Probably not, but it is certainly challenging and adventurous goal. I myself have already started two years before, but I soon realized sheer size of this project. It's life long goal ladies and gentlemen. It's almost lifestyle than just a hobby. I'm not sure.

But even it's impossible, as more and more albums will be added to database, it's like one rule from mathematics I like, called "limit".

In other words - you can be closing to certain point "knowing them all", but you will never get there. But the important thing is that you are trying.

Intentionally, I'm not raising questions how to get all these albums, or where would you store them (having whole room just for records probably), or even that some of them are so rare that it's nearly impossible (or even impossible) to get some of them.

Questions:

1)How would this change you (me) when you know more and more, what would advantages and disadvantages be like ?

2)Is it possible to remember then all ? Is it possible to review all of them ?

3)Because we're mortals, it's probably not possible to hear all albums that you would like to hear in a lifetime. Or is it ? I suppose it's not, so how to deal with this issue ?

I like keeping myself moving towards big goals. The ones that are very hard to get. Because therefore I will be still moving. And this moving means listening music, which is good.

That idea would be a waste of your time here, Marty. My approach is rather listen to and review as much varied music as possible within the PA framework. This attitude has lead me to discover Flairck, Agitation Free, Return To Forever, Herba Hemali, Gilgamesh, Eskaton, Advent, Fruupp, Soft Machine and many other truly great bands I would had missed if my attitude was to listen to and review 50 x Genesis/Yes copycats bands and albums. The latter one would be my default option due to my love of symphonic prog. 

By default, ProgArchives invites everyone to expand their horizons and mind. My mind has been truly challenged and then expanded in all direction at my time in ProgArchives. This is ProgArchives greatest strength and reason for being here. So you should rather listen to 5 x albums from each genre instead of listen to everything.    

Zombywoof wrote: AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: Not possible to know all music in the porog scene but a nice goal - thx for putting htat insane idea in my head   But i have tripled my knowledge of prog by listening to music here and reading the bios and album familiarisation, and that s a good thing as far as I am concerned. i DO have a goal tho to listen to every 5 star album here, as well as the top 100, and that is a feat in itself! I wonder if there is a page in the Guinness World Record Book for "Most Prog Albums Listened to by a Single Man"

I doubt it. Guinness has stopped accepting records which may endanger human lives. 

octopus-4 wrote: 1)How would this change you (me) when you know more and more, what would advantages and disadvantages be like ? Being the number of neurons (so the memory capacity) of our brains limited, we probably act as with all the rest: listen to Starcastle and think they are Yes 2)Is it possible to remember then all ? Is it possible to review all of them ? Of course no. When I review something I must have it in my earphones. On a review I wrote "Hungarian" about Collegium Musicum.  About reviewing all of them, if you copy other's reviews without spending time listening, perhaps yes. 3)Because we're mortals, it's probably not possible to hear all albums that you would like to hear in a lifetime. Or is it ? I suppose it's not, so how to deal with this issue ? I promised myself to get into Frank Zappa 4 years ago. I still have to listen to the first CD.

Hehe, you will less and less about each album, but this progress can be kept living, even not at the same rate.

OK, you have made a mistake, Hungary/Slovakia. I remember myself doing the same kind of error with Norway / Sweden. Reviewing is certainly more difficult than just listening. Some albums are very hard to review at all, for example Gentle Giant for me. Perhaps it's impossible to review them all.

I wanted to get into most of stuff by Zappa since 2 years ago. I tried two albums :-)

toroddfuglesteg wrote: Zombywoof wrote: AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: Not possible to know all music in the porog scene but a nice goal - thx for putting htat insane idea in my head   But i have tripled my knowledge of prog by listening to music here and reading the bios and album familiarisation, and that s a good thing as far as I am concerned. i DO have a goal tho to listen to every 5 star album here, as well as the top 100, and that is a feat in itself! I wonder if there is a page in the Guinness World Record Book for "Most Prog Albums Listened to by a Single Man" I doubt it. Guinness has stopped accepting records which may endanger human lives.

