Just a first post.

[ChrisF.]

In case anyone actually follows the link to this forum, I thought I would throw out a few points on why I went ahead and made it. Dezmond brought forward the idea of a group of committees looking at Popular Music through it's many genres and styles, compiling those lists together and having a master list. I thought that idea was brilliant. Just a fun side project for posters from Future Rock Legends that are interested in ranking things. I created the forum to allow a work space for those lists to be created. The feed on FRL.com can get busy at times (especially early in the month) and it looks like several posters are gearing up for changes to the lists the website uses already (Song,Album,Artist). I figured a more organized approach would be to have a dedicated forum to this master list. It also helps that here you can edit your old posts, and use a variety of tools to make a point (Youtube, Images, hyperlinks, Bold text even).

I went ahead and threw some basic structure to the forum. Giving it three categories and then showing that each genre itself could have it's own inner forum. I know a bit about PhpBB which is the forum system used here (I was a forum admin for a site), so essentially most changes we would want to use I can do. Everything is up for a change here if anyone wants to see it. The color scheme can be anything, the forums can flow however we want them to to. I can't change the name (RankingTheGreats) easily, but I had to pick something unused so this is what it is. I can change the name you see in the header (just not the URL) however (as well as the tagline). I can make everyone moderators so they can move and edit posts. I am not even concerned with that because this will be a pretty well known group considering our common link to FRL. You do have to register with on the forum to use it, that keeps Bots away. But I have left it open to let anyone view all the forums and discussions. I just wanted to open the conversation with this post and then allow everyone interested to say what they want to see, what the idea for the project is, and where we want to go from here. If we even want to go anywhere. I can delete this forum easily so there isn't any pressure to actually do anything or to do it in a different way. I just thought we could begin to see what is possible! Thanks!

[ChrisF.]

I figured while I cook Thanksgiving dinner I would make a quick post about what this project could be. I don't want to be at the head of it, so I am hoping for some discussion to at least start flowing here. Dezmond really gets the credit for sparking the idea. His idea of committees to look at specific genres, subgenres, and styles by dedicated people invested in those genres would allow for the creation of a master list where each smaller list then could be combined by the overall group.

He had the idea that one person would create a list, as an example a Disco list, and then another would create a Metal list. A combination of all those lists would occur so that eventually you have fed into the list the most important acts from each style. I personally think a list created by 2 or 3 people per style would be best. It helps to weed out bias that sometimes sneaks in unexpectedly. How many people this project would need would really depend on how specific we would want to become. Most people on Future Rock Legends seem to be interested in multiple varieties of music, so users could be a part of several committees.

My ideas for the master list:

1. It would encompass Popular Music from it's beginning popularity of about 1890 to the present day.
2. To be included an artist would be a recording artist, which would eliminate the harder to compare songwriters, producers, and engineers. Those three types are most certainly musicians, but not in the traditional sense when you think of a performing artist or a recording artist.
3. The size of the list would depend on the amount of overall smaller lists. It could be anywhere from 100-1000 artists, I would probably say 500 is a nice number, but this is completely up for consideration. I will say that by my estimation there are roughly 28,000-30,000 notable recording acts in the English speaking world. That is large a number, and when you get out of that zone to the broader world it is harder to tell. I can say I have a list of about 3,000 World acts currently sitting in a Spreadsheet of artists who didn't crossover into the English markets. It is important to remember that the English speaking countries are very large exporters and consumers of Pop music (Jazz,Blues,Gospel,Country,Rock'N'Roll, and Traditional Pop rose out of the States), so they have a high number of artists popular everywhere in the world. Where as someone who is legendary in a specific country may have less of a following to the general public. Amália Rodrigues from Portugal is a very good example. In Portugal she is iconic, and we don't have a similar artist to compare her to in the States, if Elvis and Aretha Franklin combined maybe. I am completely fine with an open list that includes these World artists. I actually think it would make the process unique.
4. That the master list is decided by everyone on all of the committees. Either by voting in the tougher spots, or by general discussion.

My ideas for the Sub-Lists
1. The committee deciding it should be around 2-3 people. As I've said to eliminate bias.
2. That contributors should and can serve on multiple sub-lists. I think everyone's interest can be met. And there are enough styles to be broken up that everyone can get into anything.
3. That the sub-lists should be at a set number, with equal representation on each list. So if we have 100 Metal acts, we should have 100 R&B acts. We should come up with some number for that. Which brings me to my next point.
4. With the huge amount of styles possible I think that we should agree on a set number of sub-lists. No more than 100. While there are about 200 substantial styles in English speaking Popular music, and four times as many when looking globally, I don't think we need to get that specific. There are roughly 10-12 Genres of Popular Music. Some, like Gospel for example, can be broken up into just two lists. Mammoth genres, like Rock'N'Roll, are going to need a bit more space (around 50?). While others like Country may be best served by a look at eras (around 4 or 5).


I think if 10 people could be willing, and we cover enough ground among us, that it this is completely feasible. I can help with artist recommendations, charting history (across countries), genre and style lists, discography's, recording spans, and overall data input. As well as make this forum look however the majority wants it to.  I can tackle just about any style, although there are plenty that I would be happy to leave to far more capable hands. Which means the project can be whatever the majority wants it to. I just need input, and hopefully enough interest that it can get off the ground.