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Lowering User Scores

Music
#1

I’ve seen a few people worried about average user scores for the top albums of the year. Namely that it seems like the top albums are getting lower scores each year.
Just to throw some numbers at this, the average user score for the top 5 of each year since 2010 (as of 2020/12/24):
2010 - 86.8
2011 - 86.6
2012 - 87.6
2013 - 85.0
2014 - 86.4
2015 - 86.8
2016 - 87.4
2017 - 85.2
2018 - 84.8
2019 - 84.0
2020 - 82.8

Besides the slight anomaly of 2013, the average stays above 86.0, until a real dip that only happens in the last few years.

My hypothesis is that as time goes on we are kinder to older albums, even as recent as just 5 years ago. Most people only go back and rate/review the albums they know they’ll like and as such a previously weak average score gets raised over the course of a few years.

I personally remember when the top 2 albums of 2016 were Blonde at 87 and Atrocity Exhibition at 86. They are both now at 89.
We can even see the reverse of this in 2020 at 82.8, which is a significant step lower than the next lowest score 84.0 in 2019.

Basically I’m saying I’m not too worried about the scores dipping. While there will always be stronger and weaker years, the dip seems to be some sort of negative recency bias. After 5 or so years things will begin to even out and hopefully any bias will have been tempered off.

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#2

For anybody still interested, here’s an update just 5 months later (2021/05/28):
2010 - 87.2
2011 - 86.0
2012 - 88.0
2013 - 84.8
2014 - 86.6
2015 - 88.2
2016 - 87.6
2017 - 85.8
2018 - 85.2
2019 - 84.2
2020 - 83.4

The general trend observed 5 months ago appears to stay true: That things stay above 86.0 until 2017, apart from 2013.

Of the 11 years only 2 dropped in score, 2011 and 2013, by comparison 2015, 2017 and 2020 all rose by 0.6 or more, with 2015 going up by 1.4.
This can even be seen in the total points for each decade:

Average score for 2020/12/24 = 85.78
Average score for 2021/05/28 = 86.09

It’s only been 5 months so all of this could be anomalous, 2013 dropping and 2015’s large rise do feel that way, but there’s enough going on here, especially for 2020, that it feels like the original hypothesis is on track at the very least.

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#3

Figured I would do another one, now that it’s been just over a year since the first post (2022/01/09)
2010 - 87.4
2011 - 86.6
2012 - 88.2
2013 - 85.2
2014 - 86.6
2015 - 88.4
2016 - 87.8
2017 - 86.0
2018 - 85.2
2019 - 85.0
2020 - 83.4
2021 - 84.8

While we don’t see any huge leaps in average score like last time, the largest are 2019 with a 0.8 increase and 2011 with 0.6. We also don’t see any years decrease. Notably weaker years 2013 and 2017 have both increased, 2013 having previously dropped last time, with 2017 now reaching the, somewhat arbitrary, threshold of 86.0.

I will say that I’m a little surprised that neither 2018 nor 2020 grew. I originally started this because of the seemingly lacklustre scores for recent years and the fact that many people were noticing and discussing this in 2020.

It’s especially surprising since 2021 debuts relatively strong. Obviously this is because of a pair of strong releases bringing the score up, but that’s true for other years as well, 2015 and TPAB for instance. I will note that I didn’t include Beach House’s 2 releases as they are both EPs.

Averages over the original 11 years:
Average score for 2020/12/24 = 85.78
Average score for 2021/05/28 = 86.09
Average score for 2021/05/28 = 86.35
A pretty consistent increase overall and if we include 2021 over 12 years: 86.21 (so still an increase)

It’s now been a full year. Hopefully 2013 will continue upwards with the last update just being anomalous, however 2015 did also increase, so I’m not sure why it was so low initially. Also, based on 2021’s strong start, it’s possible 2020 will end up in a similarly weak spot as 2013. 2020 and 2021 are the only years not at least at 85.0.

It will be interesting to see how things begin to change: How long will it take for other years to reach 86.0? Was 2020’s weak debut due to the pandemic? Will 2022 be as strong as 2021 making 2020 look weak or will it make make 2021 look strong?

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#4

Not sure but by looking at highly-anticipated release from this year, I think 2022 will be same with 2021 unless Kendrick drop a TPAB tier album

#5

dont read all of your comments. i think this is because ppl cannot operate inside of 100scale system. on cognitive level or metacognitive. thats the reason. at the start of the site with 100scale ppl just like put some numbers and they do not care about systematical things. and sloooowly sloooowly (which is FOR SURE means lower- and lower) many of systems goin through “normalization”. or kinda like that.
thats like with any album - at the start score is always pretty high. but at the end…
site is new. his life is like a life of album now. not much rates on this site thats why. rym have their own normalization points. here - not.
im pretty sure for many of ppl here 70/100 its like not OK album. but in 5 or 10 scare - 3.5/5 or 7/10 this is cognitively look better.
PEOPLE! people minds. if ya bring 10k ppls in some system and find somethin weird - most simple answer is right aswer. ppl just like number 100!) site goes bigger and bigger. narratives of site goes deeper and deeper and ppl tryin “to look like” (critics, snobs etc etc etc)…and 100 its not a somethin cool anymore.they startin to thinkin and show to others their intellligiaance))

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