day--Legendary K.O. being an obvious example--and sometimes the news of the day has framed how I've heard other songs: "Nothing Has Been Proved" seemed to speak directly to all the scandals of its year. And in 2008, I had two election-specific songs--the Ron Clark Academy and Figghole--but, in all honesty, that was more a snapshot of what was going on in my own life, how obsessed I had been with the election, than any attempt to make a statement.

Anyway, I don't think that's what you mean--you're talking about a statement about the state/future of pop music. Which, for me, is an even more emphatic no.

Okay--I reread your original post, and you account for different meanings of statement. To quote a very great Texan, oops.

To quote a very great Texan, ^hoos.

First time making a proper proper list (that actually counts down to a favourite). Easier than I thought. Sort by date on iTunes, pick out the songs, throw them all in a playlist. Rearrange through comparison. Glance over the Last.fm charts to see if you haven't missed or misplaced something. Picking the top 5 or so was the hardest. I'm listening to the playlist now, just to see how I like the ordering. It's sounding alright.

As for music in 2011 / how I fit into it, it's all in the write up I'm posting w/ the list. I'm not writing for publications, so I have the freedom to do what I like. One track per artist (rules bent for collaborations), in order to vary it a bit. Have stolen a couple of rules from Kieron Gillen which integrate albums into the top tracks list: if an artist has released a lot of work that has been much valued, their representative track climbs higher on the list. Will probs post it up sometime soon, because other end-of-year lists corrupt me horribly and I want to be free of influence. Might even stagger it 50-40, 40-30 etc. Because it's all about the anticipation, innit?

Have stolen a couple of rules from Kieron Gillen which integrate albums into the top tracks list: if an artist has released a lot of work that has been much valued, their representative track climbs higher on the list.

ugh son

WORST rule.

I keep a running document of stuff that sounds really great to me

this is what i try to do, but inevitably i miss dozens of records i've liked but listened to in passing.

k3v and tim otm

my ritual: throughout the year i try to keep a running tally of what i'm listening to (so i'm not scrambling to remember stuff in december), and each month i blog my top 5 albums and singles of the month. then at the end of the year i send my top tens to p&j, my local weekly, and sometimes one or two other places if they ask for it, and i blog my top 50 albums and top 50 singles. usually the singles are all things i love (and always officially released mainstream chart hits, not deep cuts or indie stuff), and the albums list is more 'the better half' of the hundred or so albums i heard just because i like ranking and writing about that much stuff whether or not i love the stuff at the bottom of the list or feel strongly about where it's ranked.

WORST rule.

Please explain, everyone.

'favorite singles' (or songs) lists should rank actual favorite songs, not inflate the value of a song in order to represent love for its artist or parent album.

Everyone does albums lists anyway, that approach simply increases the likelihood of the songs list being a redudant reflection of your albums list.

If anything, I tend not to vote for songs from albums I love on my songs list, unless I've enjoyed it as a standalone song rather than in the context of the album.

also everyone has their own rules and i get that, but i'm personally not a fan of the 'one track per artist' rule (although i usually try to avoid more than one in the top 10). sometimes people have a great year and more than one great single.

i think the trend to nominate album tracks in singles lists is disgusting savagery

As I get older I care less about the order in which I place albums and singles. I have a list of thirty to fifty albums and singles, whittle it to fifteen in December, replay them one more time before emailing the list and comments to Pazz and Jop, and the album I like best becomes my album of the year.

engrossing thread

can't wait for omar little to link to it derisively elsewhere

these are all posts very much in character btw

so let me get this straight: everyone keeps track of their favorite albums and songs, and then at the end of the year, everyone references those albums and songs when making one final list

got it

sometimes I blindfold myself to keep things innaresting

If the list is boring then I have failed.

so let me get this straight: everyone keeps track of their favorite albums and songs, and then at the end of the year, everyone references those albums and songs when making one final list

man there's so much fine detail that you're missing here it's embarrassing but I can see how an outsider wouldn't catch the nuance of what deep cats like us are really up to ITT

I remember Planet Sound used to have a rule that if a song was featured in their singles list then the artist wasn't allowed in the albums list, and vice versa.

my best of 2011 is going to be a list of the tracks i liked the most in no particular order

i put rebecca black at the top of the list

i don't remember how i constructed lists b4 "friday"

an outsider wouldn't catch the nuance of what deep cats like us are really up to ITT

"cats" referring to people is criminally underused slang FYI.

I tried and somewhat failed keeping the singles and albums list apart this year. Sue me.

