Category: Jam Session
Hello everyone.
The internet has generally been great for music fans. We can look up artists, both known and unknown to us, check discographies, lineups, reviews. In some ways, this used to be easier in the old days of the internet when search engines were more likely to return useful results (as opposed to dozens and dozens of "lyrics" sites full of ads, for example). One thing that's really of ultimate use though is the music archive database. These are usually organised around specific genres of music, and artists or bands are listed in alphabetical order, or accessible via a search box. Each artist has a page and you often have a biography of some sort, info about lineups and discographies and other pertinent information.
The first time I remember coming across such a database, it was the BNR Metal pages, in the 90s. This was run by a single guy and so the resources were naturally limited. Data was spotty, but there were a whole lot of bands on there nevertheless and for a while when I was first getting into heavy music, i found the site useful.
Today's models tend to be different, based more on the wikipedia idea of a user-created database. The theory is that a database is only as good as the people who use it, who are its contributors. Provided there is moderation and control, this should work really well, ideally.
now I want to highlight two current archives, and maybe if others know of similar databases (particularly interested in stuff for electronic music) you can post them here.
http;//www.progarchives.com
A site dedicated to progressive rock in all its forms, from "proto" bands of the 60s to today's post-rock and electronic hybrids. The site is very useful, but I find it ratehr cluttered and slow. There's also not much moderation (if any) for the reviews, so they tend to be rambly and a bit incoherent. Still, if you want to know about prog rock bands and everything related, this is the place. There is crossover into metal and fusion jazz, of course, and you can choose to browse alphabetically, by style, etc. I believe the site owners also run a smaller but still active jazz archive, which you can find a link to on the progarchives site. So, yes, it's good, but I honestly wish the site were laid out more like...:
http://www.metal-archives.com
This is the place for metal info on the net. Started in 2002, the Encyclopaedia Metallum is a very well designed and structured site with a sleek and smooth interface that's free of ads and other junk. There are over 100,000 bands in the database, from countries all over the world. A few years ago the site was overhauled to a version 2.0, and it's now a little more complex than it used to be, but still very easy to use if you are just a browser and not a contributor. moderation is quite rigorous, and the accepted reviews are of a quite high standard, generally. You can find information about every metal band you could possibly think of here, from mainstream to extreme underground. of course, the site's definition of "metal" is out of necessity somewhat arbitrary. it doesn't include bands like Korn or Slipknot or Marilyn manson, that stuff being considered non-metal by the site administration. It does include Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Rush, but not Jimi hendrix or led Zeppelin or AC/DC. It isn't as though you can't find plenty of data on these non-metal projects online, however.
Anybody else know some good ones? How about one for classical music? Funk/soul maybe? Punk? Let's hear it.
Bnr was cool. I love the fact that a lot of metal zines are on the web. Back in the 90s before I learned how to use Jaws and Windows the best I could do was Rolling Stone in braille, which kinda sucked.
hey, cool that you remember BNR as well! Rolling Stone in braille is something I remember hearing about but never got around to checking out. It's not a great rag though is it? I enjoyed reading a writeup on RS on Rateyourmusic a while ago..it was called "the 500 Worst Rolling Stone Reviews" or something like that, but it was more than that, it was a commentary on how the magazine changed its perspective on certain releases and music movements over time, and how it worked to venerate some while excluding others. pretty interesting, I'll have to see if i can find it.
for classical music I tend to use music web international, talkclassical forums used to be good, don't know if they still are!
It depends if you're looking for reviews or what.