New! February 2024 Special: Heavy Metal Origin Stories
Great Compact Discs series, 2023-
- New Order
- Sun City Girls
- Blue Öyster Cult
Coming soon (or later), a look at restored or revived "lost" albums, specifically the Who's Life House and Frank Zappa's Zappa in New York.
Also coming soon: a Sun Ra discography illustrated by hype stickers, obis, and—from the early-Nineties Evidence reissues—the most colorful and psychedelic illustrations ever to grace Compact Disc surfaces.
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Looking to listen to (lots of) new (old) music? How about 2712 albums and 2106 tracks (plus a lot of compilations) spanning the years, 1918-2023, mostly 1947-1993? Peruse one person's inventory of songs and albums that he either already likes or wants to listen to more closely. Or access the database in chronological form, broken up into decades and years.
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more Rockissue articles: nine each of the three years, 2020-2022
2022, December: ‘Capturing an Era, Evoking a Scene, Making Playlists: What Do Dayton and Athens Have in Common but Nothing?’
November: ‘Seas of Meaninglessness—Lyrics in Rock Music’
October: ‘Making Chronological Playlists: A Case Study: 1973’
May: ‘Rhythm and Blues Includes Early Rock-and-Roll: Setting the Records Straight’
April: ‘Stage Settings: The Residents' Commercial Album, Lost in Non-Music’
March: ‘Workaday Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn!; Fifth Dimension’
February: ‘Playlist: Lou Reed’
January: ‘Refining Canons: Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham Albums Reissued, Expanded, and Reconsidered’
2021, December: ‘Another Hidden History of Blur’
November: ‘Alternate Histories: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes’
June: ‘On Second Note—Not Taking Things Seriously: Pavement: Wowee Zowee’
May: ‘Playlist: The Doors’
April: ‘Box Set Key: The Smiths: Complete. Complete?’
February: ‘Singles and Swindles: Morrissey’
January: ‘Alternate Histories: Pavement: Brighten the Corners’
2020, December: ‘Box Set Key: Neil Young: Archives Vol. II (1972-1976)’
October: ‘Less Would Have Been More: The Byrds: Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde; Ballad of Easy Rider’
June: ‘Box Set Key: Ray Charles: Pure Genius - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)’
May: ‘Clarence White Takes the Lead: The Byrds: Byrdmaniax; Farther Along’
April: ‘Remember It Better: Michael Jackson: Thriller’
Jarnuary: ‘The Byrds, Over- and Under-Rated: Sweetheart of the Rodeo; The Notorious Byrd Brothers’
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by way of an introduction to the Rock Annual lists
‘Archive Fever? Ready Reference Setpoint?’
‘The Rock Annual, an Imaginary Reference Book’
‘A Different Kind of Yearbook’
Within the "list"/ database, each year's list includes links to Acclaimed Music's albums and songs lists for that year. Of the several web sites that aggregate a massive number of critics', users', and sales lists, Acclaimed is superior. While one can access the individual lists at such sites, Rocklist is an oldie-but-goodie of internetland that collects lists without using mathematical mumbo jumbo to toss all the lists together.
Also provided are links to Playlist Research's and Tunecaster's documentation of that year's best sellers and the Wikipedia article covering that "year in music." Occassionally we will add, to artist entries in the index, links to vintage articles available online at the likes of Trouser Press and Creem that offer complete archives of their back issues as well as databases like Rock's Backpages and Newspapers. We immodestly encourage fellow Rock enthusiasts to read such old articles instead of retrospective accounts or the All-Music Guide's reviews, which, being undated and as such decontextualized, are of limited value regardless of their content.
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about me
I, Justin J. Kaw, am an amateur writer and a professional librarian/ archivist. I previously wrote about music at another self-published site, the "anthology-in-progress" Sweet Pea. I also have created a books database, Greater Books (read the FAQ there for more biographical information). Another web site, The World's Wide Web, connects these projects via varied writings, lists, discographies, and other leftover materials. You can reach me at jkaw1979@hotmail.com.
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