SITE REVIEWS

I link to visit other sites that do music from the Satellite Era. In so doing in the context of the Satellite era, I look for several things. They are:

Representation: Do they give a good representation of the songs in the sense of How much stuff do they have? That can cover amount, arrangement, lyrics and preformancee.

Range: Do they stray far from the topic. For example Just Oldies covers the gamut from the late 1940's to the 1980's but on the plus side provides the lyrics and has a good representation. The arrangement and performance runs the gamut but tends toward the good. Now while going out of range on either or both sides might be a third of a letter grade, like form B to B-, Tht is only relative to this site. it in no way does really do much save tell you how the site is relative to here in purists' terms. It does not mean "don't go there". By all means do go there and don't be surprised if you run into me. Brian's Doowop Fixx has Cilla Black's 1964 YOU'RE MY WORLD. Don't pass that one by. I hope he has the Searchers' EVERY TIME THAT YOU WALK IN THE ROOM, also '64. I've included Just Oldies on my Classic/Progressive Rock site. So, y'know...

Fidelity, how clearly can you hear the material and is there any interference?

Can you contact the site owner?

This last is important to me since I, too am a site owner and try to be reachable. However, any site I link to is worth going to and VERY worth going to. There are no...erm...waakest links here.

I grade in two ways, by letter, A,B,C,D,F with the usual + and - that we all know in school. This can alse be something like B+/A- which means that it varies from part to part or is in between. It expresses a range rather than a fixed point on the grade scale. There is also an overal grade expressed in stars (*) and fractions in 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 and 3/4. The highest total is five stars (*****). There is also a "+" and minus "-" such as "***-" and "**+" This kind of thing means, in the first one "not quite '***' but almost". The second means "Better than '***3/4' but not '****'". Also "!" means "Wow!" and "?' means "Maybe OK. It's quite possible to have a ***! and a *****?

Letter grades are given for things that can be given at least approximate ratings such as variety. Reachability is a half-letter grade, turng a B to an A-, a B- to a B+ and so on. the other "intangibles" I look for is usability. can I navigate the site well and use the material? is there some unique thing about the site that give it a little something extra? How are the graphics? Etc. Patchy's site has some pretty touches, Broan's Doowop Fixx is spectacular and this site is 50's/60's art deco.

You will notice a similarity between the letter grade and the *'s, though not exact. The star grade subsumes but is not limited to the letter grade and is not identical to the letter grade but approximately equivalent to it. For instance a site may have a neat feature that makes up for small deficiencies: Just Oldies supplies lyrics: HO--O!

It must also be noted and emphasized that these reviews pertain to the timeframe of this site so what would here be a ***1/2 may well be, in general ****. It's a good rule that, if you take the timeframe limitations out, add a half to two-thirds of a star.