*calls lawyer*

And if you only put together a singles list, not an albums list, "album track" has no meaning; everything's just a song.

well it's not a "singles" list then

Song list, then, if it makes you feel better.

clem actually otm in that my tracks list is not strictly a singles list by any means

Argument that's worn out by now: define "single" in 2011.

clemenza do you (or anyone else) do a tracks list but not an albums list? because i didn't even think anyone did that for that mentality to make sense

In practical terms people's preferences regarding nominating "album tracks" probably flow from whether they tend to consume music more in single-like format or album format. I hear many more standalone songs I want to praise than albums, so while I struggle to put together a list of even 20 albums that I genuinely love in most years, a top 50 songs list is always a painful cutting exercise. This probably results in me wanting to avoid overcluttering my singles list with songs from albums I love, when it involves cutting out other stuff which hence won't end up in either list.

I've been sending in a singles list and no album list to Pazz & Jop since '96 or '97; I put together an album list for my first publication in 1985, and have compiled nothing but singles/song lists since.

well, I def mean that my song of the year is an album track from a prominent indie act, and that I will probably be voting for said album in my albums ballot.

u guys are somewhat otm, but I have had little exposure to radio or MTV (besides country radio, which has not been my choice to listen to) ; albums usually dominate how I experience music, but moreso this year.

(part of this has been because of personal choice, part of this has been because of necessity)

(w/r/t not having any exposure to radio or MTV)

i kinda feel like even if i was only consuming music in albums form, i'd use tracks lists for great songs from albums i otherwise hate, as oppose to token choices from albums i love lots of songs from

^I did that too

they're not exactly token choices either; each song on the list I am preparing was a song that I could not listen to enough

which is a big reason why I said I tried and failed to keep them apart

yeah i mean i say i keep them separate but seems like every year i end up with the same artist on my top 10 albums and top 10 singles two or three times. but that's when the album is undeniable and the single is undeniable and i just can't cut either.

i keep an ipod playlist throughout the year and then i look at it

i do this too, although only for tracks. i also keep a notepad document of particularly notable albums and then use that to assemble a top X of the year. theres only one place ill have to assemble a list for (other than ilx i guess) so its p easy.

mostly influenced by some dude/ilm i only list stuff released as a single or a 7" on my trax ballot

in the everything-is-a-single loose internet mp3 era i have trouble w/ the it-must-have-an-official-single-release -- esp because a lot of rap artists in particular dont really think about 'singles' when they are throwing out mp3 folders every couple of months, and many aren't good at choosing them ... i'm pretty liberal w/ what constitutes a 'single' at this point BUT i am extremely conscious of trying not to pick album tracks that are from albums id otherwise vote for. finding 'great singles' for me is almost always going to involve picking tracks that arent on great albums; the rare overlap means that it's never really an issue for me

― bon /voya/ ge 2.0 (some dude), Sunday, November 13, 2011 10:27 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

ok lol

yeah I forgot I was going to ask about that like in 77 or something

define "single" in 2011.

A song that's considered an A-side. Simple enough.

I've never deviated from considering all songs for my top 100 songs of the year.. if there's 10 songs on an album and all of them are killer, it's quite possible all of them will make an appearance.

I don't think that's ever happened though.

I have a pretty good idea in my head about what constitutes a "single" as opposed to just a "track," but I'm not sure I have the energy to explain it in any way that makes sense to anybody else. (Basically, I guess it has to stand alone, apart from an album, outside my own solipsistic world, somehow, which could mean any of a a number of different ways. Not just an A-side. B-sides are perfectly fine, if they still exist. But it could also be a pre-album leak; could be a track that winds up on, say, a label's dancehall compilation or a DJ mix CD; could be a song that gets airplay -- i.e., I heard it on the car radio two times -- even if a label didn't promote it to do so; could just be reviewed at Singles Jukebox, for Crissakes, even though I look at that site less and less since I got too busy and/or lazy to write for it.) Though, yeah, I try to avoid overlap between my singles and albums lists (and will give singles on the cusp of my top ten the benefit of the doubt if they don't also appear on one of my top ten albums.) As for Phil's questions at the start of this thread, (1) I honestly don't think I try to make any kind of "statement" with my top 10s -- I just try to vote for what I actually liked the most and spent the most time during the year listening to (the list I make for Rhapsody, though, will by necessity be limited to what they actually carry, and my list for the Nashville Scene country poll will be limited to country, which definition I'll probably be less open-ended about than I might've been sometimes in the past; and (2) I keep a running World-file album-list tally through the year, and I'm pretty obsessive about going back and re-listening to stuff through the year to figure out what I'm enjoying more than what else. Most years, this one included, I will have a Top 100 album list at the end of the year that I feel more or less comfortable with. (Like Scott, I have no personal use for downloads, though a couple albums I only ever streamed via Rhapsody will almost definitely make my top 10, which is pretty much what's happened for the past couple years.)

