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MartinT
11-11-2012, 20:30
With over a year of Album Club in the bag, and for a bit of fun, I thought I'd analyse the distribution of albums and scoring to see how it looks to date. I have graphed the analysis on two axes: number of albums submitted per decade; standardised mean score from the voting. This is the result as of the date of this post.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8482/8219889473_138d478855_b.jpg

You can see that the most popular decade is the 1970s with a big dip in the 1980s. The relative popularity of the 2010s, with only three years represented, reflects I think the age group of many of our members.

The mean scores are interesting, with the 1950s scoring the best. There's an upturn from the 1980s to the 1990s and another from the 2000s to 2010s.

It certainly seems that the 1980s were the crappest for quality music, but the 2000s score the lowest of all.

Top five albums
1: Week 60 Mile Davis (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20568)
2: Week 52 Muddy Waters (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=19540)
3: Week 43 Wishbone Ash (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18101)
4: Week 57 Black Sabbath (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20156)
5: Week 64 James Carr (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=21177)

Bottom three albums
66: Week 14 Britney Spears (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=14100)
65: Week 44 Slovo (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18242)
64: Week 56 Raison d'Etre (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=357007)

All comments and discussion welcome!

Bazil
11-11-2012, 20:53
Nice one Martin.
The 50's scoring best , but only 2 albums probably a couple of diamonds in a bucket of ... moving on, I agree the 80's was a big dip and things could only get better, some top acts coming on song during the 90's.

John
11-11-2012, 21:04
They were a few good albums from the 80s but on the whole it was a poor decade for great music

Beechwoods
11-11-2012, 22:49
I guess it depends when you really got into music. The 80's was fantastic for it's Indie scene, No Wave, DIY Punk, 'Grunge', early Techno, Plunderphonics (Christian Marclay, Negativland, John Oswald etc)... I could go on!

I think it's actually got more to do with the problem that the 80's was more about the music, the politics, the scene, than the production, so it's not the kind of thing Audiophiles go on about. Shame really, 'cos they're definitely losing out!!

Macca
11-11-2012, 23:27
I'm not sure it was an audiophile thing. I was 12 in 1980 so the 80s should be my decade musically but they aren't. Don't get me wrong I did like some of the music and time and age means I can appreciate it more now, even the gated drums:eek:. It's all the crappy synthersiser shite that turns me off. They could have got the Memphis Horns or someone in but they said no, we can do that on a Fairlight now. No you can't. That didn't last, thank god.

MartinT
12-11-2012, 07:50
Indeed, post-punk, new romantics, synth disco, goth and other light pop didn't really add up to a strong decade for me. Also there is no doubt that recording quality fell to an all-time low in the 1980s - including classical (see Deutsche Grammophon for many examples).

Alex_UK
12-11-2012, 08:15
Excellent, Martin. Will certainly be interesting to see how it develops over time. Will also be interesting to see if this affects how people choose their selections for the future.

John
12-11-2012, 08:22
Some albums from the 80s that I love
Kate Bush Hounds Of Love
Metallica Master of Puppets and Juistice for All
But mostly I remember the 80s for Synth pop, AOR, New Romantics
At the time I was a headbanger mostly listening to Diamond Head, Queensryche, Rush and Y&T

Tim
12-11-2012, 21:27
Impressive work Martin for sure, one of these days I'm going to get to grips with Excel :scratch:

As to the 80's, well I probably bought a good bulk of my vinyl from 1979 when I left the Navy until the advent of CD. When I now look back at what was around, I have to agree it was a rather lean period as far as good music went, or at least regarding what I was buying during that period - no wonder I got rid of them :lol: (I do still have some Duran Duran on vinyl!) I think during the 80's my main pursuit in life was women, so I bought a lot of slush, but it sure worked ;)

I think the 70's is indicative of membership age as pointed out.

So far I have kept all my album club choices to 'new' music as I enjoy discovering new bands, but the next ones going to be a little older, but likely to prove unpopular - but you never know.