Actually, are there some records that are connected with Progressive music ?

Rivertree wrote: 28000 albums in total ... our most prolific reviewers nearly wrote about 10% ... so I don't think it's possible really. I know circa 60% of all the bands listed under our psych/space subgenre ... and that's a lot ... believe me

I used to think that 28000 is number impossible to reach, but it's actually far less of them. 

A lot of them are live albums (some bands are releasing many live albums, most of them of not so good quality), there are also Best of compilations and they are mostly useless to me. Mostly, because when it's compilation of unreleased material, it's worth of the price. But if it's collection of songs I already own as studio albums, it's really meaningless. 

Then we also have singles. Jethro Tull, The Beatles are the major players here, having maybe hundred of singles.

The Beatles:
58 compilations
62 singles

I mean, they're not the same league as studio albums. Time for listening is quite precious, one can't hear them all. So why to waste time with acquiring singles and listening them, when I can move to listen other bands, studio albums.

Of course, most bands has only studio albums listed, but these big ones has a lot of compilations and other "less worthy" stuff.

So I dare to say that PA has about 9.000-14.000 of studio albums. One third to one half of albums to review.

Of course, Sean Trane, Hugues Ch. is our most prolific reviewer, but he's here for 6 years and so it means writing about 1.5 reviews per day. Quite impressive that he was able to keep it that way, that he's still writing, but it's possible to reach his status, when you give somebody let's say 3 more years. Take for example new rising star, Bonnek. He will soon have 1000 reviews and you know how long took it. Just one year.

60% of all bands, that may be about 1000 albums ? (studio ones)

^^ I wanted to reply something intelligent, but I'm out of my mind currently, so

^ Jefff, yes, I saw this Cleared Metal backlog already, it's quite huge.

1)I would join your team if I had more experiences with Prog Metal.
2)By the way, your Melodic Prog recommendation, Nightingale, is some kind of grower, it's getting better and better with each listen.

_______________________________________________________________________

Serious questions you are raising Kingfriso. However, since beginning of mankind, man was used to gather. Remember this hunter/collector pattern ? We simply has it in our genes. And if it's not music, one can collect stamps, movies, books, cars or anything. And every collector will tell you that he wants to collect as much as possible.

I won't call that personality disorder, it's too harsh in my thinking.

In general, I want to ask another question. We can say that it's very difficult to impossible to listen all albums that are here. Therefore, I was wondering if it's (and now I'm referring to part that Atomic Scott said), there are charts, somehow better and worse albums. And even it's possible that you will like low rated album and that you will hate well rated album, this chance is very low. I'm getting to point, slowly, but getting, please stay tuned.

It's often better and certainly safer to listen to albums that are rated good. Because majority of people already decided that it is good for them, so it has very high chance that it will be good for you too. It's not adventurous, it's using of beaten paths, but it's quite certain way, depending on reviews of others. Simply recommendations.

Of course, it's tempting to listen to "best" albums only, those with rating above 3.5 let's say. But it's good to listen "worse" rated too. You never know what you can discover.

Hehe :-) nice to see so many interesting opinions in this thread. Even those I don't agree with too much. 

Threads like this are good to make you think, aren't they ?

Of course, I don't want to do this, I'm not that foolish. But I certainly want to hear as much as possible. Everyone around me says that I won't have so much time to listen when I'll be older. But if music will still be one of my main hobbies, I will have time, because I won't like to abandon music.

It would be possible; the problem is that albums keep getting uploaded all the time, and new artists as well.

If you even devoted a summer to just listening to every album and reviewing them all, I'm sure you could have about 1000-3000 new Reviews (depending on how much you slept)

Conor Fynes wrote: It would be possible; the problem is that albums keep getting uploaded all the time, and new artists as well. If you even devoted a summer to just listening to every album and reviewing them all, I'm sure you could have about 1000-3000 new Reviews (depending on how much you slept)

I like this kind of insane ideas. Some albums has 40 minutes, some up to 80. Some are double LP's and some double CD's. I think that average length of album would be 60 minutes, one hour. 18 hours, 18 albums. Then 6 hours of sleep.

