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Top 20
I decided to create a yearly personal top 20 songs list and maybe you might want to do the same to be able to look back in a few years and have a nice music history. Last.fm or whatever else there is might save your play count but it can't know how much you like something. in my case the list would look very different as I have listened to certain songs many more times than some on my list but I would never consider them for the top 20.
I picked 20 as a number as it seems to be a good trade-off between allowing many songs into the list while still needing to be critical enough not to include everything and keep the quality high.
I don't really expect anyone to answer soon (or at all) as it is quite a bit of work to rank a years worth of songs, it took me 3 hours to list and properly rank everything.
But if you are going to go through the trouble and participate:
There is only one rule to follow (please read before posting):
-The official release date of the song must be in 2015, optionally you can include december 2014 if you want, I choose not to. Songs in 2015 albums/singles don't count if they were already released in previous years (unless it is december 2014), please make sure to check that. (There is a seperate category for those explained further down below.) If a song is going to have a release date next year but is available for a limited audience this year (pre-sale at a concert for example) leave it for next year.
Some recommendations:
-If you can't rank the songs you can state that they are not ranked and post them like that if you can narrow it down to 20.
-Try to represent the whole year by not giving current song obsessions an unfair advantage. Sure you may not be listening to song X released in month X anymore but think of all the enjoyment you had back then and rate that.
-Leave commentary explaining some of your choices if you want.
-It would be nice if you include links to music videos of the songs whenever available so we can check them out and maybe discover something new. (I mostly use Youtube, Dailymotion and musicplayon.com)
...and more
Apart from the top 20 you can create your own 2015 categories as well like top X: albums, singles, live DVDs, new groups, instrumental songs, concerts you went to, best dance routines, SCANDAL only toplist etc. and some year independent categories like "too late to the party" (song released before 2015 but discovered by you this year). These are optional and up to you.
As a bonus I am giving away a SCANDAL HELLO WORLD postcard (not official merch., it was a gift from a ticket shop) to a random participant (top 20 mandatory). It's not in mint shape but it's free. If the winner doesn't want it I will give it to the next random person. If no one answers until the end of january the first person to message me about it can get it.
On topic discussions are ok, you don't necessarily have to create your top 20 to take part, you can also only list personal categories.
My top 20 list (without december 2014):
1. LAGOON - Shout It Out!! (sadly no video)
2. Aya Hirano - SAKKAKU LOVING YOU? (instrumental)
3. Aya Hirano - DREAMER TO IU BOUKEN SHA (instrumental)
4. Aya Hirano - DREAMER TO IU BOUKEN SHA
5. Aya Hirano - SAKKAKU LOVING YOU?
6. Red Velvet - Dumb Dumb
7. SAGA - TOGETHER
8. ERiHIRO - Stars
9. Do As Infinity - Brand New Days
10. T-ARA - So Crazy
11. Hysteric Lolita - DISTRESS
12. CHiCO with HoneyWorks - Pride Kamukei
13. TWICE - Like OOH AHH
14. LAGOON - futari ga hoshikatta mono
15. Playback - Playback
16. DAOKO - ShibuyaK
17. Ayumi Hamasaki - Warning
18. Gacharic Spin - Sekira Liar
19. GFRIEND - Me Gustas Tu
20. Ai Otsuka - Busy Lady
Commentary:
No. 1: The moment I heard this song I was hooked. One week later it was almost clear that this would be taking the No. 1 spot and it did after all. Even Steve Jobs wouldn't be able to explain its magic if he was still alive. (it's a play on the lyrics "Steve Jobs mo wakaranai yo" if you wonder what he has to do with it). It has exhausted itself by now and won't be heard much next year but the short time it was good was so overwhelmingly good it deserves the no.1 spot.
No. 2-5: I know it looks weird including instrumental versions and normal versions and in an unexpected order. The people responsible for the music did such a good job that the songs deserve to be listened to without any vocals covering them up, only then can they fully show their potential. The normal versions are also fantastic of course, I love her voice. It was not an easy choice to use up 4 slots just for Aya but there was no way around it.
No 10: I like both korean and chinese versions equally. If I had to pick one as a winner I would choose the chinese one just to be different.
Songs I had a hard time not to include (no order):
SCANDAL - Stamp! (in it's defense I had no way of evaluating it unlike the other songs, it might have gotten a place between 15-20 if I could listen to it but I am not going to cheat. Maybe I will take a look at the list again in April)
SCANDAL - Sisters (instrumental) (again no way to reevaluate, I can barely remember it, place 20 maybe? I just remember it being very good)
SCANDAL - Your Song (I can't evaluate it, probably somewhere between 6-11. I left out december 2014 so it is not eligible for the list)
Mamamoo - Um Oh Ah Yeh
Girls Generation - Lion Heart
Girls Generation - Green Light
ALICE TANAKA - PARTY LIKE U
MINMI - Ego
Juice=Juice - CHOICE & CHANCE
BoA - Shout it Out
Top 4 too late to the party:
LAGOON - Kimi no Matsu Sekai (second place) 2014
DESTROSE - Prologue (third place) 2014
Gacharic Spin - WINNER (fourth place) 2014
BAND-MAID - Thrill (fifth place) 2014
Best album for "songs I like"/"songs I don't like" ratio:
Juice=Juice - First Squeeze! 29/29 100%
2015 SCANDAL songs rankings (If you want to include HELLO WORLD don't forget to leave out: Image, Departure, Runners High and Yoake no Ryuuseigun as these were released earlier in 2014 as singles. Leave Chiisana Hono for next year where it will probably be released on their next album, at the moment it is only available to audiences of the documentary)
1. Stamp!
2. Sisters (instrumental)
3. Sisters
3. Flashback No.5
4. Life is a Journey
5. Stamp! (instrumental)
I decided to create a yearly personal top 20 songs list and maybe you might want to do the same to be able to look back in a few years and have a nice music history. Last.fm or whatever else there is might save your play count but it can't know how much you like something. in my case the list would look very different as I have listened to certain songs many more times than some on my list but I would never consider them for the top 20.
