Music Time

Ok, now movies are my main thing. As many of you know who read this, I'm actually attending film school and I start today. Yeah! I'm anxious as hell, but I really think I can do some great things. Time will tell. But I love music, and any time I think of a certain scene that would require music, some tune pops into my head.

Music has been my second most important outlet and was my first true love. I bought my first guitar during my sophomore year of high school, established that I was mediocre at best, put it down, picked it up here and there, but mainly let the real musicians do the work.

My friend Mike is doing his Top 100 albums on his blog. I don't think I know 100 albums so more power to him, but I have been kicking around a rating system for CD's in my head for a couple months and I think I've come up with something satisfactory. I have always been good at numbers, and I wanted to see if my numerical rating for a CD lined up with my overall view of it.

But anyway, here is the rating system.

Zero - Skip it

2 - Moves the CD along

4 - Great song

6 - Classic

An extra category popped into my head which really completed my system, and it's called "Cohesion." And this number can very between a 0-6.

For an album like Radiohead's Kid A. I would give it a 6. So even though few songs are 6's in my opinion, the CD gets a huge boost not from one given song, but from the album as a complete work.

Now an album like Doolittle from The Pixies has several 6's in my mind it but gets maybe only a 1 or 2, in Cohesion, because they throw in two Zero's and one 2 in a row which really kills the rhythm of the CD.

You can be as stringent with this system as you like. Some may love music so much that 6's pop up everywhere. Now for me, a great CD usually usually has 2-4 6's on it. But rate the songs however you like. Just be consistent.

You can exclude any tracks from the CD which include talking, or tones, or just a quick jam. Just stick to the songs. But all that little stuff added in does factor into your Cohesion. The Fugees "The Score" had a hilarious skit on it about some ghetto guys trying to order take-out at a Chinese restaurant. Shit hits the fan, ass stomping begins. That skit alone would add a couple points to Cohesion. I'll never forget it. "Like Burger King, have it your way."

So anyway, I'll be rating CD's here and there (if I have anytime with school). I'll mention the 6's and give an overall Cohesion score which should lead to a summary of the CD. Just to give some sort of guideline to show where my overall scores range from, I'll pick a couple of my favorite CD's and just give the numerical values in my next blog.

But obviously the overall score is your total tally of points for every song plus the Cohesion score divided by the total tracks rated.

CD Score = (Track Points + Cohesion) / Total Tracks

I just think it's a cool way to see where CD's rank. Give it a shot.....(and Mike, try the system with your top 10 and see if the order holds true. I'm just curious).

Thanks all!!!