136 replies to this topic

[petras]

Maybe I'm just getting better at filtering out the bullshit (hi Montana).

That's pretty much it...in order to hang around here and not go completely batshit insane you either have to filter out the BS or turn it into a drinking game. I dunno about the rest of you but every time Montana tells us how much radiohead sucks I take a shot.

[Meldrick Lewis]

Maybe I'm just getting better at filtering out the bullshit (hi Montana).

That's pretty much it...in order to hang around here and not go completely batshit insane you either have to filter out the BS or turn it into a drinking game. I dunno about the rest of you but every time Montana tells us how much radiohead sucks I take a shot.

Don't forget how The Doors inspired The Stooges.

[Ent]

Brainstorm makes some interesting points. This board could be more welcoming.

[Meldrick Lewis]

Oh, and my music input of the week is get your ears on Kylie Auldist, the new Al Green and the new Elvis Costello. Ummm...also My Morning Jacket.

[Pavement Ist Rad]

Maybe I'm just getting better at filtering out the bullshit (hi Montana).

That's pretty much it...in order to hang around here and not go completely batshit insane you either have to filter out the BS or turn it into a drinking game. I dunno about the rest of you but every time Montana tells us how much radiohead sucks I take a shot.

Don't forget how The Doors inspired The Stooges.

Um, they did, actually.

Montana suggests that the Stooges wholly ripped off The Doors, Hendrix, The Who, The Jayhawks, etc.

Anyways, I have plenty of thoughts regarding the old board vs. the new board, quality posters vs. awful posters, the insufferableness of most (not all) newbies, etc. Obviously, there are people in this thread who are trying their best to take on an attitude that is "positive" and "mature," so I don't want to shit all over their love-fest. This board is still quality, for the most part. A little slow on most days. I am happy with my current status/reputation as a poster.

Please post again:

Bill
Ben Welsh
William Tell
Nic (aka Mutant Disco/Frankie Teardrop)

[The Curse Of Millhaven]

I don't find it dull, I just don't seem to have heard a single record that you guys talk about.

[arkin]

I'll admit that not a lot of threads have been capturing my interest lately, but it's a message board. Anyone dissatisfied can start a new thread to keep things interesting. There's just no consensus on what actually is interesting.

[6ome 9irl]

Brainstorm makes some points but he's spit some of the nastiest remarks on this board since he got here. "Be cool to everyone." Oh, you.

Although as of last week he has to decided to attack with feathers instead of chainsaws. We appreciate that.

Anyway,

Almost NINE minutes of (Senor) Scary Guy making love to a Cheeto dick?

I take it all back. Some Girl, you were right.

[Chronodiggity]

Sausage, Madrox and Chrono's refusal to leave the tenth grade and actually talk to a person like, oh... I dunno, A PERSON

Holy shit you are fucking stupid.

[Paul]

I don't think the music forum is as dull as most people are making it out to be, but here are a few reasons I think that it is a different place than it was three years ago.

1) We've run out of things to talk about.

I'm not that serious about this one, but I think there is a little merit to it. The SOMB has been around for about 7 or so years now, and in the four years or so I've been around, we've already talked about most of the rock cannon, done about fifty different music polls, and made our own genre based box sets. I really enjoy the artist discography review threads that people have been doing. There is a huge range of things left to talk about in these.

2) People are doing a better job of bumping threads instead of making new ones.

This is good because it keeps the board from being cluttered. However, at the same time, everyone's opinions on R.E.M. (or any other band) have been made clear on the first two pages of the thread, so no one needs to state them again. I don't see this as a bad thing, but it has changed the culture of the board some.

3) Changes in the record release model.

Not that we can really do anything about this, but the way that most records come out now is that they are leaked and we and the rest of the internet get to form an opinion on each one weeks or months before the mainstream media catches on. When the Vampire Weekend backlash picked up when the album actually came out and mainstream sources picked up on it, the SOMB's response was overwhelming negative to it. But if you look back to when the demos came out (and at our EOY poll), they are a band that a good deal of SOMBies enjoyed. If a band like VW were being featured on MTV or in Spin at the same time they were being discovered on the internet, would the rhetoric around them here be as negative? I don't know, what I'd imagine that it wouldn't be. At the same time, when there are people here who don't here about bands before they break on Pitchfork or something else, there's not a huge amount of SOMBies that have anything new to say about it, so the discussion dies pretty quickly or turns negative right away.

