Listmania

December 2, 2005 1:07 PM

The year in lists. Best albums, Top 100 DJs, 100 Notable Books, the list goes on. Lists from 2004 also.
posted by caddis (26 comments total)

It gets longer as the year draws to a close. Check out the list for 2004 for an idea of how many lists they found last year.
posted by caddis at 1:08 PM on December 2, 2005

Nice post.

I'm opening for #17 on the DJ list in about 7 hours :)

The DJ list is literally a popularity contest, and not necessarily related to actual relative talent, but it does have a huge impact on how many people they draw and the booking fees they charge.
posted by empath at 1:13 PM on December 2, 2005

i always look forward to the critical best-of-year lists... this time of year is great for discovering new stuff. it is interesting to see how many artists/items are shared across critical lists. perhaps these are truly the best of the year... or perhaps critics are all riding each other's jocks. i like watching consensus form , but i like the darkhorses too.
posted by jcruelty at 1:28 PM on December 2, 2005

What empath said. The Dj list is nothing short of a joke.
posted by brautigan at 1:33 PM on December 2, 2005

Feh. Best album of the year lists are always the same shit. 100 Albums With the Largest Publicity Budget, or that Garnered Enough Internet Buzz to Get Reviewed in Pitchfork and Are Therefore Obviously Good. Kanye West has a new record out? Obviously the best of the year. I heard that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah record at my local indie tastemaker record store, and the guy who runs the store said they were good, so best of the year!

I want to see a year end list with 10 records I've never heard of. That'd be nice.
posted by mikrophon at 1:37 PM on December 2, 2005

I wouldn't say it's a joke.

Paul van Dyk is #1 for a reason. He draws, huge, huge, huge numbers of people to his shows and for a lot of them, it's practically a life-transforming experience. They worship the guy.

Guys like Z-Trip might be 'better' (however you define it), but it's just a different, lower-key kind of experience. If you've never seen a "superstar dj" at the top of their game, I think you are really missing out on one of the live media (I was going to say 'musical', but a lot more than music) experiences you can have. Listening to mp3s or CD's is not remotely the same thing.
posted by empath at 1:41 PM on December 2, 2005

mikro:

Top 10 Acts You've Never Heard Of
posted by empath at 1:42 PM on December 2, 2005

Pff. I've heard of . . . some of them. Fffp. Pfft. Fpp.
posted by mikrophon at 1:50 PM on December 2, 2005

Turntable Mega Robot Handjob Master Magazine's Top 100 Most Expensive Djs With The Most MySpace Friends of 2005
posted by tpl1212 at 1:56 PM on December 2, 2005

List of the top pages you weren't looking for online.
posted by jungturk at 2:02 PM on December 2, 2005

Though...where have I been? Gabriel Garcia-Marquez has a new book out? Sweet.
posted by tpl1212 at 2:06 PM on December 2, 2005

Coincidink: I just picked up Seven Types of Ambiguity last night. So far it's pretty excellent.
posted by Manhasset at 2:10 PM on December 2, 2005

Ahahahaha Kelly Osbourne.

And Clap Your Hands...that's so quaintly "last week on the internet."

I love end of year lists.
posted by plexiwatt at 2:11 PM on December 2, 2005

Empath: I've seen thousands of Dj's each as, if not more, talented than Van Dyke whose popularity has more to do with his PR, management and marketing teams and his insistence on peddling turgid Trance music to the masses. Hell, U2 may draw hundreds of thousands to their gigs and move people to tears but their music will always remain banal fodder. Readers of DJ mag may vote him number one but for the majority of clubbers that means very little.
posted by brautigan at 2:17 PM on December 2, 2005

Yeah, empath has it. These aren't turntablists, they are crowd pleasers; that doesn't make the list a joke. Not that I'd pay to see any of the top ten.
posted by ninebelow at 2:18 PM on December 2, 2005

turgid Trance music to the masses.

10 years before trance was playing at my gym, Ibiza was an amazing place to be.

Its only cruddy because its been washed 1000 times with the placid lye of the mildly amused.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 2:31 PM on December 2, 2005

I'm a little surprised by the list choices. DJ Magazine's list of DJ's? Okay. The NYT book list? Sure. And the best albums of 2005 from a Canadian campus newspaper I used to edit? What? That's kinda neat and all on a personal level, but....
posted by thecjm at 2:50 PM on December 2, 2005

I read somewhere the average reading person can only read about 2000 books in a lifetime. Maybe for you it's 500. Or 5000. But somewhere in that order of magnitude. (most people probably dont even reach 100). Given there are 35 million plus to choose from, pick your titles carefully.
posted by stbalbach at 2:55 PM on December 2, 2005 [1 favorite]

Best album of the year was "Orientation" by Senegalese singer Thione Seck, featuring Indian & Egyptian musicians. This album by far outshines Youssou N'dour's "Egypt", which it resembles slightly. I hope this album finally gives him the recognition he deserves.
posted by mike3k at 3:04 PM on December 2, 2005

mikrophon writes "I want to see a year end list with 10 records I've never heard of. That'd be nice."

That would mean you had heard the worst music all year long.
posted by sveskemus at 4:13 PM on December 2, 2005

best i heard all year was my morning jacket's 'z'. having heard their previous efforts and then to hear stuff like 'wordless chorus' kick off the album.

damn. that's on some whole other...

also have to second the band of bees from empath's link. just knocked me on ass in a good way.
posted by oliver_crunk at 4:30 PM on December 2, 2005

I am living in the world in which apparently respected music critics can draw up best of 2005 lists which include Kelly Osbourne. This saddens me.

It also saddens me that Sigur Ros is not on these lists. Apparently my favourite bands suck.

It wouldn't be the first time, I suppose. *sighs mournfully*
posted by jokeefe at 5:23 PM on December 2, 2005

Or the Decemberists. *sighs theatrically*
posted by jokeefe at 5:23 PM on December 2, 2005

mikrophon: Here's a few that I'd put on my list that haven't gotten enough hipster attention:

Veronica Lipgloss
High on Fire
des_ark
Celebration
The Ends
The Planet The
posted by bendybendy at 9:31 PM on December 2, 2005

Some bloggers (including myself) have polled their fellow countrymen to get an idea of the hottest/ top acts of 2005.

It started with Top 40 US bands nominated by US bloggers. Then the Canadians bloggers weighed in with the hottest 33 bands in Canada and then I assembled a UK music bloggers chart; the top 47 UK artists of 2005.
posted by takeyourmedicine at 5:52 AM on December 3, 2005

they forgot one: the 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time
posted by amberglow at 8:56 PM on December 8, 2005