When asked if I'm on Facebook, my standard response of "No, but I am on Rate Your Music" is usually met by a blank stare that seems to say this.So, what is Rate Your Music (RYM)? To put it verbosely, it's a delightfully handy online wonderland of user-driven musical minutiae in which ratings yield recommendations, like-minded pop/rock/soul mates are unearthed, and “critics” (i.e., paid music nerds) take a backseat to "normal people” (i.e., unpaid music nerds) like me (visit my profile here).
Or, to put it simply, it’s a great way to discover new music. Here’s how:
First, if you invest a little time and “catalog” (aka make a list of) and rate (on a scale of 0.5-5.0 stars) your music collection, RYM will (much like Netflix’ website) generate custom recommendations based on your input. It will also create a “compatibility list” of other RYM users whose tastes most closely resemble your own, and then allow you to peruse their collections. More recently, they’ve implemented a “predicted rating” feature which “represents how strongly RYM thinks you will like” any given album. Using this tool, I can tell, for example, that I should heed a friend's recent advice that I check out Ágætis Byrjun by Sigur Rós (predicted rating: 4.46).
Second, it’s also interesting—and this doesn’t require making any ratings—to simply look and see what “average” people think is best. For instance, this list of the RYM users' top albums of all-time has led me to many a gem (such as Odessey & Oracle by The Zombies). This can also prove useful in deciding where to begin with a certain band (like when a glance at The Cure's discography led me to start with Disintegration). And then there are the inevitable surprises, like when I learned that—shockingly—the top-rated single of 1985 is not Eddie Murphy's immortal classic, "Party All The Time" (video here).
Posts
4 comments:
Shameless plug to try and get Pete to comment. It seems one big hole in your music (and my) collection compared to all ratemymusic users is jazz.
I was having a mediocre day at best until I watched that video and was reminded of the musical genius known as Eddie Murphy.
I'm really intrigued now by RYM. I hadn't known of it before, but I might just have to set up a profile of my own to connect with all the other Eddie Murphy fans out there.
Look, will I do whatever it takes, even take a swig of whisky, to get a comment? Yes. But would I deliberately exaggerate my sincere adoration for “Party All The Time”? Absolutely not. To suggest otherwise just hurts my feelings.
I have that Sigur Ros album if you'd like to check them out - it's fantastic. If you like them, I'd also recommend checking out Johann Johannsson and perhaps talkdemonic. ...I'll just bring my ipod to your office.
Post a Comment