In Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman rates some of his favorite albums based on something he calls the "Jack Factor." Basically, it's how much money someone would have to pay him to never intentionally listen to an album again (if a song from the album came on the radio or when he was out in public, he was free to listen to it).
I found this idea very intriguing (actually, I fell in love with most of what I read in the book. Between the small town life and the love of metal and hair bands, I feel I could've written the book. Only my version would've sucked.). He ranks releases by Ratt, Junkyard, Warrant, Poison, Faster Pussycat, and many other hair bands and gives them a price range between $66 for Van Halen's 1984 and $5,001 for Appetite For Destruction (but I saw in an interview that he has since increased that number to $25,000.).
Even though I ranked Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral as my #1 album on my Top 100 Albums Of All Time list (if you click on the link, I have no idea what happened to all the album covers), one spot ahead of Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction, I would have to say you would have to pay me more money to never listen to Appetite again (actually, that album should've been my #1. I need to go back and reorder that whole damn thing). How much? If money were not an issue (we were living comfortably, not rich, but comfortable), I would go with $8,000. But right now, I would probably give up "Rocket Queen" and the album's eleven other tracks for 14 bucks and change.
It's your turn. Pretend you had all the money you needed to pay your bills and still have a little bit left over at the end of the month. Let me know in the comments what album you would most hate to part with and how much it would cost me to take it off your hands.
The Jack Factor