Singles, though, are getting harder and harder to keep track of, partly because (I admit, despite what I said above) the definition is increasingly fuzzy -- I don't have the time or inclination anymore to tally all the singles I might have liked through the year, though I try to at least keep track of ones I really really liked a lot; this year, I'll probably have to trim my top 10 list down from 13 or 14 or so. Also this year, since I mostly stopped listening to the radio in the car and stopped writing for Jukebox, I actually care way more about albums than singles, strangely enough. Grey areas: albums that came out in late 2010 (I'll probably consider one or two for my top 10); reissues (I haven't always discounted them but this year I'm planning to, for some reason); jazz albums (listened a lot to quite a few this year, so a bunch would end up in my top 100, but I doubt more than one will end up in my top 10 because I'm not an expert and don't really trust my own judgment all that much.) Top 10 albums list this year will have more metal than at any time in decades, but it'll all be hard rock/doom.

Also a "single," in my mind: Lead track of an EP. (Don't ask me why; I just think that should count.)

Also: any track that charted individually, anywhere on the planet, during the year. (Not that I really believe I can actually keep track of that. But if I find out a song I love fits that criteria, it's eligible. And if it sounds like I'm being nitpicky yet providing lots of loop-holes, it's actually for selfish practical reasons: Keeping track of all my favorite album tracks of the year, without any perimeters to narrow them down into "singles," is just too hard and overwhelming.)

This would probably be nonsensical to most people, but the second year I put together a year-end ballot, '86, I combined new albums, singles, EPs, and reissues onto one list. (Think I had Psychocandy at #1 and Janet Jackson's "When I Think of You" at #2, or vice versa.) I didn't find that to be a problem at all, and if I were to vote for anything besides just songs today, I'd be inclined to do the same thing.

some weird ass rules in here, just want to see a list of tracks/songs and not some gargantuan catalog either, like 20 or so. it shouldn't have to represent shit or capture some imaginary zeitgeist, just has to be a short list of some good shit i might want to buy is all

Also a single: Any song with an official video (which I'm probably only aware of because some publicist sent me an email linking to the video, which I probably never got around to watching).

Also grey areas: Albums that never actually wound up coming out even though I had the promo advance all year (probably wouldn't vote for those); albums that came out in another country in 2010 or even a couple years earlier but in the U.S. in 2011; albums that first came out in 2010 but in a slightly expanded version on a bigger label in 2011; albums that came out digitally in 2010 but on CD in 2011 (last three instances all fair game, if I didn't hear/connect with the record till this year)

I keep all the new records I've bought this year in a pile together on a shelf (and filter them into the main collection at the end of the year). If I need to make a list, I go through the pile and consider which ones I've played and enjoyed most. If I've not liked something enough to buy a copy, it can fuck off.

f I've not liked something enough to buy a copy, it can fuck off

Agreed – or burned a copy.

i go through last.fm and make up guidelines as i go along, and play around with the order on whims

it really saddens me to realise that songs i've loved deeply will end up placing, like, 46th in my list. people who can't put together a good old 50-strong list of tracks in any given year should not be allowed to make lists, or should at least pass their spare places on to me

Twenty should suit me p well, so you can have my thirty superfluous spaces. Lex.

i shall make good use of them

I never even got round to finishing my 2010 list, so I'm not going to bother with one for this year; seems faintly pointless.

I could make a top 50 tracks/singles list, I just wouldn't even trust it myself, because (like I said) singles are so hard to keep track of these days. My brain would explode just trying to figure out what belongs, and in what order. For some reason, albums are a lot easier for me to rank, even if I realize calibrating them is kinda silly.

yeah cuz there are less albums! my trax list breaks my brain cuz there are HUNDREDS that i love every year - albums, usually only 20-30 that i care about

― bon /voya/ ge 2.0 (some dude), Sunday, November 13, 2011 10:27 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

And some dude's weird fucking obsessions with ilxors continues. I'm sure deej is happy that he's moved on.

xp Well, with albums you can also at least partly rank them by how consistent they are, and stuff like that. With singles there are just not enough variables to go on. And as somebody who still prefers physical copies, especially now that physical copies of singles barely exist, I really don't tend to play them over and over through the year like I do albums, so the all-important frequency-of-play variable doesn't really apply, either.

