What Type of Fan Are You? - Pink Floyd
- Casual fans' favorite - Dark Side of the Moon or The Division Bell
- Serious fans' favorite - The Wall or Wish You Were Here
- Avid fans' favorite - Animals or Meddle
- Diehard fans' favorite - Ummagumma or Atom Heart Mother
Sometimes, you can tell how avid a fan is by what their favorite album by an artist is. This series hopes to fine tune this practice.
In general, diehard fans fall in love with the qualities that most separate a given band from other artists. As a result, they tend to gravitate to albums others may consider rather self-indulgent. They also tend to steer away from the more popular "favorites".
I'm dividing fans into four categories - casual, serious, avid, and diehard. Casual fans gravitate toward the more well-known or recent work. Serious fans usually latch on to an only slightly lesser-known work which is still perfectly enjoyable by non-converts. Avid fans go in for less popular work that showcase the band's less mainstream or more distinctive sides. Diehard fans tend to praise work that only diehard fans ever admit to enjoying, work where a given artist's personality completely absorbs the album, for better or worse.
Just a working theory for now, but I'll post a few bands to get the idea rolling. I'm open to ideas or help fine-tuning each list.
Alright, I've heard quite a bit on my other lists in this series. How did I do here?
Interestingly, I don't really fit my own list here. Wish You Were Here is probably my favorite Floyd, yet I would not consider myself a serious fan.
Ah, well...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Where would you place Piper at the Gates of Dawn? Is it just too different because of Barrett's influence?
Even better, who would avid and diehard fans side with: Gilmore or Waters? ;)
Johnny Waco
From what I can tell, if Pipers is your favorite Pink Floyd album, you usually aren't a huge fan. I'm over-generalizing, of course, but that's what my experience shows.
As to Gilmore v. Waters, I'd say it would be probably be nearly evenly split, with Waters perhaps holding a slight edge.
Any avid or die-hard Floyd fans want to field that last question for us?
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
As a die-hard fan (I love "Atom Heart Mother"), I find that Gilmour's Pink Floyd stuff (a.k.a. post-Waters) is more musically pleasing. Waters' solo stuff, on the other hand, is more lyrically pleasing.
I seem to be an avid Pink Floyd fan, as Animals is my favorite of their albums. Your list is pretty accurate, from what I know of Floyd's fans. As far as the Gilmour v. Waters issue, I have found that those who side with Waters tend to value lyrics over music. Gilmour fans seem to prefer the emphasis on the music and the more upbeat atmosphere of Gilmour's Pink Floyd albums.
Waters' fans may also be more avid/die-hard fans, as his Pink Floyd albums (Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut) are extremely dour and much more "hard to get into" than Gilmour's work. (Although The Wall seems to be a favorite of people who know little of Pink Floyd's work.) They are more challenging lyrically (IMO) and tend to appeal more to avid fans.
This is, of course, a sweeping generalization - I know many Gilmour fans who are die-hard Pink Floyd fans, and many Waters fans who are also die-hards.
By the way, you could probably add The Final Cut to this list in the "Die-hard" category. I've seen that usually only die-hard fans will list this album as their favorite: it's musically and thematically unappealing to a casual listener and critics almost always pan it, whereas only die-hard fans will even admit to liking it. Also, casual fans generally never bother to get this album, and if they do, its lack of the trademark Pink Floyd lush wall of sound effects and the absence of Gilmour's guitar will not appeal to them. The Final Cut is really more of a Roger Waters solo album, performed by Pink Floyd. In any case, if you love this album, you're probably a die-hard fan.
What about Saucerful of Secrets or More? Where does that place you?
Saucerful of Secrets would probably put one in the diehard category. More might very well put you in a league of your own!
I've yet to meet anyone who claimed More as the favorite. Heck, I'll be honest and say I've never ran into anybody who mentioned liking it!
So, if More is your first pick for Pink, well, I'll never type that line again! :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
This list doesn't work for me.
I like Dark Side of the Moon quite a bit. I've only heard a few songs off of The Division Bell. The Wall has some great stuff but is a little overwrought. I love Wish You Were Here and Animals.
Until today, no comments for over a year. No updates forever. Add that all up, and I think one quickly sees that my grand experiment was a big ol'-fashioned bust. A bomb. An out and out failure.
So, sadly, I'm not surprised it doesn't work for you. It didn't ssem to work for hardly anyone!
Sorry. I guess I need to archive these lists!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
No, don't. It was a very interesting idea, and although it doesn't work for everyone, it'd be a shame to see this experiment be lost to the archives. It was a creative idea - so what if it failed?
Actually, I think it was an interesting idea, too. It just happens that the way you chose to divide it up didn't fit for me. Perhaps there is a germ of something great there. I've started plenty of lists that never panned out as much as I wanted them to when I first dreamed them up. :-)
Wow.
Well, I certainly won't archive these list, then. I'm still undecided on whether to attempt another, though. Maybe.
Thanks!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs