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Progressive rock on Rate Your Music

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A Crimson Mellotron View Drop Down
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    Posted: October 25 2020 at 04:25
I spent some time on RYM yesterday, after it was suggested to me by another forum user here, and I must admit, I was a bit surprised about the ratings on prog. Yes, 'Dark Side' has 50,000 ratings and many prog albums have around 10,000 (a number that hasn't been reached on PA yet) but the overall ratings are significantly lower (For example, in the all-time studio prog rock chart, the albums from #15 onward already have circa 3.9 average rating).
So, is this how people really perceive progressive rock - a  few outstanding albums, a good bunch of really good ones, and an awful lot of average/mediocre-sounding releases?
Are we living in a perfect world here on PA? I am slightly amused now.
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Logan View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 25 2020 at 05:18
Originally posted by A Crimson Mellotron A Crimson Mellotron wrote:

I spent some time on RYM yesterday, after it was suggested to me by another forum user here, and I must admit, I was a bit surprised about the ratings on prog. Yes, 'Dark Side' has 50,000 ratings and many prog albums have around 10,000 (a number that hasn't been reached on PA yet) but the overall ratings are significantly lower (For example, in the all-time studio prog rock chart, the albums from #15 onward already have circa 3.9 average rating).
So, is this how people really perceive progressive rock - a  few outstanding albums, a good bunch of really good ones, and an awful lot of average/mediocre-sounding releases?
Are we living in a perfect world here on PA? I am slightly amused now.

I don't participate there, but I have used RYM as my primary resource for discovering albums and types of info for many years (I'm at PA for the forum).  I like its user lists, album classifications system, its search by genres, and the shorter reviews.  The average ratings there also tend to better reflect how I see albums (although I can be too generous).

When you get many more ratings/ raters the average rating will often go lower.  Here we often get very high ratings from a limited set, the fanboy type.  There many people may be rating many more albums and of a wider variety. 3.9 is still very good and some here have complained that we get far too many 5 star ratings, and that those should be very exceptional.  Of course some here hand out 5 star ratings and one star ratings like candy....

I for one only have liked to rate/ review my favourites, so it was bound to be skewed high and prefer to judge my rating on how much it appeals to me (personal value).

Ratings only work as a rough guide for me, and have been of most value to me when deciding on which albums of a discography to try first.

I think that ls how all music genres are perceived:  a  few outstanding ones, which seems definitionally true, and most (the average album) will be considered to be of average quality.  I wouldn't expect otherwise, but since people tend to choose to listen to kinds of music they like and bands that interest them it's expected that they will be more likely to rate on the higher side than how most would rate that album if they heard it.  If one has a very large collection and is comparing to a wide variety of music, then one may well be more critical (more to compare it to in terms of quality even if/ when much of that quality is merely a subjective perspective that illustrates one's biases).
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A Crimson Mellotron View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote A Crimson Mellotron Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 25 2020 at 05:46
Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

Originally posted by A Crimson Mellotron A Crimson Mellotron wrote:

I spent some time on RYM yesterday, after it was suggested to me by another forum user here, and I must admit, I was a bit surprised about the ratings on prog. Yes, 'Dark Side' has 50,000 ratings and many prog albums have around 10,000 (a number that hasn't been reached on PA yet) but the overall ratings are significantly lower (For example, in the all-time studio prog rock chart, the albums from #15 onward already have circa 3.9 average rating).
So, is this how people really perceive progressive rock - a  few outstanding albums, a good bunch of really good ones, and an awful lot of average/mediocre-sounding releases?
Are we living in a perfect world here on PA? I am slightly amused now.

I don't participate there, but I have used RYM as my primary resource for discovering albums and types of info for many years (I'm at PA for the forum).  I like its user lists, album classifications system, its search by genres, and the shorter reviews.  The average ratings there also tend to better reflect how I see albums (although I can be too generous).

When you get many more ratings/ raters the average rating will often go lower.  Here we often get very high ratings from a limited set, the fanboy type.  There many people may be rating many more albums and of a wider variety. 3.9 is still very good and some here have complained that we get far too many 5 star ratings, and that those should be very exceptional.  Of course some here hand out 5 star ratings and one star ratings like candy....

I for one only have liked to rate/ review my favourites, so it was bound to be skewed high and prefer to judge my rating on how much it appeals to me (personal value).

Ratings only work as a rough guide for me, and have been of most value to me when deciding on which albums of a discography to try first.

I think that ls how all music genres are perceived:  a  few outstanding ones, which seems definitionally true, and most (the average album) will be considered to be of average quality.  I wouldn't expect otherwise, but since people tend to choose to listen to kinds of music they like and bands that interest them it's expected that they will be more likely to rate on the higher side than how most would rate that album if they heard it.  If one has a very large collection and is comparing to a wide variety of music, then one may well be more critical (more to compare it to in terms of quality even if/ when much of that quality is merely a subjective perspective that illustrates one's biases).

Agreed with you that we have too many 5-star albums on PA. Lots of overrated ones but who cares in the end. However, I started this thread because of the dramatic difference in the average ratings, found it curious. You're right that the extreme ratings should be used in exceptional cases (In fact, I haven't given a 5 star rating from this profile yet, not that I won't do it sooner or later LOL).

I wonder when will an album hit 10,000 ratings here, it would be a big achievement!
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Frenetic Zetetic View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Frenetic Zetetic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 25 2020 at 05:48
Originally posted by A Crimson Mellotron A Crimson Mellotron wrote:

So, is this how people really perceive progressive rock - a  few outstanding albums, a good bunch of really good ones, and an awful lot of average/mediocre-sounding releases?
Are we living in a perfect world here on PA? I am slightly amused now.

Yes on all accounts, lol.

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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