The Emerald Rating System Revealed

I'm going to let all of you in on a secret. Actually it's not much of a secret if you've been out of school for a while. Otherwise, it may be. It is the methodology behind the patented WENC Night Beat Emerald Rating system.

When I was in elementary and high schools back in the stone age, grading was a simple matter. It was a 100 point scale. It was looked something like this:

• F:       0-59 Points    (0-2.99 Emeralds)
• D- : 60 -64 Points    (3 Emeralds)
• D :   65- 66 Points    (3.25 Emeralds)
• D+: 67 - 69 Points   
• C-  : 70- 73                 (3.50 Emeralds)
• C    : 74-76                 (3.75 Emeralds)
• C+ : 77-79 Points     
• B-  : 80-83 Points   (4.00 Emeralds)
• B    : 84-86 Points    (4.25 Emeralds)
• B+ : 87-89 Points    
• A- :  90-93 Points   (4.50 Emeralds)
• A   :  94-96 Points   ( 4.75 Emeralds)
• A+: 97-100 Points  ( 5.00 Emeralds)

Now most of the releases that Miss the Mark and don't get included in the Platinum Vinyl Pool are in the 3.50-3.75 Emerald Range. That's a C- to C Range. There were a lot of courses that I was thrilled to make that.

A Solid B- (4 Emeralds = 80) gets you into the pool, though in all reality most genres wind up with a minimum bar of 4.50 Emeralds and in some cases 4.75 Emeralds. That's A- to A. That doesn't guarantee an award, just a nomination.

One final thing. A Perfect 5 Emeralds doesn't mean, at least with the genre based categories, that it is a flawless album, just flawless for the particular genre that it belongs to. The rules in that are very fluid (a perfect Gospel album would not be the same as a perfect Dance album). Now for Album of The Year, yes, 5 means flawless.

I hope this might clear up any confusion you may have had regarding what my rating system entailed. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your reply.