Photo by Scott Graham
Fellow Bereans,
Over the last year or so, I did quarterly reviews of Hillsong and Elevation Worship in response to their songs dominating in regular polls. I’ve noticed other artists are also beating others consistently (E.G.; Maverick City Music, UPPERROOM, CityAlight, etc). I don’t want to keep adding other “guaranteed” reviews for other artists who prevail often. Therefore, I propose the following solution.
I plan to limit artist reviews to four regular songs per year and one Christmas song annually. Starting in August, any artist that has four reviews in a single year will be removed from the polling queue and will not be allowed back in until the next year. Since I already started Hillsong and Elevation polls, I’ll do two more this year. Next year, Hillsong and Elevation Worship will go back into regular polling.
As for “Extra Songs”, I’ll continue to keep track of songs that don’t pass polling; However, I won’t add Hillsong and Elevation Worship songs until 2022. If I happen to randomly pick an artist that meets the four-song limit, I’ll still review it; However, it will count as part of the four song limit.
What do you think? Is this a good approach to rebalancing artists or is there a better solution?
Updates:
07/28/2021 – Thank you to those who participated! I closed the comments and will announce changes today.
Comments
Harold Geern
I personally have used your website to find new artists based on the reviews you gave, and used it to decide whether or not to listen to some based on the reviews. I think it is important to let some of the small guys get reviews- I’ll use CityAlight for example- they have just over 100k Youtube subscribers, so they aren’t really a big group. I think by reviewing some of their songs, people may find them and see that they have received good reviews, and thus be led to an excellent worship group. However, the big artists have so many viewers so by giving a lot of reviews to them allows people to see the theology behind the songs that are played on the radio or sung in church.
I apologize if this is confusing, I’m typing this late at night
Vince Wright
Harold,
Thank you for your input!
Right, that was the idea behind diversification, for the popular songs to draw the crowd and less popular songs to give others something new and different to listen to, especially if it rates well. However, I already have a process in place that allows a few obscure songs in the mix. The “extra songs” list is constructed based on randomly selecting songs that didn’t pass polling. There are also author-submitted songs (I’ve had three submissions this month) and my executive power as the site owner to review whatever I want.
By the way, CitAlight has been dominating the polls this year. I’ve reviewed three of their songs in 2021, possibly because I hamstrung Hillsong and Elevation.
-Vince Wright
Jonah
Vince,
I suppose this then boils down to your original purpose and if it has changed. Is your purpose to enlighten as many as possible to the good, the bad, and the ugly in highly popular CCM and corporate worship that might be encroaching on the collective Church, or is it to provide a balanced list of reviews of various songs (which for reasons I don’t understand has included songs from Billie Eilish and other very clearly secular songs)?
What’s your goal? That directly should influence your decision, not whether Sally gets a song reviewed that only her and two other people have heard. I think your audience has expanded too far to accommodate that unless you plan to release more reviews per week.
Vince Wright
Jonah,
Ah yes, my purpose statement! When I started this website, that was my direction, but somewhere along the way, I shifted towards the balance between popular and unpopular.
The question you asked is central to this discussion. Should I realign myself with my purpose statement or continue in the direction I’m going in? I haven’t received complaints about my current process, but I think you’re correct. This website has grown to the point where it gets 1,000 or so visitors a day. I have a broad list of songs to examine, so perhaps I should focus my efforts on the most popular songs.
Thank you for speaking up!
By the way, Billie Eilish happened to pass polling. As did Black Sabbath. How that occurred is beyond me.
-Vince Wright
Jonah
I think going back to the initial purpose is better. Let the popular songs win without much regulation. Perhaps you can look at some of the songs that don’t pass polling to see if you think reviewing them is important, and adding them to an extra songs list. But definitely I would suggest re-aligning with your original intent of reviewing the songs that people come into the most contact with (i.e., the ones that get requested and up-polled) to help and warn the most people.
I think maybe there should be some way to recycle the songs that don’t pass polling (maybe there is and I haven’t been paying attention) in a randomizer that you work with here and there. Maybe that is the thing that needs brainstorming, not whether or not the poll becomes separate. Maybe you could use an associate with views aligned with yours to write with you so you can cover more ground. It might be time to consider doing that. Have someone else cover some of the other songs that don’t pass polling in a randomized manner. Have them pass the drafts of reviews by you for tweaking. That way you can satisfy your larger audience while still covering the most popular songs.
I’d love to email with you to brainstorm more if you’d like… I’ve loved using your ministry for years now. I’d myself offer to help but I think I’m somewhat unqualified. Anyways …. You can go to my personal (somewhat inactive) blog http://www.maestro777moments.net and use the contact form to connect if you’d like.
Vince Wright
Jonah,
Right, that’s what I am leaning towards now: restoring the polling system to its previous glory.
My current randomization process takes all the songs that did not pass polling and randomly selects a few to review as I have time. This gives all the submissions a fair shot at being reviewed.
I’ve thought about guest reviews, but I can’t pay anyone to do it. I might be able to convince a few people to write a guest review for me. I could run a monthly contest where the reviewer would receive a $10 gift card and their review posted on my website.
-Vince Wright
Jonah Buck
All good thoughts. Even putting some feelers out for someone who would be willing to do it alongside you not for the money but to help people understand the CCM world would be cool. Maybe someone who is out of work or retired who has a heart for the way church music used to be–biblically centered (if not just quoting the Bible) and accurate.
Jonah
Part of me wants to say that if the artists are dominating it’s because their songs are popular and/or people have concerns about them. That same part of me says that maybe we should let the chips land where they fall. It’s not necessarily unfair to have a bunch of Hillsong and Elevation and Bethel (etc…) reviews, especially since they dominate the CCM world and corporate worship today. I say just let the songs go through the queue unmonitored and unlimited based on artist.
Vince Wright
Jonah,
Thanks for your feedback! Part of the reason for offering variety (this response is for JM’s comment as well) is to broaden my reach. While “letting the chips fall where they may” will increase the number of popular songs (and traffic to The Berean Test), I risk alienating others who submit less popular, but still passable, songs. While I have a process to address the most obscure songs with a randomizer, the “did not pass” list will grow and decrease the chances of any single rejected song from appearing in my “extra songs” list. Decisions, decisions….
There’s another consideration that just occurred to me as I type this response, which applies to either proposal. The polling queue will grow faster than it usually does, leading to quicker closures. I’ve noticed the bottlenecking that occurs when I reopen the form. 10 or so songs are requested on reopening. Fortunately, I can still open the form for a week or so before closing it, but I might have to extend the “closing” period longer if the request rate increases.
-Vince Wright
JM
Seems wise. Will certainly let more variety in.
Is there a flipside to this – people want to analyze the songs that are most popular / being sung in our churches? Is there more value to the wider church in providing an analysis of a widely used song, vs one that in more obscure?