Should we continue with the Album Club?

[Barry]

Good evening everyone,


The December Album Club choice completes the rota and brings things to a close for this year. Normally I would have put out a call for volunteers to continue the programme for next year, but for reasons, which I will outline, the Album Club is taking a ‘sabbatical’. How long this sabbatical will last will depend on you and your response to this thread.

The Album Club was started by Alex_UK back in 2011, and from the start enjoyed an enthusiastic following. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Album Club, the idea is very simple. At regular periods (initially it was once a week) a Member would make an Album Club choice, whereby an album title was chosen, a few words written as to why it had been chosen and a link to either YouTube or Spotify was provided, so other members could listen to the album. Members would then respond with their thoughts to say if they did, or didn’t, like the choice.

The purpose was twofold: first to bring members’ attention to albums that might have passed them by, and second to introduce new, offbeat and unusual items that would have lain under the radar of most members. For the first few years the Album Club was a thriving and successful enterprise, with several pages of interesting and thoughtful replies to each Album Club choice.

After a few years the weekly timetable was changed to a monthly one; largely to help administration and to allow more time for respondents, but also to cope with ‘no shows’, and the scheme continued, again with good support and feedback.

Lately however we have noticed that whilst there is still a steady stream of volunteers who are willing to submit Album Club suggestions, the response from members to these choices has fallen markedly, often with only a few replies. This is dispiriting, both to those who have gone to the trouble of making a submission, as it is those who run the Album Club.

So what has changed? Discussion with the Moderators has suggested that people don’t want to feel obliged into writing a critique, or as one Moderator put it “like having to write a homework essay for school the next day”. If this the perceived requirement then this is a misunderstanding – no-one is expecting an essay: just a few words will do, though if you do feel like writing more then you are free to do so. It is not that members are not interested in music, it is after all the whole purpose of AoS, and our music threads: ‘Spinning Today’ is one of our most popular subscribed threads.

Clearly the Album Club needs a makeover, a rethink, something to give it a new lease of life. But before we can do that we need to know if Members want the Album Club to continue, either in its present form, or with some improvements. Hence we are opening it up to you to vote and if you have any ideas to make them here.

So over to you

Thank you

The Album Club

[Tim]

I must admit I miss the early days when it was taken a bit more seriously and a degree of thought went into selecting the albums. I've always tried to introduce something new and not previously seen in Spinning today as opposed to old classics, but it seems the general populace here these days aren't really into new music, so it's appeal is limited. With Alex gone and a lot of what I would class as music lovers before gear lovers also gone, the core is now rather small. I also find it puzzling that Marco never really gets involved.

I don't know what you could really change other than frequency, I mean it's pick an album and review it then for the forum, score it and comment if you like - there isn't much you can change there?

I think you are right though Barry the lack of response from members does sap the enthusiasm when making a submission. There are only a few threads these days that hold my interest, hence my long periods of absence. The core of the forum for me are the music related threads, not gear. Always amazes me how much time folk seem to spend looking at gear on eBay in preference to discussing music, but then I'm clearly a different kind of audiophile, if I am one at all?

I would love to see it stay, if it had some active participation, but I think it may have run it's course for now and a sabbatical seems prudent.

I laughed when I read your post too, I bet I know who said “like having to write a homework essay for school the next day” - made me chuckle

I voted yes with changes, but I'm not sure what those changes could be, other than a break.

[struth]

i try to take an interest, but obviously if its music that i dont like i try to avoid it as its difficult for me to critique styles i dont like. no doubt tho the interest has waned badly on album club. If folk are not even interested to answer a post like this then i doubt it has any future.
Ive submitted 2 times i think, and both were stuff most would not listen to. both got better than expected reviews tho.

[Marco]

I'll get to this properly later, folks, as I've got a busy day today.

Tim makes some good points, which I agree with. My own infrequent participation in the Album Club is largely because I often forget it's there, especially as so few posts are made in that section, and therefore discussions don't get 'flagged up' as much as others occurring elsewhere on the forum... Out of sight, out of mind, and all that.

So a pertinent question to ask members might be: how many of you have forgotten about the Album Club, or for newbies, indeed even knew it existed...?

