Q: Who are the geniuses/knuckleheads behind this site?
A. JG and JS are writers and music lovers from Toronto, Canada. They are the folks behind the blog Two Pals With Thoughts. They talk about music and go to concerts far more than their wives would like. Half the album battles will be written by JG and half will be written by JS.
Q. Do JG and JS have preferred decades?
A. JG and JS are perpetual musical expeditionaries who love music of every decade from the 60s to now. They are as likely to be listening to the Beatles as Emmylou Harris as Kendrick Lamar (whenever they can tear themselves away from Bob Dylan, that is). As for the 80s and 90s, they straddle them – with JG being a little more 80s and JS being a little more 90s. That said, they have no preconceived idea as to which decade will prevail in the VanJam Music War.
Q. What are the criteria for choosing the superior albums?
A. Personal preference will factor into it for sure, but they will also consider innovation, ambition, cultural impact and influence on other musicians. There may be times when they will need to reject a personal nostalgic favourite for an album that is more important. This is why JG will forever fret about #44.
Q. Aren’t these album vs. album battles a bit of an arbitrary way to pick a superior musical decade?
A. Kinda, yeah! For instance, #50 pits Madonna’s debut album against All Eyez on Me by 2Pac. How are you supposed to compare those two radically different albums? But that’s part of the fun – seeing the wacky pairings that will result. And we’re confident that over the course of 50 battles, as peculiar as some of the pairings may be, the superior decade will emerge.
80s vs. 90s Music War 