@PersnicketyJim said:

@bertoletdown said:

To clarify, none of these songs fit the proper definition of ballad. Not one. It's a bastardized term whose misuse has swallowed its proper meaning. If you think Horn isn't a ballad or whatever other nitpick you may have then down rate it. Make sense?

True, but little of what Phish does fits proper definitions. But ballad is more flexible than you imply, and most of these songs share the same widely recognized structure.

I'd say if you don't think Horn is a ballad then abstain. But that conundrum speaks to Ranker's inadequacies; for as much as I'm grateful for these polls and the work of @jwelsh8 et al, this system does not work well.

Not sure what your specific quarrels are, but I think the tool is fascinating.

Sure, it's not statistically pure. It doesn't pretend to be. It's social, and it's fun, and it's certainly "directionally correct." Moreover, Clark and Elise and Ravi at Ranker are giving us a lot of TLC, and soon thanks to them we're gonna start to share some cross-tabs and analytics that I think you'll find fascinating, starting with what the first poll revealed. [HINT: There's no such thing as objectivity in a "best jams of summer" exercise.]

There's potential to actually learn something about our community through this feature, which I think is gold. Stay tuned.