Posted: Thursday, April 28, 2005 7:00 pm
It's over and it's been a blast. When David Adams got his iPod Wednesday morning, Ground Zero's Mix It Up mix list contest officially came to a close. But you'll be seeing more from it in coming weeks more on that later.
Here are facts and figures from the contest:
* We received more than 500 entries over the four weeks during which readers were asked to send in their 15-song mix lists to get a shot at winning an iPod from Computer Hardware.
* The oldest entrant was 68, the youngest 8.
* More men than women entered the contest.
* We burned 17 mix lists onto CDs journalstar.com editor Steve Smith and I couldn't choose just four mixes two weeks ago.
* Of the 250-plus songs on those CDs, Jeff Korbelik, our intrepid CD burner, found all but two a pair of surf music songs on Adams' list.
* We judges listened to something in the neighborhood of 22 hours of music. By all accounts, it was a rewarding effort.
"This whole experience has been interesting and enlightening," wrote judge Kristen Bailey. "I've listened to 255 songs in the last four weeks, discovering some new bands along the way and rediscovering some old favorites, and I've been entertained by the great themes some people have come up with. My top three favorite themes were Confederacy of Vices' by Vicki Kovar, the Breakup Mix with a Twist by John Maxson and the wacky chemistry mix from John Griep.
"The only bad thing about having judged these mixes is now I have to go out and buy a CD burner so I can emerge from the dark ages of cassette tapes and start making my own mix CDs."
Crystal K. Wiebe summarized the contest this way:
"It's always exciting to sample someone else's music library, and judging this contest gave me the opportunity to do that many times over. Something surprised me on every single compilation I listened to, and my own music library is growing because of that. A mere sampling of what I've recently found myself more interested in includes Prince, surf music, underground rap, electronica and the Lemonheads.
"Looking back on the winners, I can see that rock 'n' roll had a marked advantage. That was undoubtedly due to the personal musical preferences of the panel I was part of. In our defense, I must point out the difficulty of judging mix lists. It's difficult to put criteria on taste without being too subjective. Every compilation brought in was really just an example of the maker's taste."
I agree with both Kristen and Crystal and would only add that, with the exception of Matt Burton's runaway win in week two, all the other winners topped the second-place list by no more than two points on a scale that applied four points for a first-place vote, three for a second, etc.
Now that the four iPods have found their homes, we don't want the mix list idea to go away.
To that end, we'll be printing mix lists submitted during the contest weekly in Ground Zero. If you still feel the urge to write one up and send it in, we'll put it into the mix, so to speak. But no more iPods will be awarded the prize is the honor of seeing your name and your list in print.
Thanks to you, this has been the most rewarding reader-participation event I've been involved in at the Journal Star.
I'd also like to thank my fellow judges, Kristen, Crystal, Steve and Chris Aponick, for making this happen, Jeff for burning the CDs, and the Ground Zero crew for designing the pages, editing the stories, taking the photos and writing the headlines that made the contest appealing.
I'm going to give the last word here to Kristen, who I think captured the spirit of what we were trying to do with Mix It Up with this:
"I hope this contest inspired everyone in Lincoln to think about what they would put on their own mix CD, even if they did not enter. And I hope that everyone who thought about it will actually do it and then give the mix to a friend.
"Falling in love with a song or a band that you would never have heard otherwise is a great gift. And it's cheap, too. Forget about ties and slippers for Christmas. Give a mix CD to Mom for Mother's Day. Introduce your young cousin to real punk rock. Go forth and spread the music.
"And check out your local bands, too. After all, every band has its influences, and you might find your favorite band on earth lives here in town."
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.