Your favourite South and Far East Asia albums?

  The explanation follows just where you decided to cut off the quote...

nick_h_nz wrote: I could be wrong, but I don’t think you should be thankful. I’m pretty sure this comment of awe is in regard to how awful this thread is, rather than how awesome. Potentially even worse, but definitely as bad, as the Eastern Europe thread, and for the same reasons. It’s funny how you accused someone of being racist when they obviously weren’t, when you come far closer yourself - though I’m sure you do it innocently and without malice. Once again you have grouped together a huge range of different countries, cultures and musical traditions, in a fashion that could easily be viewed as insulting and/or offensive. I assume, but could be wrong, that the “wow” comment is simply because you have not taken onboard any of the criticism within the Eastern Europe thread, have not learnt your lesson, and have put forward another grouping of countries. It would appear you couldn’t even get the the geography right this time, from earlier comments. Well done for taking that on the chin, and editing your topic and OP to reflect the broader geography, but geez - now the geographical area is even greater, and has an even greater number of cultures, languages, traditions and instruments. For example, the music just within the Indian subcontinent is incredibly diverse, and certainly unlike the music of Japan, which is likely to be the next most known country for music in these fora. (In fact, Japan has had more than one thread dedicated just to it before, and is one of many countries within this region that could easily have their own post, rather than be grouped together with countries that share nothing other than your grouping them together. I think it’s admirable that you are trying to be as active as you are in the forum, and there is a lot of merit in finding out what people like from various regions of the world - but please (please) try and make them smaller, and more sensible. In both the Eastern Europe thread and (before you edited it) this one, you have included countries that just logically have no connection to the larger grouping, and are asking people to draw from a pool that while it might not seem large to you, if you are not greatly familiar with it, is simply too vast and too differing, to realistically make a list. I know you are not going to find this comment constructive, and I’m sorry about that. But I hope you can at least understand where I am coming from.

Again, you don't have to agree with this assessment. Most of us, I think, have already turned the page. I suggest you do the same and get back to what you wanted to do with this thread - there's no obligation whatsoever to comply to other peoples wishes or take their objections into account. But it is good to reflect on it.

Thank you very much for that, Nick, and given that we both have learned from this thread, we might try to start from a new. But I think it's best if we for a while keep a god distance from each other - that is at least my need.

Thank you

@nick: From my point of view such lists are games, not to be taken too seriously, but of course of some potential use. Given that this is so, I don't have problems with pretty much any game of this kind somebody could come up with. Regularly here there are list of "your favourite x bands/albums" from all that exist. If the world is not too big for a list, Asia (or parts of it) is not either. It for sure doesn't mean that all potentially listed in this thread is "comparable" in the sense of following a common tradition, shared influences or whatever.

In fact, I find the idea mistaken that anything from, say, France, can appear in the same list because it is "comparable" (in whatever sense) whereas India and Kamchatka should not appear in the same list as for some reason they're not "comparable". Nobody in France should be constrained to make music that is recognisable as French, and for sure an artist from Kamchatka can have their take on Indian music. All fine by me. You may like these threads or not, or some of them more than others, but I don't buy your apparent "X and Y should not be grouped together" logic.  

And for sure I believe David is right that most people on PA wouldn't be able to put together a list of size >=10 from, say, India, South Korea, Asian Russia, or whatever, and a big area allows more of us to participate. Good enough a reason for me. (I plan to post a list later but too much stuff going on in December.)

You and I are so much on the same page, it’s unreal. The reason I have attempted to reach David is because he does have enthusiasm (and, yes, maybe naivety), and I don’t want him to lose that. In several of his threads, much of the discussion is simply David replying to himself, and the lack of response he often gets is unfair. I don’t want his spirit to be broken, but I can see that happening. Elsewhere he has expressed how little interest there seems to be in his threads, and all I’ve been attempting to do is explain why that might be. There have been others who have simply told him he is wrong, and that’s not fair or accurate.

There is no “right” or “wrong”, because most regional geographical areas are imposed somewhat arbitrarily, and often not even by those within them. So there is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with the regions David proposes (although many of the criticisms have been obvious ones, that probably could have been avoided). But for someone who appears to want there to be discussion on his posts, David does make it difficult for himself. That is why I have tried to explain why other similar posts (and there have been many) in the past have worked, or not. And historically, on these fora at least, the narrower the region, the more discussion generated.

As for free-ranging, I am in complete agreement, and every forum I have ever been a member or moderator in the past has encouraged the idea that, regardless of the OP, and thread can take any direction it wants. Tangents are not only welcomed, but encouraged. But that doesn’t seem to happen so often here on PA, and a lot of forum members seem not so fond of free-ranging threads. David definitely appears to be one of them, as he doesn’t like it when someone goes somewhere he wasn’t expecting. This is, again for me, an indicator that a narrower focus might suit him better. The narrower the geographic region (and, once again, I am NOT proposing every country needs to have its own thread), the less chance for the discussion to go somewhere David doesn’t want it to.

Everything I have said, no matter how badly I’ve said it (and I admit I’ve not made myself clear, which has become increasingly apparent) has been my attempt to help, not hinder, David. I want his enthusiasm to remain undiminished, and I want people to take an active interest in his posts - because I think their intention is admirable and worthy of much discussion. I could talk about music from around the world until my face fell off. Some of the people I know on FB think I have music from every country in the world. I don’t, and that’s not even an aim of mine. I do know, therefore, that my own music collection is not representative of the general forum member. So my suggestions for David have not been for me, or because of what I have in my collection, but simply because over the years (and I have been lurking here for years before I started posting) I have seen a lot, and learnt a lot about which topics draw discussion, and which don’t.

Also, welcome to PA. I don’t think I’ve said that already, even though I’ve replied to you on more than one occasion.

I probaly should have started with the the "Introduce yourself" thread but in my enthusiam I charged right in and neglected that particular piece of ettiquette.

Oh well, the sky has folded and it will never fold back.

Something else, Hugh, I don't know how many of "my" threads you've seen, and anyway in my opinion, there's a lot of quality in them. 

Interesting to hear about your secret loves, Paul.