My year-end track and album lists are usually pretty different from each other, mainly because most of the genres in which I find albums I really love are those in which its difficult to pull a single track from (i.e. its pretty tough to pull a single track from the Atlas Moth or Barn Owl or whatever). But its not tough at all to find one to pull from Pistol Annies or Beyonce (although maybe those are bad examples because both of those are so full of great songs that they'll be on my albums list too).

Anyway, my two lists tend to reflect two totally different sides of my listening.

I've said it a few times, but personally this has been the best year for music in living memory for me. I guess since starting doing more music writing I've found myself following current music a lot more closely, but still it really felt like there was a bit of a sea change this year; that the tropes and trends of the last decade were being given an overhaul, and that some really fantastic sounds and ideas have come out of it.
My list will be based on the music that has excited me, that presented new ideas, or interesting takes on old ones, and music that I find myself coming back to.

So while the Iron & Wine album isn't exactly a sea change, that one'll be in there because it really grew on me and has soundtracked some wonderful times this year. Nicolas Jaar and The Art Department will be in there because they both introduced new ways of thinking about house to me. When Saints Go Machine will be in there too, mainly because it's such a strange beautiful record full of fantastic, memorable songs. I don't think Fucked Up's album will make it, but I do love Queen of Hearts which will prob be top5 in my tracks list.

people who can't put together a good old 50-strong list of tracks in any given year should not be allowed to make lists, or should at least pass their spare places on to me

― all i see is angels in my eyes (lex pretend), Monday, 14 November 2011

I could make a 50 strong list, but for me the bigger a list gets the more reduced the impact for each thing on a list - I prefer shorter lists

people who can't put together a good old 50-strong list of tracks in any given year should not be allowed to make lists

That's one viewpoint; I'd be more inclined to say that anyone who can't write anything interesting or funny about their favourite music of the year, whether it be 10 songs or 500 albums, should not be allowed to make lists. Except I wouldn't say it. Anyone who wants to make a list should make one--it doesn't require a blood test or loyalty oath or anything.

i'm just going to throw out the "NO ONE SHOULD MAKE LISTS. AT ALL." option as long as we're quantifying people's listablity or whatever.

1. f
2. a
3. u
4. x
5. m
6. a
7. r
8. c
9. N
10. O

foiled

And some dude's weird fucking obsessions with ilxors continues. I'm sure deej is happy that he's moved on.

I think that's just a display name joke, Jon. Al once used "run-jaymc and jam master jaymc" as a display name, and I've never beefed with him, afaik.

Im amazed people can think of 20 or 30 albums that they really love. On a good year, theres usually just ten I can think of.

I think that's just a display name joke, Jon. Al once used "run-jaymc and jam master jaymc" as a display name, and I've never beefed with him, afaik.

Yeah, taken in and of itself I have no problem with the display name jokes, its just that he's given me plenty of reasons to think he strongly dislikes me, so its easy for me to probably read too much into it. That Jam Master jaymc was pretty good though, tbh.

it must be tough for clemenza jon to post while lying on his stomach, what with the hurt butt and all

― J0rdan S., Thursday, September 15, 2011 9:25 PM (1 month ago)

k3vin is weirdly fixated on my butt in every thread ever

like i'm pretty certain i've never had one interaction on any thread ever with k3vin, but he keeps following me from thread to thread to talk about the status of my butt

Is there something we should know about your butt?

ask k3vin, he appears to be taking notes

They're calling it "butt chugging."

ask k3vin, he appears to be taking notes

waaa my butt hurts

wtf?

jon, now would be a good time just to leave it imo

I'm so very thrilled to feel welcome in threads on this side of the board now too. I'm not quite sure how I've managed to piss off ilxors that I never interact with, but w/e.

Eh, I'm just confused. I'm tired of being harassed in multiple threads by posters I never talk to.

I think its pretty fair of me to voice my concerns over feeling harassed by a specific poster.

LIST THEM

http://www.pollsb.com/photos/60/12973-really_zac_efron_kissing_guy.jpg

Kind of thought ilx was above this 4chan level trolling shit of singling people out to repeatedly harass them, but I suppose not.

Like I guess if you have a specific problem with me, I'd hope I could help resolve it or whatever, but I'd like to be able to post freely on this board without getting followed from thread to thread by people with the explicit purpose of trying to provoke me.

But, y'know, thanks for ruining a site I really enjoyed being a part of. You guys win.

