There Will Not Be Bloggregate

It's not happening.  Not here, at least.

For the past couple years I've aggregated bloggers' end-of-year top ten album lists, pulling together already-published Best-Ofs from around the web into a cross-referenced consensus.  I gave it an ugly name - my narrower gutter has shortened it to "Bloggrega," which is fine, I can always use an editor - and vomited it out in unwieldy spreadsheet form.  Last year's chart featured 640 sources, more than either the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll or Idolator's Packin' Jop spin-off(*).

This year, I just can't.  There are a lot of reasons.  Primarily, I have to work at prospecting for oil and growing an awesome, awesome moustache.

I can't.  Maybe you can.

If someone - hopefully, someone with more web programming/database management knowledge than I, someone who can make the thing a better user experience - wants to grab the ball and run with it, let me know and I'll forward folks your way.  (In the unlikely event there are multiple ball-grabbers I'll let y'all gather together and duke it out, Cajun-style.)

List season is underway - a few of the heavier hitters (Gorilla vs. Bear, Largehearted Boy, Skatterbrain) have theirs up - but still in its very early stages.  LhB's ongoing compendium of lists has barely started to sprawl.  Plenty of time to get ahead of the game.

I still feel it's a worthwhile venture.  Annual Best-Ofs might be more important beacons than ever, what with a billion websites providing a daily grind of PR-inspired fog.  Unlike the Voice and Idolator throwdowns (to which I certainly haven't been invited to contribute, and chances are you ain't been neither), the Blogreggate's not exclusionary; all anyone needs is a blog and a list.  And because the aggregate linked back to sources' lists, it offered both context and the opportunity of ongoing recommendations.

Anyway, let me know if you're interested.  I'll be using the rest of the year, here, to fully embrace irrelevancy by cleaning my coffers of unfinished business - Hey, who wants another Daft Punk concert review? - and work on that awesome, awesome moustache.

(*)  Since re-dubbed "The Official Critics' Staunchy Boring Zzz Zzzzz."

tags: music bloggregate  bloggregate  2007 music bloggregate  best of  best music 2007  top 10 albums  top ten albums  

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