Music Criticism in Video Form

Yep.

I like the EOY tracks list, it is an essential source for me to find music, however something really does need to be done about the sticking of half an LP on there, I know it can be for perfectly nice reasons, but the stuff it knocked into the 87 last year was unforgivable.

didn't think i'd be cracking out the ol' fp today

no you're right, dude. that thing never happens. no on ILM, not in rolling stone, never. I was wrong to suggest it does.

as one of the guys who runs the ilm poll and somebody who spent at least three years doing painful, ridiculously granular exploration of what everyone on this site was listening to, feel free to delve.

Per the charge of "tokenism," i would argue that (wherever it notably strays from broader critical consensus), the ILX list mostly consistently reflects the depth of engagement/ quality of insight / accessibility to new listeners / expertise of people who frequent the hub threads for genres and specific releases. On years when there's a lot of interesting discourse in the hip hop or bobbins or kpop or afro or etc threads, the music discussed there is always well represented. When there's not, it isn't.

When offbeat or unlikely songs place high, it's not about "aren't we well heeled individuals baa," it's a celebration of both the artists and the site where we encountered the songs that we loved. I mean, fuck, everything is horrendous and terrible but ILX is in sum better than much of the web right now, which i hope y'all would agree with or else you should be doing something else.

🎈

i just had an incredible sense of deja vu hang on

The ILX EOY list has also changed from "let's tabulate what people liked this year, half of which are particular to things we fixated on as a group over the year" to "let's curate a diverse list of genres so we can do a happy internet dance about how broad our tastes are"

The EOY list used to be an exercise if collating a uniquely varied menagerie of grotesque ditties with shards of glass in interesting if unpleasant places. Then it changes to the same thing but the council had removed some of the shards of glass.

For starters those were my *noms* and I'd talked up the Saba in several threads prior. I also timidly participate in various hip-hop threads and try to keep up with at least a modicum of yearly releases in the genre because I've always been a fan even though I lack the deep knowledge that some of you might have. So what's your point, GD?

i continue to wish saer would vote 40 times in the poll or at least post an essay long synesthetic take on each track but, as i am not responsible for his page rate, i live in hope

that those type of picks happen everywhere, and it's laughable to pretend otherwise

So is Fantano a thing for people who toss around the term "aspie" (at best a tawdry wee contraction of an outdated term, at worst a hateful slur)? Cus most people with an actual ASD diagnosis would know that is not acceptable

You're essentially gatekeeping me out of hip-hop fandom because I'm not as immersed in it as others and suggesting that it's pure tokenism on my part, which is a pretty fucking shitty thing to do.

xp

So is Fantano a thing for people who toss around the term "aspie" (at best a tawdry wee contraction of an outdated term, at worst a hateful slur)? Cus most people with an actual ASD diagnosis would know that is not acceptable

― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Wednesday, 3 June 2020 20:19 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

we all have our own way of dealing with being neuroatypical idk. if using the term makes you uncomfortable i won't. sorry.

Immersion is for people who remember the names of records

I'm essentially giving you shit because you made the absurd request to produce examples

GD, you are making some good points overall, but I have to agree that that's not really on.

xp to saer, also canning

Apologies for implying that you should back up your speculative claim.

xps

If I have a criticism of the taste of the ILM hivemind, it's that (much like every other generalist music site) it has a bias against the cheesy, the hardcore and the generic, sometimes the best music is one or even all three of these. It's great that people step out of their comfort zones to explore other music, I just wish they would steer away from the tasteful / respectable examples a bit more.

I did and you flipped out

it's totally speculative. I'm not trying to convince you of it. Feel free to ignore me. And my gatekeeping.

the thing about 'performative' or 'for show' voting is that anyone can vote for whatever they want for any reason, so like any aggregate of scores or opinions you're getting an 'average' of people who are all voting for things for different reasons, similar to how on RYM an album that scores a '3.5' can mean 'one of the best 100 albums ever' to those dudes who downrate everything & 'pretty decent' to a guy like me. my EOY ballots here aren't really a true reflection of my favorite albums ranked, it's really fuckin' difficult to do that, and yes I'll put stuff higher if I think it's got a chance of placing in lieu of some obscure Japanese thing that nobody else on this board likes

