Thanks to @blueboy for this quote from his comment on the Astral Weeks thread*
But if it were an exam test, what would be the questions you would set? Please think broadly – whether it’s to mark out civilian/combatant (?) status, discover remarkable facts about AWers, work out what genres are popular, find out ‘Who The Hell Does XX Think He/She is’, or learn answers to the following:
“Does your mother play golf?”, “When you go to bed at night, do you tuck your beard inside or outside the covers?”, “Can you bite your own toenails?”
Please write your name in permanent ink at the top of the first sheet, add your official AW membership number, then stuff into a bole in a plane tree in Kensington Gardens.
_______
* great taste in Van albums, by the way. Common One’s my favourite.
I think these are the questions that would best test our congregation:
What is the meaning of R’n’b?
Which was better, the original or the cover?
Which line-up was best?
Would you like to hear some new songs?
What best describes BTS?
K-pop / a bacon and tomato sandwich from Pret / British Time (Summer)
What or who is K-pop?
Pop music from South Korea / the less wacky one in the band LMFAO / the drugs that everyone under 20 is on that makes them comatose on benches in grim shopping centres.
What are “influencers”?
People who bribe radio 1 DJs / fine brushes that aid water flow in plumbing systems / people that “like” posts on Instagram for money
What is Instagram?
An instant letter, a bit like email / a sweetener for tea or coffee / photos of people pouting
Explain the differences between: Greatest Hits, Best Of, Very Best Of and Essential
“Greatest Hits” must contain at least two tracks which have entered the top 30 of somewhere at some time. Doesn’t necessarily have to have been in the same country or decade.
“Best Of” is a selection of tracks that the album compiler likes/liked at the time.
“Very Best Of” is the same as “Best Of” except somebody else liked the selections as well.
“Essential” is the same as V B O and additionally, a music journalist of some kind approved of the selection. Possibly said journo may have written some sleeve notes (for a fee).
And “The Ultimate Collection” is where the record company scrapes the barrel dry
Historically: Greatest hits are for those that have hit singles, Best ofs for those that don’t.
Greatest Hits must be hit singles (working definition of a “hit single” top 75).
“Best of” or “Essential” collections should be curated by a journalist and feature album tracks and b sides etc but they often don’t. Often it’s just Greatest Hits again.
Usually a Best Of comes out a few years after the Greatest Hits when the hits have dried up and the band have been dropped from the label….all or most of the Greatest Hits are there but with a couple of popular album tracks and non-hits. The Essential Collection will also include stuff from the smaller label they subsequently signed to….but have now left as well.
All followed by “The (name of artist) Story” which bears, in 6pt text tucked away unobtrusively, the phrase “For quality purposes, some of these tracks have been re-recorded.”
Your OP makes my blood run a little cold, Sal, because it makes me think of how turning something into an exam subject squeezes all the joy out of it.
Reading novels and going to the theatre are two of the great joys of life. But it is remarkable that one can keep that joy after doing O and A levels.
Pub Quiz Questions/Crossword Clues/ Trivial Pursuit on books and writers are great fun,
Studying them as an academic discipline is not.
Sexual Intercourse ought to be a GCSE subject. What a contraceptive method that would be!
It’s a shame it had a chilling effect, KFD. It was just a bit of whimsy, designed to prompt daft responses like ‘Which leg does Ian Anderson raise when playing the flute?’, ‘Has Richard Thompson ever worn a raspberry beret?’, ‘Which pitch of harmonica brings most relief when wiping before flushing?’, etc. ad infinitum.
Ooh I don’t know. Some of my favourite books and plays (to take two examples, Catcher in the Rye and The Crucible) are things I may never have bothered with had I not been introduced to these at school and made to study them. Same with just about every Shakespeare play.
Who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp?
Who does it always rain on me?
What’s the meaning (the meaning) of life?
In the spirit of the OP, the best questions to separate Afterworders from Normals are the ones we would find easy and slightly incredulous that “not everyone knows this”… such as:
– What year did the Beatles break up? (I’m always amazed to find people, usually younger people, don’t have much concept of when the Beatles were around – “the seventies or something, wasn’t it?”)
– Name the four members of Pink Floyd, post-Syd Barrett. (There’s a lot of love for Pink Floyd out there, but I bet most people don’t really care who is/was actually in the band).
– Who famously interviewed the Sex Pistols and inadvertently allowed them to swear live on tea time TV?
– What speed does a 7 inch single play at?
– First instrument heard on Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone?
– Name five Miles Davis albums.
Those seem like easy questions, but try asking them to a room of random people not particularly interested in music and I bet you get a load of blank stares!
Finally, here’s a trick question:
– Name your top five albums. (Basically, any answer apart from “Arrgh, really? Can I have a month to think about it and build a spreadsheet? What criteria am I basing this on?” is wrong and marks you out as Not An Afterworder).
For National Album Day there was synchronised playback starting at 3:33pm. Cue “Why 3:33?” questions from the civilians present.