About 1500 reviews in two months (July-August), but I would soon run out of ideas.

Solution - bribe all Special Collaborators, so no new band will be added. :-)

Some years ago HT (An ex member of the team who left PA) accepted the challenge of getting at least one album of each band in Symphonic.

1. You are incredibly wealthy
2. You have a lot of time to waste
3. You plan to live until you are 250 years old, being that:
   1. Llistening  music 8 hours a day, you would need more or less 13 years just to listen each album once.
   2. At least 50 years more to get every album (Some are almost impossible to get).and
   3. Probably 150 years more to know well each and every album.

octopus-4 wrote:     Your comment makes me think: How many possibilities a good symphonic prog band has to be carefully listened even by an expert ?  I think PA is doing a service to those bands with less than 20 reviews but over 4 stars and to those listeners who can save the 25% of their budget just avoiding 1 and 2 stars albums. Long life to PA

This isn't that easy. We can say that there probably won't be much Prog in album with rating 2.3 (I reviewed one yesterday), or 2.7 (I also reviewed one yesterday). 

They can be Pop. I don't like pop and so I don't think I will like such albums. 

But what about if it's album that is Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, or simple Folk. I like these styles, so even it won't be Prog, I will enjoy these albums. And believe me, there are such albums.

:-) nothing is easy.

^ Who knows, maybe in 2050 there will be such machines. Or something that will help us to enhance our experience, to understand faster etc. But I won't rely on that. I rather make a plan.

I'm trying to write PA database down (and do regular updates on newly added albums/bands) and I will simply check those that I have heard. It will be slow, but I will be able to track it down easily.

Also we must consider that from all these albums that are on ProgArchives, 1/3, YES, whole one third are unreviewed ones. So we don't know at all what to think about these albums.

In my reviewing business, I also often came to an album, where the album was quite good, but there already was a review. Stating 2 stars, usually in right column. I gave this album 4(-) which I believed it deserved, so average rating was instantly from 2.00 stars on 3.82.

Sudden change, eh ?

Bad thing is that what is bad for someone may be good for someone else. Look, majority of people here likes Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. I hate this, every second of it. Every part, every note, tone, sound.

I've tried, I've asked for help with this albums few people here, but everything was unsuccessful.

And it's album that is very well rated:
3.87 | 105 ratings | 59 reviews | 44% 5 stars

http://www.progarchives.com/top-prog-albums.asp?ssubgenres=&salbumtypes=1&syears=&scountries=50&scountries=53&scountries=62&scountries=83&scountries=85&scountries=132&scountries=157&scountries=164&sminratings=1&smaxratings=0&sminavgratings=1&smaxresults=250&x=83&y=6#list - http://www.progarchives.com/top-prog-albums.asp?ssubgenres=&salbumtypes=1&syears=&scountries=50&scountries=53&scountries=62&scountries=83&scountries=85&scountries=132&scountries=157&scountries=164&sminratings=1&smaxratings=0&sminavgratings=1&smaxresults=250&x=83&y=6#list

Top bottom, one of the worst rated albums I saw. Both of them. This is what I imagine when you're talking about really bad albums.

But take for example our "beloved" Love Beach
2.04 | 121 ratings | 56 reviews | 4% 5 stars

More reviews, better rating. Many people gave 3 stars, while some gave 2 stars or one star (you for example and others).

What album is really bad, Love Beach or these in link I gave here ?

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Marty McFly wrote: Bad thing is that what is bad for someone may be good for someone else. Look, majority of people here likes Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. I hate this, every second of it. Every part, every note, tone, sound. Marty, one thing is taste and I agree with you, but there are also really bad albums, amateurish, terribly performed, totally lack of talent, and to make it worst, horrendous recording.   Iván

How do you define the phrases "bad album", "amateurish" and "totally lack of talent" ?

