Comments on: Parsing Crunching The Pop: Glenn McDonald Determines Just How Unique Rock Critics Really Are

By: D Appammottoxx

D Appammottoxx — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:44:54 +0000

@SAShepherd: Spoon: Finer Feelings

Such glory!

By: Plague

Plague — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:35:22 +0000

Just viewing the winners makes me feel much better that I didn't even bother to reply to the P & J.
(goes off to be even smugger)

By: glenn mcdonald

glenn mcdonald — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:30:27 +0000

@MTS: I'm not sure which numbers you're asking about. The centricity scores are essentially the sum of the vote-counts of the voter's picks divided by the sum of the vote-counts of the top 10 picks. So if you picked the top 10 albums, your centricity would be 1.0. Zero centricity would be somebody whose top 10 included nothing that got even a single vote in the poll, although obviously this would only be true of a person who didn't vote in the poll themselves.

The similarity scores are different, and more complicated, but basically they represent the probability that two voters' album-overlap did not occur randomly. So the highest possible similarity would be between two voters who voted for the same 10 albums that nobody other than those two picked, and even that actual score will vary depending on the distribution of votes in the rest of the poll.

Did that answer your question?

By: MTS

MTS — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:32:16 +0000

@MTS: Also, is similarity in voting significant or not in your results? I guess I'd like to know a little more about your method here.

By: unperson

unperson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:25:10 +0000

731 of 782. Woo-hoo!

By: Ned Raggett

Ned Raggett — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:44:44 +0000

So where’s your line of cologne?

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:32:09 +0000

Wow, the Idolator crowd must really like me: this post has been live for several hours now, and no one's assaulted me with virtual brickbats yet. Sniff - you guys are the best!

Seriously, I love Glenn's research and look forward to it every year, but I never know how embarrassed I should be about my ranking. I've made the Top 10 every year I've participated in either Pazz & Jop or the Idolator poll (only four years total so far). I looked back at my past rankings on Glenn's site and confirmed that this is my first year at No. 1.

My first No. 1, after several Top 10 rankings, and at the age of 36...I'm the Gwen Stefani of Glenn's chart!

By: Dickdogfood

Dickdogfood — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:25:09 +0000

(giggles)

By: SAShepherd

SAShepherd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:10:14 +0000

Also, note ballot comments: I totally nailed this.

By: SAShepherd

SAShepherd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:07:37 +0000

@mlackey: It is, exactly. I gotta tell you, nothing brought me more joy musically this year than the Spoon CD, but the reason I'm voting in this poll is because I review a bunch of kids' music, so I figured I'd be true to that. Not that those aren't some great CDs generally.

And Recess Monkey is an utterly genius band name.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:59:19 +0000

@SAShepherd: Is it just me or does everything on your list sound like it could just as easily be children's music?

Also, I am torn as to whether Recess Monkey is a completely terrible or utterly genius band name.

By: MTS

MTS — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:50:00 +0000

A question for Glenn, if he's reading:

It seems the more similar the voters are to each other, the higher the number goes toward 1. Doesn't this conflict with the concept of statistical significance? Or am I reading the results totally wrong?

By: SAShepherd

SAShepherd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:33:27 +0000

Hey, if you're gonna name-check me, at least spell my name right.

#1 album Play includes tracks from Georgie James, Mary Timony, Mudhoney, Young Fresh Fellows and is released on DeSoto Records... #2 Terrible Twos are the alter ego of the New Amsterdams. #3 Peter Himmelman is, er, Peter Himmelman. Members of Brad and the Autumn Defense are also on the list. So plenty of recognizable names there.

But, yeah, I'm a geek.

Now who's this LCD Soundsystem band you all keep talking about?

By: matthew

matthew — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:57:09 +0000

Awww…if only I’d left Celebration off my list, I totally would’ve been in the bottom ten.

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:52:57 +0000

I’m #394 — very slightly more normal than you guys!

By: Ned Raggett

Ned Raggett — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:33:30 +0000

who voted for 10 albums where I don't even recognize a single artist's name

I recognized Himmelman but that's it.

By: Dan Gibson

Dan Gibson — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:27:24 +0000

Woo, I’m 591st of somethingorother!

By: Nicolars

Nicolars — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:00:53 +0000

0.282 Ryan Schreiber

Soul mates