I’ve had a lot of people call me an idiot. It’s just a fact of life. When you speak up and try and speak your mind, enough people are going to shout you down and deride your ideas.

Of course, sometimes you are wrong. And in fact, most of the time, I’m sure I’m wrong when I write these columns.

As it stands, I have knowledge of ’90s British pop that is almost grotesque to my peers. (After all, why would anyone strive to know that much about Menswear?) But I’m not going to stand on a soapbox and say my views on electronic music, punk or any form of music that took place during an era I didn’t live in. I just make observations.

And frankly, I haven’t been doing that as well as I like. Observations are useless if they simply regurgitate what everyone else has said, which is why I’m not writing a column on the recent Grammy nominations and how useless they get every single year.

But one observation from one of my readers sparked an idea last week. A comment on my column on CD dominance in the music industry finished up by labeling me an idiot for neglecting the quality of sound from CDs as the primary reason for its reign — which I still think is a secondary characteristic to the majority of the public — and suggested I go back to school and “learn something this time.”

Maybe he’s right.

I could certainly buy textbooks, study my lessons and derive whatever knowledge I can from the DJs at WSUM and B-side salespeople.

But another option intrigues me. About two years ago, I came across a book called “The Know-It-All.” The author took it upon himself to go through the encyclopedia, from A-Z, in an effort to know nearly everything about everything. While this certainly doesn’t make him anything more than a smartass, it’s a wild idea and one that lends itself to mimicking.

So, I’m going to try and do the same thing, except with music.

In the next month, I will compile a list of musical artists in alphabetical order, starting with numbers and symbols — for consistency, I’ll use the list provided by Allmusic. Since I obviously won’t find all of this music, I’ll post everything I can find from www.allmusic.com, and place an asterix next to each artist I’m still looking for. Once the first list is compiled and I have enough music at my disposal, I’ll start listening to the available albums of that artist. Starting on New Year’s Day, I’ll post comments on The Beat Goes On blog. They’ll start with observations of songs I’m listening to, including research on the artist’s background and explanation of that work. I’ll give some evaluation of the music, but it’s more about what I’ve gathered from the work more than how good or bad it is. Unless, of course, it’s really bad. Then I have to skewer it.

My goal would be to make it through “A” by the end of next semester. Insane? Yes.

Every Tuesday, I’ll mix it up a bit. In an attempt to keep pace with pop music trends, I’ll go through the week’s new releases and give some reviews and observations throughout the day.

My hope is that through a bombardment of different musical trends, views, lyrics and artists I’ll either have a better conception about global musical trends to properly evaluate the path of popular music in this country or I’ll have a fair basis for my cynical view that we’re all just circling the drain thanks to major record labels.

But there’s one last thing. If you happen to see my list and think I’m missing something, post or send me an e-mail and let me know. Hell, if you have the music to share, send it on — I’ll certainly give you a hat-tip.

Jason Smathers is a senior majoring in history and journalism. Think he’s got too much free time, is a complete tool, is a fool or is all of the above? Send him an e-mail at [email protected].