Memories of March Madness

As many of you know, participated in March Madness for the first time this year. Results below.

All the sportsing!

So it's apparent that my March Madness chart doesn't look quite like yours. Why? (Because mine is better, obviously). Starting this year, because I don't actually care about March Madness at all, but wanted to get in on the fun, and because I decided I wanted to expand my music tastes, I figured there wasn't a better way to do it that make it a competition, with an actual prize - an album of the winner's choice! And scheduling it out over the month of March, if I listened to an album a day, eliminating one at the end of each two day period, I could fit in 16 albums. Small price to pay for sixteen albums I hadn't ever heard before (as that was one of the requirements).

By popular request of competitors and viewers alike, I have included the complete list of teams, players, and team managers below. After that, I've compiled my own list of honorable mentions during the month, which you really ought to look at if you want an idea of what some of these albums contain. Plus also it helps me convince myself that I'm actually as witty and clever as I pretend I am. Finally, I've put in some thoughts for how to improve next year, since this was crazy fun and I'm SO doing it next year. If you have any additional thoughts for improvement, comment below!

Teams:

"Kintsugi" - Death Cab for Cutie: JD Borg

"Smoke and Mirrors" - Imagine Dragons: Jessica Brower

"Illumination" - Jennifer Thomas: Nathan Merrill

"Carrie and Lowell" - Sufjan Stevens: Steven Asay

"Black Sands" - Bonobo: Richard Hale

"Charleston Butterfly" - Parov Stelar: Julia Dressman

"Live at the Quick" - Bela Flek and the Flektones: Jack Barton

"Aberdeen" - Phil Henry: Laura Higgins

"Dear Wormwood" - The Oh Hellos: Mandy Jepsen

"Twin Forks" - Twin Forks: Logan Jones

"Multiply" - Ed Sheeran: Greg Dressman

"We Are the Strike" - The Str!ke: Thomas Williams

"The Answers" - Blue October: Kaden Peacock

"No Name Face" - Lifehouse: Amber Simmons

"Fallen" - Evanescence: Daniel Heninger

"Ummagumma" - Pink Floyd: David Dressman

Honorable Mentions:

"Most Creative Genre Description I Made Up Myself" - Charleston Butterfly: Parov Stelar ("Dirty 20's Big Band")

"Most Musically Educational Album" - Live at the Quick: Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (like seriously, I'm pretty sure I heard instruments and musical techniques I didn't even know existed)

"Most Culturally Sensitive Album" - Black Sands: Bonobo

"Props for Choosing an Album Spotify had Already Recommended to Me" - Twin Forks: Twin Forks

"Cover I got Most Excited For" - Aberdeen: Phil Henry (Cover: Birdhouse in Your Soul)

"Best Song Name" - Ummagumma: Pink Floyd ("Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" - surprisingly, I actually think this was my favorite in the album)

"Only Album I Cried In" - The Answers: Blue October

Finally, in looking back, there were a couple of things I'd like to change next year:

1. The way teams were entered into the tournament.

2. The way teams were paired up.

3. The way teams were judged.

The most obvious one is the fact that almost everything here was totally subjective based on only my opinions. I mean, I tried to look at things like versatility, depth and meaning of lyrics, "relatable-ness", creativity, etc., but that's all based just on my own perception. I've thought of including more of a panel in future years so it's not just me, but that's still subjective - just a wider range of subjective. Any thoughts? Or is there really a way to have it be judged that's not subjective and still enjoyable?

I paired up teams mostly by using the "related artists" feature on Spotify (or if no artists matched, I paired similar genres together), but I wish I had divided the four branches more into categories, so the second and third rounds matched just as well as the first rounds.

Finally, I've thought about creating a Google form of some kind next year, so that submissions can be anonymous until the end. As much as I didn't listen to the albums based on the people that chose them, it was impossible not to have that somewhere in the back of my mind. Any additional suggestions for how to submit teams? How to get the word out to a wider range of people? Any additional suggestions for how to make next year's March Madness better?

Bottom line is, though - I feel like it was a huge success. I had so much fun with it, and I hope you did, too. Also that's it. The end.