Comments on: What Use Are “Best Of” Lists, Anyhow?

By: Murk

Murk — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:01:37 +0000

I enjoy 24, does that count? Or, better: who the fuck cares?

The OED is yr friend, LiquidHeaven.

By: manyjars

manyjars — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:15:35 +0000

Tiny Mixtapes is running what appears to possibly be kind of a parody of the Pitchfork year-end reader survey, maybe:

[www.tinymixtapes.com]

By: joe bananas

joe bananas — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:34:07 +0000

well, this is certainly flattering.

I tried on 24, but I think it's just not for me. I came to it too late in the game, perhaps.

LOST, on the other hand...

By: westartedthis

westartedthis — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:11:54 +0000

@Murk: "who cares? who cares?"...you're a child. it's not like i'm gonna make you read my top ten list. dumbass.

for the record, it was J. Edward Keyes' top ten (or however many) list that got me into Paramore (and to be honest, i hadn't really heard of them from any teenage girls at that point either). try as i might to get him to render a verdict on every piece of mass culture i think i might like, but lack the intellectual capacity to decide about on my own, he hasn't gotten back to me yet on "24." you're probably better off not watching it until we know for sure.

By: LiquidHeaven

LiquidHeaven — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:33:49 +0000

legitimated lol

By: westartedthis

westartedthis — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:42:05 +0000

@Murk: and btw, i think this would be an interesting argument. since i'd like to know if you limit "mass culture" to the disney channel pop you parade about as trophies of your off-the-shelf "poptimism" or if you also enjoy, you know, pro football and NCIS and putting your money in failing banks and stuff. because i know i do.

By: Murk

Murk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:24:20 +0000

>>i probably never would have given Paramore a chance if it hadn’t been on the year-end lists of people who are not teenage girls (hey, i have an idea – let’s have a big argument about why i shouldn’t be allowed think music writers have more trustworthy opinions than teenage girls. please – let’s do that right now.)

Actually, genius, the argument would be about how you’re afraid to value mass culture unless it’s legitimated for you by people you allow to dictate your thinking.

By: Murk

Murk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:21:10 +0000

"i'm pretty much over being over year-end lists. i like making them. i like reading them. i'm tired of hearing it loudly declared that one does not give a shit about them."

Who cares? I can't imagine giving a shit what some pseud on the internet thinks were the best albums of the year - or what he thinks about lists of any kind, for that matter.

Year-end lists are boring. For the most part they reflect the ways artists were packaged throughout the year, a phenomenon whose apogee is reached by the heavy-breathing tin-eared scribes of Pitchfork (how's that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah record holding up, gents?).

What's sometimes useful are individual ballots - I'll check out what Xgau, SFJ, Matos, &c, thought, since their tastes have often tracked with mine.

By: westartedthis

westartedthis — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:20:55 +0000

@Murk: good to have you back. where've you been, dude?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:54:34 +0000

I do, I'm pretty sure I have every year for the lat few, mostly CD's that I thought at the time that I should get them promptly forgot about when i couldn't find it at my local record store (which I should add is in Korea), usually I use them when I head home for a holiday / go on an amazon /i-tunes binge.

But just end of year lists about the last years music, endless lists I skip.