MicShazam

Ah ok, I thought they were closer to when FNM did their last album.

The Music Observer

Thank you for visiting my website! I'm glad you have questions; it means you are genuinely interested and I appreciate that.

I studied Music Composition strictly as a musician. My fascination with music journalism/critiquing came on as an afterthought. It started as a hobby and has since gotten more fruitful. The majority of my free time is still spent writing music, though.

The process in making my top 50 list was a long one, but there was no way I could listen to every single album by all musicians for this project. Once I saw that it was going to be this big of a commitment, I gathered a huge list of about 150 musicians/bands based on who I already knew was worthy plus many suggestions from friends and emails through the website. I listened to one full album from each musician as a preliminary round (the album I decided to listen to was based off of either multiple suggestions or research into which one shows off their most notable sound). Using three of my four categories for review as best I could, I eliminated from there and then did a second listening of the remaining 70 or so, this time with another album that I either listened to fully or partially. I got down to 60 and then listened to individual songs to finish out the ranking. It wasn't the perfect way to do it, but I feel like it accomplished what I set out to do.

If it's just for enjoyment and I'm not listening critically, I tend to rotate between 60's-70's classic rock, Renaissance-era choral motets, and Romantic-era symphonies.

I'm still looking for an answer as to how to share music, and thoughts on music, in the best way. I'd say there isn't one way that's always best. Since I've had a lot of musical training and done a lot of reading/thinking about music, setting up a website as my own platform was a good way to go for me. I feel like that is best when there's a large amount of material to talk about, and if it can be formulaic in some way. I've also reached out to Facebook and sites like this one and have liked the results. As long as you believe you have something important to share, any social media outlet seems to do.

Yes, and I love that book! Some of my music collegues didn't like it much because it wasn't academic enough and it seemed to talk down to them, but I found it to be truly insightful as someone who simply appreciates music. Both Copland's book and "How Music Works" by David Byrne were important for me in learning not only how music is perceived, but how to be accepting of many different musical facets and tastes. I liked how Copland explained the music experience as being in layers. There really is no right and wrong in how to experience music; we are all simply on different layers and therefore have different experiences.

I hope this helps!

MicShazam

If you wanna reach people who don't already geek out with music, maybe writing isn't the way forward.
Who would read articles on a music review site? People who are already actively interested in music in a somewhat deeper way than your average Joe.
I'm saying this because your original post gives me the impression that you want to show the "plebians" how to appreciate the best artists or something. If that's what is going on, I think that playing good music for people is going to do a hell of a lot more good than writing about it.
I mostly stopped writing reviews on a blog myself because I felt like I was just preaching to the choir.
I'm just throwing some thoughts around. Don't take it as a dismissal of your ideas.

The Music Observer

That's a solid list from my perspective. Winehouse, Fleet Foxes, and The National are all ones that could've easily made my list too. I have to admit I never really gave a second thought to Joanna Newsom. Seeing how highly you rate her I'll have to give her another shot. It seems as though the huge names of today are really difficult to come to a consensus on, and while you shared with me your displeasure with Lady Gaga I'll go ahead and express my distaste for Kanye West. I could go into my full opinion on him more, but to put it succinctly his sound lacks inspiration and musicianship to me. But, to each his own. I think it's fair to say that mainstream radio music as a whole lags far behind other genres in quality.

The Music Observer

Yeah, that certainly makes sense. You do have to know your audience. I'm still learning about it on the fly. For me, coming from an academic standpoint I knew that what I had to say about music would mostly be appreciated by other musicians and those who actively seek music reviews, so I created a site. My recent "Top 50" article was a diversion from that, as you said, so I guess part of it is just knowing who you are targeting. That's why I lightened up on some musical vocabulary and included songs to play with the article. But I'm still trying to figure out the best ways myself. It's tough to write specific music reviews because if it's too distant from mainstream culture it won't get any traction, but if it's a widely held viewpoint then it might not be worth saying.

Justthefacts

.

Minus the Kanye West bash. Don't be silly now, he's a genius.

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Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

****ing right.

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Frownland

Kanye is one of the greatest innovators of mediocre hip hop.

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Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

Your mom is one of the greatest innovators of mediocre hip hop.

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Frownland

Dumbwitegurlz did pave the road for a lot of lame crap.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.