The other reason why I don't contribute much there is because beyond replying simply to say you like the selection submitted or not, and perhaps relating it to something else that's similar, there's not a lot more to discuss; certainly there isn't the same 'mileage' to be had, in terms of an in-depth discussion, as there is generally on hi-fi topics. Plus, I've always preferred listening to music than talking about it, and I suspect others are the same.

For me, in order to save the Album Club, the whole thing needs to be revamped and made more interesting (and also stimulating) to participate in, which requires submissions not only to be well written, but thought-provoking, and perhaps a little contentious, as indeed are many hi-fi threads, especially ones about cables....

You need to get people's 'juices flowing' in the same way, when discussing music, as is often the case when they discuss hi-fi. Currently, the Album Club is all a bit 'meh'... How you go about giving it a proper 'shot in the arm', however, is anyone's guess! Just my two cents for now...

More later.

Marco.

[YNWaN]

I voted ‘Yes, but with changes’ and I will try to explain why. In truth I have always had a bit of a problem with reviews of records. Unless the person doing the reviewing is well informed and erudite I don’t find reviews to be very informative or very interesting. However, the Album Club isn’t about reviews - or is it? I thought it was more about introducing people to music they may not have heard before... or is that not the case? That leads me to another issue I have noticed. Before I proceed let me apologise if the following point is not true, I haven’t followed the whole Album Club thread and this is my perception from what I have read. It seems to me that many of the album choices fit into two groups and neither, in my opinion, result in much useful feedback from forum members. The first is what I will call ‘out there’ choices, music that tends to have a very niche following (extremely sparse electronica for example), the second I will call ‘already recognised as great’ and includes artistic like David Bowie. These records are already so well known that I (and I would think many other members) don’t have to listen to it again, I’ve heard it and know what I think of it. The very fact that such records are so iconic means that many must love them already. In short, appropriate album choice is a tricky job. Finally, and I really don’t have any solution for this, I personally have a lot of records (maybe 2K) but don’t assume that I like all music, no, not at all - despite all these records I don’t have any AOR, Rap, Soul, Heavy Metal (Death Metal etc.), or Disco - so Album Club choices that include any of those genres is unlikely to appeal to me - I suspect other forum members also have swathes of music they have little interest in too (but different to mine obviously).

[AJSki2fly]

Yes I would like to participate in it but I admit I often forget it's there. I think it may be easier to review records now for those that have streaming capabilities without buying so maybe more would contribute if able. I often post in What are you listening to now with quick one liners about the albums, but will put more especially if it's a good one, this might be more appropriate in the Album Club if such an Album is identified by anyone.

[Leeken]

As a new member ,didn't really know about it,I'm fairly blinkered to different music so will give it a go.

[Audio Al]

I posted regularly for several years and stopped to let other have a go
I would like it to continue and if needed would take part again

[Pharos]

I was not aware of the thread's existence; (I 'don't get out much').

Personal taste raises questions about what actually happens within us when we enjoy music, especially euphorically.
For me art is about revealing either beauty or truth, and I become especially excited by new truths, which are rare.

Our taste in music entails our sensibilities and sensitivities IMO, so that we have genres or types which are relevant to our personalities, these latter formed by our early formative experiences acting upon those characteristics.

We could analyse a piece of music which we are advocating in terms of melody, harmony, and poetical nature, and post our opinions on those, about the particular piece.

Underpinning my response to music is a trend to personal growth, and so some may lose its appeal after some time, but the really universal truths, well expressed, I will always want to hear.

Without wishing to offend anybody, hell to me would be being subjected to a jamming session of Meatloaf, Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton, and The Proclaimers, and this reflects my sensitivities and sensibilities.

Describing these aspects might well help steer others into previously unknown territory, for their benefit.

[Barry]

Thank you for your replies Guys.

It's gratifying to see (so far) no-one has voted for the Album Club not to continue, and that there a few new volunteers who would like to participate.

The majority who voted have said they would like to see the Album Club continue with changes. We are still considering what those changes might be to improve the Album Club.

Any ideas?