I liked three albums this year and I think my three album list (so far!) is not irrelevant.

jon...................... is this the first time you've ever seen me make a display name that's a pun on someone else's display name? serious question.

because

Prom Dressantino (some dude)
The stic.man from the hilarious 'Dead Prez' albums (some dude)
e|t|c (some dude)
xhuxk the halls (some dude)
burt_stanton like my daddy (some dude)
CoppaFeelie V (some dude)
buju_banton (some dude)
soon as I stanton in the club I'ma burt (some dude)
missintino (some dude)
on some raggett bullshit, call him billy corgan (some dude)
som nambulistino (some dude)
Autogoon Almanac (some dude)
s1ocrates (some dude)
hoosie bad azz (some dude)
dom sued (some dude)
l8080 gaga (some dude)
the funk docta morbius (some dude)
Shawty Lo Collier (some dude)
far beyond steendriven (some dude)
brewer and what (some dude)
1 drWN 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (Whiney G. Weingarten) (some dude)
nitional biscsuh otmpany (some dude)
big bank cank (some dude)
Soulja Boy Pato (some dude)
trife's rich padgettry (some dude)
"Please Please Meh" (Lennon/McKl0pper) (some dude)
B@t Ma$ters0n (some dude)
radio k3ller (some dude)
herstory womayne (some dude)
they were wein, so she drowned (some dude
radric in manehattan (some dude)
A. Whiney Drown (some dude)
forktongueclovenhoofu (some dude)

::deep breath::

a hoy hoy young mess (some dude)
surmudgeon (some dude)
iiiinfinite jjjjest (some dude)
Jordan York (some dude)
fantast (ico) (some dude)
neal page (some dude)
know the (ledge) (some dude)
Davey Mo Coulier (some dude)
plax r (some dude)
The chickbad from the ludicrous 'ludacris' song (some dude)
itsybitsyspiderMk2 (some dude)
underrated bobos I have honked (some dude)
williamstevenjames (some dude)
hercudeez and nuts affair (some dude)
hann am0n tana (some dude)
R. L. Steen's HOOSbumps (some dude)
DINPLINGS! (some dude)
hong does your geirden gro (some dude)
Tuom Sawyer and Fuckababy Finn (some dude)
lilsoulbrotherlovesdubplatestyle (some dude)
contenderoni (some dude)
a http://bit.ly/kv895M (some dude)
cr?m margera (some dude)
Autism Alamac (some dude)
forkshighwaytopoopon (some dude)
nəverDirty (some dude)

DUDE how the hell do you get offended over BON/VOY/AGE 2.0???????????????????????????????????????????????????

buju_banton (some dude)

btw this is killing me right now

how did you find all those and how can i find mine

this is literally the most in character turn of events ever

ship def keeps an off board list

ha no i just trawled through the finest thread

braggin!!!!!

also suuuuuper lol that jon pretty much called himself the new deej given deej's 'following me from thread to thread' paranoia w/ aero last year

well a lot of the ones from finest were just dn's i used when posting (xpost)

hahahah i never saw "herstory mayne" before. where has he been, anyway?

herstory womayne i mean

I've never given myself an odd or distinctive display name b/c I assumed whatever I might come up with wouldn't be worth it; the only time i ever regret that is when I see some dude's (and occasionally others') awesome riffs on dns. Can't imagine being offended by that kinda thing.

1 drWN 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1

lololol

yeah that one's great

finney i hope you're ready, i am declaring war on you

The stic.man from the hilarious 'Dead Prez' albums (some dude)

I don't even know what that's spoofing, but I'm in tears.

that was the original display name

andy, for the last year or two before being banned passantino was 'The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics'

al was the greatest ever *nostalgic tear*

k3vin is weirdly fixated on kissing my butt in every thread ever

kiu

Now I remember.

xposts

yo jon /via/ this is the point in the thread where you say "my bad, I was wrong" because it has been demonstrated that that's the case. not trying to be a dick but you leveled an accusation which has been disproven so be a gentleman.

Etiquette police calling out Jon for making a mistake but not calling out k3vin k. or J0rdan for being annoying.

you should've posted here 3-5 years ago

He did, and was far less annoying.

also suuuuuper lol that jon pretty much called himself the new deej given deej's 'following me from thread to thread' paranoia w/ aero last year

― MODS DID 10/11 (k3vin k.), Monday, November 14, 2011 6:54 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

rollin my eyes

deej that shit was embarrassing, for real

i don't think jon needs to do anything tbh, but i'd prefer if he kept posting and PLEASE PLEASE for once believe me when i say for the dozenth time that i do not hate him and that his hair trigger temper is pretty much the only thing about him that i think is worthy of a little bit of teasing and joking, but if he really can't handle it then i will try to hold my tongue (display names don't count because that was obv not ridicule or aggression of any kind).