I also voted for two hip-hop albums in last year's poll, you can add those to your tally of ILM tokenism and use them as incontrovertible proof the next time this topic comes up.

xp

CaAL: this year's top ten included money machine and old town road! if you wanted to define "the cheesy, the hardcore and the generic" you'd be hard pressed for better 2019 examples!

sounds like a strike a nerve, yeesh. it's just a fucking music list, who cares

lol fuck you !!

ulysses - yes, I was thinking about Money Machine (which I still don't really get, and is certainly not generic) and perhaps Old Town Road kind of applies too (though it isn't that cheesy, certainly isn't hardcore, and is very far from generic), but these are big name things with their own dedicated threads, they are critical darlings which are not representative of anything else.

you quite literally asked for an example. I would never make specific accusations of tokenism/for show picks against individuals. Then you wanna cry boohooo when I throw your list at you as an example. Gimme a fucking break.

I would never make specific accusations of tokenism/for show picks against individuals.

lol an example of a 'calculated "for show" selection' that just so happens to be drawn from my own noms? Dude, give it a rest.

Yeah, that was an F to the P.

everyone should stop posting in this thread and listen to 'care for me' instead

otm

Sounds fair. I want to be able to rep for a hip-hop record after all.

J/k, I'm listening to Horse Lords. A real 10/10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkUxFB6jbDc

Sund4r, is it true you voted for 'Mask Off' and 'T-Shirt' in the 2017 tracks poll? Seems suspicious to me.

(I really need to check out that Horse Lords album.)

Saba is great and all, but I'll usually end up listening to idk, let's say Danny Brown instead, forgive me.

Haha wow. I was this infamous event, I'll have you know!: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/200-treated-onsite-thursday-ottawa-bluesfest-1.4204873

My wife and I would often burst into "percocet, molly, percocet" at random moments that summer as well.
xp

Haha, that's awesome. I'm afraid the only Bluesfest I've been to was in Tremblant some 20-odd years ago with my dad. It was nowhere near as exciting, alas.

forgive me.

no

The ILX EOY list has also changed from "let's tabulate what people liked this year, half of which are particular to things we fixated on as a group over the year" to "let's curate a diverse list of genres so we can do a happy internet dance about how broad our tastes are"

This is just so weird to me. If so, when did it change into the latter? I haven't seen a happy internet dance about the broadness of taste on the ilx eoy polls. If there was dancing, it was because people liked that their fave came on top (🎈) which seems entirely justified. ILM is a bunch of randos merely connected by the fact they visit the same place sending in their ballot. Every individual has their own reasons and reasoning making a ballot (as frogbs explained). If that constitutes a concerted act of curation I certainly did not get the memo.

Granny Dainger I applaud you for never wanting to make specific accusations of tokenism against individuals, it's just a shame you did just that. Smdh.

personally I def curate my list to make it at least a little more balanced in terms o genre than my actual listening, which is maybe dishonest but 1. is still a pretty accurate picture of the breadth of what I listen to and 2. seems more likely to generate more interesting results. what's the point in listing 10 metal albums I loved a lot when there's a dedicated metal poll f'rinstance?

you can call it self fulfilling prophecy if you like but at this point I know what ILM is into as a whole, what can be made to fit in with what captures imaginations on here, and what can't or is very unlikely to

Oh I curate my own ballot, of course. Mostly the 'dishonesty' amounts to putting some ambient/drone records (underdogs here) a bit higher, to see them get some points or whatever. I just don't see it as a collective curating effort to create a diverse list; with all these individuals sending in a ballot based on their own particular reasoning, curating that seems nigh impossible.

Knowing what ILM is and what fits, that's another matter, and obv I agree. Even though loads of eyes were popping out of sockets when 'Jogging' and Gecs showed up as high as they did.

"Jogging" was a lock to me cause UK and lots of cachet with the avant cru

Think I curate in the opposite direction, if I know something has no chance of getting any other votes, I'll be a bit wary of putting it in my balot.

No I think the same way! Hence I tend to underrepresent rock music generally (at least in album ballots)

my ballots are pure

The Pains of Being Pure at Ballot

I am happier since I abandoned any efforts to curate or cram-listen for polls. I also had the second-loneliest ballot.