The trouble with the ABC audience voting on the best 100 albums is that they are such a strange combination of people. With a certain self-mocking arrogance, the ABC itself refers to Generation j as being the listeners to Tripppppple J. Then you get the bushies, and all those strange people in Camberwell and all etc.
It is not representative of the general population, or of people with musical taste, or of people who listen to a lot of varied things.
The idea is a bit of fun, but stuffed on any more significant level, except as a secret opportunity for the ABC to get data about its own audience. You think they didn t do that?
I would, in their shoes.
So, here is a modest proposal. The ABC should use radio, TV and the blogosphere to recruit gangs of people who rilly rilly know a lot about particular musical subcultures and know a bit about music too.
Those people should caucus to find their own list of the best 100 in their particular sector. Then they could all get together to find a list of a hundred albums we should all listen to repeatedly before we die. Not ranked.
We can t make a documentary series about this, by the way, because the rights bill would be horrendous. Although, now I come to think about it, the ABC has a bulk arrangement with APRA
Makes me think that we could do a series which tries to find the best ten Australian albums in a range of sectors - country to classical etc..
get a separate enthusiast in each area to present the program, send them off to ask a host of experts about the best ten, and what the criteria are and what they like about them
First ep is about finding the presenters and dealing with the rights problems. Could be hilarious, actually. on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 12:34 pm and is filed under , .
You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. I m happy to take people s advice if I know their biases and track record. That is I expect people to be opinionated but with something to back it up not just pigheadedness.
When I say take people s advice I don t mean I buy everything they recomend, I mean I consider the recomendation in the context of their bias, experience and priors.
I know Lester Bangs, bless his nyc thrash soul, so I don t turn to him for a country classic I might have missed. For that I turn to Flop Eared Mule or Denise on TWANG or other mates.
Best ACDC buy if it can be only one CD? (as if anyone needs to ask) I would email Shaun Cronin because I know he thinks as well as loves.
Best Count Basie or Lionel Hampton to dance or just quietly listen to if it could only be one CD?
dogpossum. Best Faces - Rex Ringshcott. Overlooked pop - After Grog Tones.
Best bedroom noodling ecentric mood music - Nabs. Best Eric Clapton (don t laugh) Chris Sheils. Best Bachman Turner Overdrive - Homer Paxton.
And so on and so forth.
The ABC thing is meaningless. I didn t even watch it or read much of it.
Whats my fav? I don t have a clue. Is it the one I play the most?
The one that always cheers me up? The one I think is classiest. Dunno.
With classical music I didn t come from a place with any experience of it at all. (Except Latin Hymns I suppose.) So I just got a few things I stumbled across over the years, Holst Planets, Pictures at an Exhibition, Prokofiev just because he was mentioned in a Colin Wilson book, and a few other things.
Then I worked with an older guy who was into hifi and classics and opera ONLY - no pop - no light musical - no Nana Maskouri - nothing. He had thousands of LPs. And versions.
And he purchased the sheet music to most and read it whilst listening for hours at a time. He was on his fifth journey or so through Wagners Ring Cycle (Circle?).
He recommended a 5 album basic starting point and best versions and I had no reason at all not to do what he said.
Then some guy walked into my house a stole $3,000 worth of CDs, only the most recently and frequently played that were out of the stack on the bench, so it was a blow. As part of the insurance I got a book by the cheap classics mob, Nando?
aah Naxos and it had a recommended basic starters kit of 60 or so CDs for all periods at $10 each - I got the lot.
Whats the point of the story - er I don t know.
I have helped people build up a knowledge and collection but it s a delicate consultation process involving listening, talking, knowing what to listen for and building slowly a persoanl style, taste and quirks.
It s
not a list handed out from on high.
OTOH there is a canon in most genres. If you believe in genres.
FXH - there s another way to go in getting advice from people about what kind of music to listen to and/or buy: that s where you ask your younger brother to keep you up to date with the latest music cause you re feeling out of touch, and he shows up with a mixed CD of the latest music he thinks he should listen to. My partner got her brother to do this for her just recently. But I guess this applies more to new music…
I miss Mixed Tapes.
I know it s happening out there (out of my life), but I thought that the age of ripping and burning CDs, and iTunes music libraries, would allow more people burn mixed CDs for swapping.
Hmmm . Mixed CD swap at the upcoming grog blog anyone?
Last one TimT brought his poetry zine to give away. Music this time? I think the ABC should throw open the RAGE vaults to the masses.
Let people choose and present their favorite fifty film clips of all time.
Talk about a music nuts dream competition win.
100 greatest albums of all time is a bit too ambitious/ meaningless.
I d rather see 50 clips that meant a lot to some kid, than 100 disperate albums chosen by a vast mass of people. FXH: you clearly don’t have younger brothers – Nope.
I agree about their taste in music - my younger brother-in-law was a hip hop and gangsta rap music fiend (**AAARGHHH!
*), until he recently decided to listen to other stuff and explore different styles of music.
It s fun when they do that. Opens us up to other worlds.
Despite what we may think of them (the worlds, I mean).
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