i cant stop lolling @ al's list -- seeing them all stacked together like that is like when i discovered gucci mixtapes

deej that shit was embarrassing, for real

― jon /bemy/ friend 2.0 (some dude), Monday, November 14, 2011 8:56 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it was definitely an underhand pitch to state my annoyance w/ j0hn in that way, but he totally was literally going into threads he wouldn't otherwise read just to disagree w/ me about shit he clearly didnt care about

like, i don't know how it wouldn't be apparent to anyone paying attention.

yeah i need a one-a-day calendar or coffee table book based on those

Shawty Lo Collier (some dude)

i mean c'mon

or he was clicking on threads about things he's not especially interested in and making conversation because he was bored, like every fucking one of us does here all the damn time

I feel left out

i don't think jon needs to do anything tbh

except fucking chill out

jon's temper is fucking weird, at least 20 ppl on ilx take worse abuse on a routine basis and are more composed

he wasnt 'making conversation' he was disagreeing w/ me about everything i posted about -- we disagree all the time, but we also agree about a fair amount -- it def felt like he was just picking fights at one point

jon is a good guy

display names don't count because that was obv not ridicule or aggression of any kind

this is an ideal display-name, btw.

1 drWN 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (Whiney G. Weingarten) (some dude)

every damn time i see the dead prez/dom dname im annoyed all over again that shiip got 2 it first

That's not even a full list either afaict. Like there's a couple I remember that I don't think I saw up there (admin logbs, Damp)

I must admit, attention-whore that I am, that I never inspired one of ship's dn parodies; not even a 'Bugs A. Homie' or anything...

I feel ostracised for not having my name punned on. Boohoo.

"Please Please Meh" (Lennon/McKl0pper) (some dude)
"Please Please Meh" (Lennon/McKl0pper) (some dude)
"Please Please Meh" (Lennon/McKl0pper) (some dude)
"Please Please Meh" (Lennon/McKl0pper) (some dude)
"Please Please Meh" (Lennon/McKl0pper) (some dude)

yo jon /via/ this is the point in the thread where you say "my bad, I was wrong" because it has been demonstrated that that's the case. not trying to be a dick but you leveled an accusation which has been disproven so be a gentleman.

Just logging in for one last time to specifically address this here, yeah, I didn't mean to level any sort of "accusation" against some dude and my subsequent pissiness was more for the k3vin trolling bullshit than at some dude. I know some dude has a long history of sometimes funny, sometimes not punny display names, but given his history of beefing with me I misread it to be a little more personal than I'm sure it was intended. So, yeah, I apologize for calling out some dude - wrong place, wrong time. But its not some dude that's chasing me off, it's people like k3vin and J0rdan that feel the need to doggypile on me when it doesn't even involve them. This is usually a great place, but its becoming less and less fun for me to post here because of pretty much specifially those two dudes. I know I've had a history of reading too much into shit and taking it personally, which, yeah, something I need to work on. But it does kind of bum me out that its pretty much universally considered my problem for not being chill and people are quick to point that out, but no ones willing to step up and call out people for harassing me. Like the onus should not be on me to be more thick-skinned, the onus should be on them to, y'know, not be pestering trolls.

Anyway, some dude's display name is cool and has nothing to do with me leaving.

he wasnt 'making conversation' he was disagreeing w/ me about everything i posted about -- we disagree all the time, but we also agree about a fair amount -- it def felt like he was just picking fights at one point

also the way you put this is doubtless true ("it felt like [I] was picking fights") it wasn't true then & isn't now, feel obligated to point that out even though it's hardly important now that we live in the era of aero-déejtante

...although, that should begin.

jon you're a cool dude and i don't want you to leave but maybe a break wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if you're gonna let something this innocuous get to you

i do apologize for making you upset but as al said it wasn't meant as anything more than a light teasing, come on dude, internet

yeah, don't leave permanently

I guess I just operate on a different definiton of "innocuous" than you do. I mean, some dude's punny display name, totally innocuous. Following someone into multiple threads solely to accuse them of being butthurt all the time, I don't think that is so innocuous.

I just basically have a problem with the default excuse of trolls being, "why so sensitive"? Sure, but its also just as easy for you not to troll someone in the first place.

jon, the best way to put a halt to this is to keep posting thread-relevant material.

That's a completely fair point wrt to this thread. But I'm talking about in threads where I am in a totally thread relevant discussion and I still get trolled by k3vin and J0rdan.

i think alfred means take it to 77 tbh. ilx beefs will happen, but this is now taking up a large part of the thread.

Sorry, I've never been invited to the 77 board, so I don't have that option to discuss it anywhere else.

engrossing thread

― J0rdan S., Sunday, November 13, 2011 2:51 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can't wait for omar little to link to it derisively elsewhere

― some dude, Sunday, November 13, 2011 2:54 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1979/ga790114.gif

define "single" in 2011.

