Post by Andrew on Oct 19, 2006 23:47:18 GMT -5
Okay, first the book I'm using.
It's called Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits: Updated and Expanded 3rd Edition, by Fred Bronson. Bronson is a chart junkie and has been for a long time.
The title is only accurate because it is based on the following:
Billboard's Best Sellers in Stores chart: July 1955 to July 1958
Hot 100 from that time through the week of June 29, 2002
Bronson compiled a bunch of different lists, which I'll explain in a moment, based ONLY on chart positions and length of time on the charts, and came up with individual charts in the following categories:
Artists (Like top 100 songs by the Beatles, top 30 songs by Billy Joel, whatever)
The Writers (songwriters)
The Producers
The Labels
Charts and Configurations (like debut songs, duets, musical theatre, etc.
Charts by year, from 1956 through 2001
Charts by decade, fifties through nineties
Charts by subjects (love songs, colors, animals, days of the week, etc.)
And he wound the whole book up with the "Top 5,000 Hits of the Rock Era."
My proposal for a new game, then:
I would simply go through these lists, one after another. No list (except the last one) has more than a hundred songs. Most have 30 or 50, and some have even less. Then I would do it bracket style, like Dave's game is run. If there are less than 50 songs, then it would only be a one-shot email (30 songs would be 15 brackets) for the first round. Then we could take those winners and move forward, just like in Dave's game. Bigger lists would take longer than shorter lists, so I can't say we would do one every two weeks, or whatever. This will last us as long as it lasts. I don't have a final goal in mind, like combining the different groups into a championship or anything, though if people are interested in going that way as we proceed, I'm sure I can come up with something.
So, for example, the first list will be the Beatles. The header for that list will always be Billboard's Hottest: The Top 100 Songs of the Beatles. What you will see in the first match will be 16 or 17 matchups. You will also see that these lists combine Beatles songs with solo offshoots. I will match these up randomly. You vote, just like in Dave's game, and at a set deadline (about three days I guess...though when school starts in mid-January I may need to do four days each) I will announce the winners and move on.
At the end of a list, I will tally the votes and let you know our group's top 100 (or 50, 30, whatever), and then what the Billboard chart top list is, so we can see the difference.
Miscellaneous (too much information):
The Billboard chart changed its methodology over time on what could or could not be included, so their results may seem strange. This is the reference we will use though, as Billboard has been an influential resource regardless.
Points will be number of votes it received, minus the number of votes against it. This will help avoid some of the ties, I hope. I'm not statistician, though. As songs advance to the next round, their points do build up. If, by some fluke in the number of voters, a song that doesn't make it to the second round gets more votes than a song that does, I will make sure that the latter-round songs are above all the songs that didn't make it to that round. If there are five rounds, for example, and a song that dies in round three gets more points in the end than a song that dies in round four, the song in round four will still be above all the songs that died in round 3. Ties will be broken using the chart in the book.
Of the artist lists, only the Beatles had 100 songs. All the other lists are smaller. The Rolling Stones only has 30 songs on its list, for example. I don't know the rationale for that, but it's what we have to go on.
Okay! We know one disadvantage: songs you love by an artist will not always make it into this game. Another is that Billy Joel haters may choose to sit that list out. Before each list, I will ask the group who wants to participate (those who don't answer can jump in later, but if I get too few voters, say five at least, there's no point in doing that list).
So how many folks have an interest in this game? It could go on forever, but since we don't have an end goal, we can end it whenever we want, or just keep playing for quite some time.
Oh, about that Top 5,000 songs of the rock era: I'm willing to do that, but I think it needs to be its own monster ;-)
Feedback time! Sorry I'm so wordy.
Andrew
It's called Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits: Updated and Expanded 3rd Edition, by Fred Bronson. Bronson is a chart junkie and has been for a long time.
The title is only accurate because it is based on the following:
Billboard's Best Sellers in Stores chart: July 1955 to July 1958
Hot 100 from that time through the week of June 29, 2002
Bronson compiled a bunch of different lists, which I'll explain in a moment, based ONLY on chart positions and length of time on the charts, and came up with individual charts in the following categories:
Artists (Like top 100 songs by the Beatles, top 30 songs by Billy Joel, whatever)
The Writers (songwriters)
The Producers
The Labels
Charts and Configurations (like debut songs, duets, musical theatre, etc.
Charts by year, from 1956 through 2001
Charts by decade, fifties through nineties
Charts by subjects (love songs, colors, animals, days of the week, etc.)
And he wound the whole book up with the "Top 5,000 Hits of the Rock Era."
My proposal for a new game, then:
I would simply go through these lists, one after another. No list (except the last one) has more than a hundred songs. Most have 30 or 50, and some have even less. Then I would do it bracket style, like Dave's game is run. If there are less than 50 songs, then it would only be a one-shot email (30 songs would be 15 brackets) for the first round. Then we could take those winners and move forward, just like in Dave's game. Bigger lists would take longer than shorter lists, so I can't say we would do one every two weeks, or whatever. This will last us as long as it lasts. I don't have a final goal in mind, like combining the different groups into a championship or anything, though if people are interested in going that way as we proceed, I'm sure I can come up with something.
So, for example, the first list will be the Beatles. The header for that list will always be Billboard's Hottest: The Top 100 Songs of the Beatles. What you will see in the first match will be 16 or 17 matchups. You will also see that these lists combine Beatles songs with solo offshoots. I will match these up randomly. You vote, just like in Dave's game, and at a set deadline (about three days I guess...though when school starts in mid-January I may need to do four days each) I will announce the winners and move on.
At the end of a list, I will tally the votes and let you know our group's top 100 (or 50, 30, whatever), and then what the Billboard chart top list is, so we can see the difference.
Miscellaneous (too much information):
The Billboard chart changed its methodology over time on what could or could not be included, so their results may seem strange. This is the reference we will use though, as Billboard has been an influential resource regardless.
Points will be number of votes it received, minus the number of votes against it. This will help avoid some of the ties, I hope. I'm not statistician, though. As songs advance to the next round, their points do build up. If, by some fluke in the number of voters, a song that doesn't make it to the second round gets more votes than a song that does, I will make sure that the latter-round songs are above all the songs that didn't make it to that round. If there are five rounds, for example, and a song that dies in round three gets more points in the end than a song that dies in round four, the song in round four will still be above all the songs that died in round 3. Ties will be broken using the chart in the book.
Of the artist lists, only the Beatles had 100 songs. All the other lists are smaller. The Rolling Stones only has 30 songs on its list, for example. I don't know the rationale for that, but it's what we have to go on.
Okay! We know one disadvantage: songs you love by an artist will not always make it into this game. Another is that Billy Joel haters may choose to sit that list out. Before each list, I will ask the group who wants to participate (those who don't answer can jump in later, but if I get too few voters, say five at least, there's no point in doing that list).
So how many folks have an interest in this game? It could go on forever, but since we don't have an end goal, we can end it whenever we want, or just keep playing for quite some time.
Oh, about that Top 5,000 songs of the rock era: I'm willing to do that, but I think it needs to be its own monster ;-)
Feedback time! Sorry I'm so wordy.
Andrew
Antonio, you can sit back and watch or if you do see a song you like you can vote sporadically of course!