I picked 20 as a number as it seems to be a good trade-off between allowing many songs into the list while still needing to be critical enough not to include everything and keep the quality high.
I don't really expect anyone to answer soon (or at all) as it is quite a bit of work to rank a years worth of songs, it took me 3 hours to list and properly rank everything.
But if you are going to go through the trouble and participate:
There is only one rule to follow (please read before posting):
-The official release date of the song must be in 2015, optionally you can include december 2014 if you want, I choose not to. Songs in 2015 albums/singles don't count if they were already released in previous years (unless it is december 2014), please make sure to check that. (There is a seperate category for those explained further down below.) If a song is going to have a release date next year but is available for a limited audience this year (pre-sale at a concert for example) leave it for next year.
Some recommendations:
-If you can't rank the songs you can state that they are not ranked and post them like that if you can narrow it down to 20.
-Try to represent the whole year by not giving current song obsessions an unfair advantage. Sure you may not be listening to song X released in month X anymore but think of all the enjoyment you had back then and rate that.
-Leave commentary explaining some of your choices if you want.
-It would be nice if you include links to music videos of the songs whenever available so we can check them out and maybe discover something new. (I mostly use Youtube, Dailymotion and musicplayon.com)
...and more
Apart from the top 20 you can create your own 2015 categories as well like top X: albums, singles, live DVDs, new groups, instrumental songs, concerts you went to, best dance routines, SCANDAL only toplist etc. and some year independent categories like "too late to the party" (song released before 2015 but discovered by you this year). These are optional and up to you.
As a bonus I am giving away a SCANDAL HELLO WORLD postcard (not official merch., it was a gift from a ticket shop) to a random participant (top 20 mandatory). It's not in mint shape but it's free. If the winner doesn't want it I will give it to the next random person. If no one answers until the end of january the first person to message me about it can get it.
On topic discussions are ok, you don't necessarily have to create your top 20 to take part, you can also only list personal categories.
My top 20 list (without december 2014):
1. LAGOON - Shout It Out!! (sadly no video)
2. Aya Hirano - SAKKAKU LOVING YOU? (instrumental)
3. Aya Hirano - DREAMER TO IU BOUKEN SHA (instrumental)
4. Aya Hirano - DREAMER TO IU BOUKEN SHA
5. Aya Hirano - SAKKAKU LOVING YOU?
6. Red Velvet - Dumb Dumb
7. SAGA - TOGETHER
8. ERiHIRO - Stars
9. Do As Infinity - Brand New Days
10. T-ARA - So Crazy
11. Hysteric Lolita - DISTRESS
12. CHiCO with HoneyWorks - Pride Kamukei
13. TWICE - Like OOH AHH
14. LAGOON - futari ga hoshikatta mono
15. Playback - Playback
16. DAOKO - ShibuyaK
17. Ayumi Hamasaki - Warning
18. Gacharic Spin - Sekira Liar
19. GFRIEND - Me Gustas Tu
20. Ai Otsuka - Busy Lady
Commentary:
No. 1: The moment I heard this song I was hooked. One week later it was almost clear that this would be taking the No. 1 spot and it did after all. Even Steve Jobs wouldn't be able to explain its magic if he was still alive. (it's a play on the lyrics "Steve Jobs mo wakaranai yo" if you wonder what he has to do with it). It has exhausted itself by now and won't be heard much next year but the short time it was good was so overwhelmingly good it deserves the no.1 spot.
No. 2-5: I know it looks weird including instrumental versions and normal versions and in an unexpected order. The people responsible for the music did such a good job that the songs deserve to be listened to without any vocals covering them up, only then can they fully show their potential. The normal versions are also fantastic of course, I love her voice. It was not an easy choice to use up 4 slots just for Aya but there was no way around it.
No 10: I like both korean and chinese versions equally. If I had to pick one as a winner I would choose the chinese one just to be different.
Songs I had a hard time not to include (no order):
SCANDAL - Stamp! (in it's defense I had no way of evaluating it unlike the other songs, it might have gotten a place between 15-20 if I could listen to it but I am not going to cheat. Maybe I will take a look at the list again in April)
SCANDAL - Sisters (instrumental) (again no way to reevaluate, I can barely remember it, place 20 maybe? I just remember it being very good)
SCANDAL - Your Song (I can't evaluate it, probably somewhere between 6-11. I left out december 2014 so it is not eligible for the list)
Mamamoo - Um Oh Ah Yeh
Girls Generation - Lion Heart
Girls Generation - Green Light
ALICE TANAKA - PARTY LIKE U
MINMI - Ego
Juice=Juice - CHOICE & CHANCE
BoA - Shout it Out
Top 4 too late to the party:
LAGOON - Kimi no Matsu Sekai (second place) 2014
DESTROSE - Prologue (third place) 2014
Gacharic Spin - WINNER (fourth place) 2014
BAND-MAID - Thrill (fifth place) 2014
Best album for "songs I like"/"songs I don't like" ratio:
Juice=Juice - First Squeeze! 29/29 100%
2015 SCANDAL songs rankings (If you want to include HELLO WORLD don't forget to leave out: Image, Departure, Runners High and Yoake no Ryuuseigun as these were released earlier in 2014 as singles. Leave Chiisana Hono for next year where it will probably be released on their next album, at the moment it is only available to audiences of the documentary)
1. Stamp!
2. Sisters (instrumental)
3. Sisters
3. Flashback No.5
4. Life is a Journey
5. Stamp! (instrumental)