A song that's considered an A-side. Simple enough.

Sincere question: A-side of what? Do they still press CD singles? I honestly don't know. When Billboard compiles its Hot 100 chart these days, what criteria are they using? I thought it was some combination of airplay (on whatever passes for a hit radio station these days), downloads, YouTube hits, ringtones, physical sales (again--of what?), etc. So maybe that's simple, but it's not as simple as it was in 1972, or even 1989. I mean, I know certain songs are designated as singles, but without a corresponding physical object, I'm a lot less sure of what that means than I was 20 years ago.

Anyway, for me it's a moot point. Since I don't vote for albums, and many of my favourite songs in any given year are non-charting songs, it's a much more accurate representation of my year to simply vote for songs.

It's a loose definition.. not really something concrete, as other people mentioned earlier. I'm having trouble thinking of examples that fall on the line between what's clearly an A-side and what isn't..

But I disagree with people who say "every song is a single because it's 2011."

just vote for songs. just because it wasn't a single where you live doesn't mean it wasn't a single in silesia or in the cairngorms

Fair enough--I don't pay attention to charts nearly as closely as I did 15-20 years ago, and if I did, I imagine I'd be able to balance all that stuff and identify singles as easily as I did then. Seeing as album tracks had already started creeping into my year-end lists by the mid-'90s (I know I voted for Yo La Tengo's "Moby Octopad" one year without giving a moment's thought to whether or not it was a single--checking now, it wasn't), and maybe even before that, I just stopped caring. I think some of the world has moved in my direction, but clearly most people still prefer to stick to as precise a definition as possible of what constitutes a single. (On a somewhat related note, one of my favourite things ever was when J. Hoberman included Game 6 of the '86 World Series on his year-end film list.)

people's preferences regarding nominating "album tracks" probably flow from whether they tend to consume music more in single-like format or album forma

As somebody who consumes music way more in album form, this is true for me -- but again, probably in the opposite direction from what Tim F was suggesting when he wrote that post above. In other words, I avoid voting for mere "album tracks" (as in, not singles in any way I can verify whatsoever) on my singles ballot precisely because there are too many album tracks to keep track of and choose from. Limiting the definition just seems more practical -- but also makes sense to me philosophically, since it demands that I'm not the only person on earth who perceives the song in question as a single.

Doesn't bother me a bit if I'm the only person on Earth who perceives a song as being worth a vote--all I want to do is figure out and vote for my favourite songs of the year.

yeah but that approach has its biases - as does any other, admittedly - it's just lame when the overlap between album and singles lists is so strong, like what's the point

The point is that I'm voting for my ten favourite songs of the year. How it's marketed or perceived is irrelevant to me. I understand that that runs counter to the format of the polls themselves, which is to say albums go here and singles go there, but unless someone specifically says "You can't do that" to me--and no one ever has (seeing as I'm one vote among many hundred, why would they?)--it doesn't concern me.

Oh--you're saying the confluence of albums and singles lists is lame. Maybe, I don't know. Thinking of the things I tend to vote for, I don't think my own ballot has much bearing on that.

who knows why the deep cut sings

^^^

Okay, this is not an innocuous display name. I'm not imagining this shit and I'm not sure why I'm just expected to shrug it off as "playful".

because adults shouldn't get all in a huff when someone joking refers to them as a "biatche"

you do you, but i don't think it requires an abnormally thick skin to withstand "jon/bia/tche 2.0"

I could buy that if I'd ever interacted with Lamp. It doesn't come across as "joking" or "playful" when its out of the blue and from someone not even involved in the conversation.

But you guys contine to stand by your lame excuse of "lol just jokes" and continue making ILX a completely unpleasant place to post.

well i have no opinion on lamp's display name but i would venture to say just having been around ilx for five years or so, if you can't brush that low level and innocuous trolling off your shoulder, it might just be better to take a hike

not that i'm encouraging or rooting for such a thing, i genuinely enjoy having you around, but idk man

Adults shouldn't be throwing around insults so freely. Really tired that this stuff continues on ILM. I thought there had been some improvement in the overall tone here.

i still don't understand where jon was insulted. he got overly pissed over a poster making a "bon voyage" "joke", then everyone was like "hey man, chill out, it's totally innocuous" and then he threatened to leave ilx and then lamp admittedly tried to stir something up, but on the level of stirring something up, lamp's twirling his finger around in lake michigan w/ that display name imo

I don't know whats confusing. I acknowledged that I took some dude's dn in the wrong spirit and apologized for calling him out. As I've explained a couple times, its people like you and k3vin barging in and stirring shit up when it had nothing to do with either of you that bothers me.