The Grand Wazoo
12-11-2012, 21:29
The general trend is pretty obvious. Does that mean music is getting worse or just that we're all old gits?

I suspect it's just that, over time the true classics float to the top of our musical awareness - we forget about all of the mediocre stuff and the real crap.

Tim
12-11-2012, 21:31
I have to admit Chris I think music is getting better, but then again I spend a lot more time 'discovering' than I ever used to, so perhaps its always been there and now I'm finding it more often?

MartinT
13-11-2012, 08:27
Oh I don't know, I think the 1890s were a great time for music, personally. About time we have a classical album proposed, anyway.

The Grand Wazoo
13-11-2012, 08:40
I suspect it's just that, over time the true classics float to the top of our musical awareness - we forget about all of the mediocre stuff and the real crap.

To clarify what I meant here:
I was referring to the 50's, & 60's really - we're far more likely to recommend an absolute belter from that period, because of the distancing caused by the passing of time.

MartinT
13-11-2012, 08:42
Yes, agree Chris. An automatic filter applies to the older decades.

The Grand Wazoo
18-11-2012, 16:39
I've taken Martin's base data and produced a full league table for all the albums so far.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/6555/albumclubbestalbums.jpg

The Grand Wazoo
18-11-2012, 17:08
Next up, who's been making the most popular choices?
Each participant's scores have been averaged to give one overall score & they've been ranked.
This is a little uneven, as some people have only taken part for a single round, while others have had as many as four turns because of the scheduled curator for the week not being available. So I've added a column to show the number of albums each person has nominated.

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/1102/albumclubbestcurator.jpg

Tim
18-11-2012, 17:11
Most impressive Chris, hope Alex is out today :eyebrows:

Ashmore
18-11-2012, 18:32
Fascinating analysis, but surely it's utterly meaningless. :)

MartinT
18-11-2012, 21:39
That's a really great bit of deeper analysis Chris. Personally, I'm not at all displeased with that performance :rolleyes:

EDIT: do you think the RESERVEs should be attributed to the album proposer?

Alex_UK
18-11-2012, 23:38
Most impressive Chris, hope Alex is out today :eyebrows:

Sitting in the corner of the room, rocking gently with my fingers in my ears humming "la la la laah laaaahh"

The Grand Wazoo
19-11-2012, 00:12
That's what I like about you Alex, you know when you've been a bad boy!

DanJennings
21-11-2012, 19:43
Sorry to spoil the analysis but I didnt post an Ella Fitzgerald record... I don't own one!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

The Grand Wazoo
21-11-2012, 19:45
oops!
Best take a look at that then

The Grand Wazoo
21-11-2012, 20:19
Dan, it was your week but you never showed up, so Keith took up the challenge instead.
I'll amend it shortly.
Apologies to all.

webby
26-01-2014, 15:31
They were a few good albums from the 80s but on the whole it was a poor decade for great music

I am surprised that talk talk, talking heads, rem, Kate bush, Peter Gabriel and tears for fears haven't been put forward for album club review.

The Grand Wazoo
26-01-2014, 16:54
Well.........it's completely in your power to sort that out, should you choose to accept the challenge!

webby
26-01-2014, 18:02
Well.........it's completely in your power to sort that out, should you choose to accept the challenge!


:)

The Grand Wazoo
26-01-2014, 18:05
Heh-he-heh!

Us-&-Them
19-09-2015, 22:00
With over a year of Album Club in the bag, and for a bit of fun, I thought I'd analyse the distribution of albums and scoring to see how it looks to date. I have graphed the analysis on two axes: number of albums submitted per decade; standardised mean score from the voting. This is the result as of the date of this post.

You can see that the most popular decade is the 1970s with a big dip in the 1980s.
It certainly seems that the 1980s were the crappest for quality music


I guess this is with regard to the album club; if it isnt, I can definately agree with the most popular decade being the 1970's but, how can the 80's be the crappiest decade for quality music ??????????? Some of the best music (IMO) came from this decade as there was more money around and the investment by the music companies in bands and the music was colossal !!!