Idea for a new song topic

[Rob]

Ever since the last update of Acclaimed Music has landed there has been this idea for a forum topic forming in my head, but sadly because of a lack of time due to a new, demanding job and me being about to move to another city I haven't had time to develop it yet. Nonetheless, I thought it might be useful to pitch it in here, to see if there is interest.

The idea is very simple. Since last year we have a list of no less than 6000 songs. That is a lot. But you know, most of these songs are just sitting there. When this forum starts to talk about a new update, most of the talk is directed towards the top of the list. The highest ranked song of all time, a decade, a country, an artist. In other games we usually see more diversity, but still the established classics, mostly high-rankers reign supreme. Then there are a few forum favorites that aren't quite as acclaimed, but still most of the 6000 songs in the official AM list never get any attention, while I think any of us have some big favorites there. Besides that, there is much to discover.

That is what got me the idea to start some topic too get more interactive with the list. I didn't want to make it into a game however, since there are more games and polls here than most can handle (this surely goes for me). I wanted something short, simple and accessible. That got me the idea to simply highlight one song of the list per week. And see, in the mean time we got that topic about There She Goes, which is like what I had in mind. Interestingly, I didn't seem to be alone, but in a rather curious twist this didn't lead to a new topic for discussing songs, but to a series of topics discussing albums, with some minor game elements. Nonetheless, the Big Star #1 Album topic proved that there was interest in places on this forum to just talk at length about individual pieces, be it albums or songs.

So what I propose is simply a weekly song to discuss. The most important difference is that I don't want the song to be selected by the forum, but chosen at random. The songs also have to be in the AM top 6000. I would do this by going to www.random.org and making the program there pick a number between 1 and 6000 and presto, we got or song of the week. The only limitation I want to add is that after an artist has had the song of the week he or she or they can't have another one for 10 weeks, to keep some level of variety. This way we won't go through the list fast of course, but we don't have to. We will get both the high ranking classics and the hidden gems in though. One week putting the spotlight on the familiar Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles and the next week finally the chance to discuss Web in Front by Archers of Loaf. That sort of thing. The reason I want to stick to one song is to keep it from being time-consuming. There is so much listening to do, especially if you want to follow the games in this forum. This topic has to be as accessible as possible.

I have some ideas for the topic as well. I'll probably randomly pick the song a week before revealing it and do some research about it. It's conception, it's context in the album or in the artists work. Different versions. Those sort of things. So I can open the song of the week in a hopefully interesting way and also giving me the chance to write somewhat more about music. After that the reviews by forum members can come in and discussions can start. Of course you can give the song a rating, I will do so myself, but I won't aggregate the scores into a final forum verdict.

So, is there interest in such a topic. I guess there will be, considering the album of the week topic. Because of some changes in my life I can't promise yet when to start, but I'd love to hear what people think of it.

[Sweepstakes Ron]

Yes! This is a great idea!

[GucciLittlePiggy]

I like this idea and I think consistent participation from myself and others will be easy since it's only one song to focus on per week.

[Brad]

Sounds great Rob!

[luney6]

Yes, it would be nice to have something like this. What about the bubbling songs, though?

[Pierre]

That's a good idea to explore the 6000 songs (thinking of it, that IS a lot of songs already ) so I would definitely support this.

[PlasticRam]

I think I can sacrifice five minutes of my week.

[Rob]

Yes, it would be nice to have something like this. What about the bubbling songs, though?

With 6000 songs listed and only one per week to put in the spotlight, we'll never actually be done with this, so the bubblers can wait until they make the list

[Rob]

No, I haven't forgotten about this. I should start with the first song next week!

[Rob]

I've started the first topic of this today, here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2979. I hope the title isn't too confusing. Simply using the title of the song itself wasn't even possible, since the whole thing didn't fit. I also wanted something else than "Song of the Week". The second part of the title refers to the position of the song on the AM-list (Song 337) and to the week (opinion 1), so the last part does not refer to my opinion. I kind of like that the identity of the song remains a mystery until the lyric sample and the image, but I hope the title isn't too obscure now. Opinions on this?