4) SOMB has become less Chicago-centric.

It makes sense that most of the posters here are from Chicago, considering the show is out of Chicago and has only been syndicated/podcast for the last couple years (don't worry, I know there are people like Mitchell and the Good Dr Bill aren't Chicago people and have been around for a long time). As more people come to the board from other locations, either from listening to the show or just googling and finding us, there is a little less of a Chicago connection on the board. It is still a big factor, look at our giant threads for Lollapalooza and Pitchfork Festival, but when talking about live shows, it used to be that everyone interested in the Arcade Fire show (again, it could be any band) would see it on the same night, and come back the next morning to talk about it. I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing, but it does create this distinction between old school SOMBies who live around Chicago and go see the same things and everyone else. Which leads me into my last point...

5) The collective tastes of the board have shifted.

Again, this idea dates back to the board becoming less Chicago-centric. In the early days of the board, most of us arrived here through hearing the Sound Opinions radio show in Chicago. People met and bonded in real life because they'd go out to the same shows around town. Because (or leading to) these factors, the musical tastes of most of the boarders was similar. I mean, Automatic For The People won at least two versions of an early all-time album polls, it didn't finish in the top 5 for the SOMB 500, and I'd have to imagine that its ranking will go down next year or whenever we do a new SOMB 500. Due to a few factors (new posters, younger posters, embrace of pop/hip-hop by indie community), the taste of the board has shifted. One of the first things I remember reading on the SOMB was a giant thread about Springsteen's The Rising. Last year, the thread on Magic wasn't nearly as interesting, mainly because there was only a certain selection of the board interested in it. You can see this in all different types of threads. For the most part, people tend to stay out of threads for bands they have no interest in (positive or negative). That was the case four years ago, too, but the difference then was there weren't as many threads about bands that a lot of people weren't interested in. Again, this isn't a bad thing, but it just shifts the dynamics of the board.


I don't want any of that stuff to sound like I hate it here, or even that I think something needs to be done about the Music side of the board. This is one of my favorite places on the internet, and I think the only message board that I haven't lost interest in after a couple months. There are definitely things that I wish we didn't have to deal with on the music forum, like some of the trolling by certain board members, the same circular arguments that seem to pop up over and over again in certain types of threads, and some of the threads that are created so vaguely that people who might actually be interested in your Sum 41 youtube videos will never find it, but overall, I think if people really are having problems with what's going on in the music forums, it might say more about that poster's current relationship with music than anything else. I know that there are times that I feel like I don't have anything to post on the music forum simply because I've already said everything I need to about bands I love, or I just don't have anything to say beyond, "Yeah, this is good," but I'm always interested to hear what everyone else thinks about it.

[arkin]

Well said, Paul!

[Mitchell]

Real talk right there. Kudos Paul, a very well put summary.

[Chronodiggity]

Like all things these days, the music forum is become a niche market. Certain threads for certain communities. Generalized stuff is losing its way, though we have had a few good Sickpup threads recently.

[Sickpup]

For the most part, people tend to stay out of threads for bands they have no interest in (positive or negative). That was the case four years ago, too, but the difference then was there weren't as many threads about bands that a lot of people weren't interested in. Again, this isn't a bad thing, but it just shifts the dynamics of the board.

I can't overstate the importance of this point. I wrote a fairly long post speaking to this last night and then opted to delete instead. not sure why. but paul said it well.

the board used to be more homogenous in terms of its taste. and while, as a result, it may not have been as rich a forum for music, it was a much better forum for discussion, if that makes sense. now, we have so many different factions on this board and i'm sure there are a bunch posters who have 1000+ posts that I don't even know exist because they're posting in threads i never open.

it did feel like more of a community a few years ago. now it's more like a free-for-all.

[bunk]

Sausage, Madrox and Chrono's refusal to leave the tenth grade and actually talk to a person like, oh... I dunno, A PERSON

Sausage makes me laugh everyone once in a while but Chrono is useless in every way.

And who is this Madrox guy anyway?

[stphone]

who isn't madrox

[arkin]

who isn't madrox

heavy