I am only asking you this because I was once involved in a record where the recording was botched up and the drummer had absolute no idea what he was doing. The production was a joke (the producer was probably tone deaf). The mix was botched. The mastering was a joke. The art work was a joke. The songs even beyond a joke. 

To my amazement, this album got on average over four out of five stars and the reviewers was falling over each other in praise. Most of the reviewers had even bought their personal copies of this album because I did not exactly want to see reviews of that piece of garbage in the magazines. Only one reviewer hit the nail on the head and gave it one star. 

I lost a lot of illusions after that experience.      

SergiUriah wrote: Every moment has it´s real musical accompaniment. I listen only what I decide to, and whatever I want and my senses ask for... According to this, I see a big waste of time and a no-sense act trying to listen the whole PA archives.  Music is a personal pleasure, not an obligation. (If you are not payed for doing it!)

Music should indeed be pleasure. BUT when trying to do systematic approach, because I won't be able remember/navigate without some kind of plan in these waters of Prog. 

I'm systematic person, but this doesn't mean that it's obligation for me. It's pleasure, done in systematic way.

Textbook, as you probably can imagine, I'm not going to answer this question directly. However, I'm satisfied as far as physical needs goes.

When talking about music, I still want to hear / know / research / discover more.

This should answer your question, if it's either fun or seriously meant.

A golden rule is that those who talks about sex, never have sex. Those who never talks about sex, have plenty of sex. 

Marty gets enough of one thing, but he does not get enough prog in his own view. I can only admire his attitude. 

However, we're straying from main topic a little bit.

Back on track:

Torodd, we talked about it once (somewhere in threads), any idea how many STUDIO albums is out there ? That would help us to determine how many "full" albums (and I see studio albums as the highest and simply the best form of album type) is out there.

We should ask M@X, we really should.

I really don't know. Please ask M@x. 

I only knows that I am getting far more albums than I can review. I believe I have enough albums in my cave to keep me busy for the next years........ if I do 5-6 reviews every week. 

I know there is a perfect album somewhere in that mountain of albums. I can smell it. I can taste it. I can feel it. But I don't know which of them. It is driving me around the bend.  

I often say that I do reviewing because it:

1)Helps me to understand album better, because forming my thoughts into words makes me think about it and it's a good thing.

2)Helps me also learn English better. People are often saying what they liked, what they disliked and when I once mistaken Norway for Sweden, error was quickly corrected. Ahem.

3)It's helpful for the site, especially for unknown bands.

I sometimes forget that we are talking about so huge things. As I realized, many people can't even imagine listening song over 5 minutes (various threads proves me correct) and we are discussing knowing Thousands of albums.

Silly me :-)

EDIT: You don't know, I don't know too (my guess is about 10.000-14.000, some bands has only 4 studio albums and not more, but some has 4 studio albums and 5 live CD's, so it's average).

You don't know, but are you interested ? Because I am.

harmonium.ro wrote: toroddfuglesteg wrote: I know there is a perfect album somewhere in that mountain of albums. I can smell it. I can taste it. I can feel it. But I don't know which of them. It is driving me around the bend.   Post of the day

I think I have lost chance to find perfect album few years ago. However, there is still chance that this chance have a chance to reappear. 

How many artists we have here, 6000 ? 30000 albums, so let's say we have 15.000 studio albums here, others being compilations, best offs, live and singles. I don't count these.

Out of these 15k, how many the best of us have listened ? Hundreds ? Thousands ? Somebody 5.000 ? Even this number if quite high and very uncommon.

Indeed. Even most of these top reviewers "have done their chores" - reviewed some of top (and very recent reviewed) albums like Close to the Edge or Selling England. Actually, they could be amongst first ones.

The bad thing is that the more albums you know, the less you remember "less memorable" ones. Or sometimes even good ones.