I mean, enough of this, particularly in this thread. This was a good thread started in good spirit and I don't want to continue to shit all over it. Last thing I'm gonna say is that I think its pretty lol that the guys doing the harrassing are the ones that get to decide that it's just playful and in what spirit its to be taken. World doesn't work that way, maybe you'll figure that out someday.

hey guys i'm home!

haven't caught up on the thread. jon i hope we're cool? let's be cool.

sorry that last post was in goofy dn from yesterday btw

dude we're making fun because your spaz-outs are totally amusing and characteristic at this point, we don't hate you or anything. just like, look at yourself right now. read your posts and tell yourself to chill the fuck out

and given the fact that jordan and i both probably overpost to this board as it is it's pretty inaccurate (on top of paranoid) to say we're 'following you' from thread to thread

xp lol

jon you're right and neither i nor kevin nor al nor anyone on the board can tell him you how you should take things, but i'll offer for the final time that your definition of "harassment" -- as it pertains strictly to internet posts on ilx -- is very broad imo and you would probably do good to take a second and think what actual ilx "harassment" is like, cuz i promise you that this is not it

but again, do what you do

don't leave!

i mean i really don't think jon should leave, i already said that, but if he can't take "jon/bia/tche" i'm really not sure where to turn

I must admit, attention-whore that I am, that I never inspired one of ship's dn parodies; not even a 'Bugs A. Homie' or anything...

― vultures of the english horn now to shit (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, November 15, 2011 12:56 AM (18 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I feel ostracised for not having my name punned on. Boohoo.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, November 15, 2011 1:19 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i've tried w/ both you guys but haven't thought of anything better than 'dick mouthy' tbh

iiiinfinite jjjjest (some dude)

this is still one of my faves

I could buy that if I'd ever interacted with Lamp. It doesn't come across as "joking" or "playful" when its out of the blue and from someone not even involved in the conversation.

ive never posted abt yr crazy overreactions to really innocuous posts before bcuz who cares, i did think it was an opportunity for lolz last night but tbh i had already forgotten that was my dn when i posted this evening. idk to me you can come across like the dude who screams at the teenage barista at starbucks cuz she got his order wrong and if you tell him to calm down is like WELL its just supposed to be OKAY that i get the wrong kind of MILK!! abt it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgi7QCu1qAo

Tuom Sawyer and Fuckababy Finn (some dude)

^^forgot abt this one

Some Dude dn list truly incredible, makes me feel lame for never changing mine.

I am with clemenza about the tracks list; my list is not 100% subjective but it's as near to that as I can get it. And what I mean by that is that it's based solely on how I gauge my personal response to that piece of music, regardless however format it reached me. I especially try to keep my tracks ballot as uncalculated as possible.

As far as albums/tracks ballot overlap, I'll be honest: if an album track is my song of the year, or if I rank a couple songs from an album really high, then I feel kind of disingenuous in not ranking the album too. Like, I will likely put two Jhene Aiko tracks on the top half of my EOY ballot this year, so I feel that I should admit that her Sailing Souls mixtape is probably one of the better albums all year...

I tend to define "single" as anything listed as "single" on Spotify, at least where Spotify has the track. They always have separate artwork for singles as well, which helps keep the concept dimly alive.

For the past couple of years, I've also included very occasional non-single tracks on my "best singles" list, where the track has somehow taken on a separate life of its own. A prime example from last year: Scissor Sisters "Invisible Light".

I was thinking about something I posted yesterday, and I realized it wasn't entirely consistent with a comment on my year-end ballot last year:

(Yesterday) Doesn't bother me a bit if I'm the only person on Earth who perceives a song as being worth a vote.

(Last Year) ("It's Not Meant to Be") might more accurately be my #1 of the year, but "Check It Out" is out there, it has some meaning in the world, and my inclination with what basically amounts to a coin toss is to vote for the hit--someone may see my list and think "Oh, I know that, that’s great."

All things being equal, I'd rater be voting for something that everybody knows than voting for something that nobody except me knows--there'll always be that part of me that grew up listening to the hits of the day. But if the obscurity means more to me, that's what I vote for.

"Rather"--by voting, I'm a rater, but "rather"'s the word for that sentence.

Prom Dressantino

There hasn't been a great dn after that one tbh

greater

Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís

how did some dude make the bon/voy.age joke BEFORE jon threatened to leave o_O

most prescient of display names only

most opportunistic of display names only vvvvv

Ha Whiney. I know what u mean.