This sounds like a good proposal! Except that since they were top-of-chart hits to begin with, you could eliminate 0 stars and 1 star and just rank from 2 to 5.
In this past competition, I really had trouble deciding some of the matchups that were both more outstanding than most of the rest of the decade's choices, but according to the rules, one had to go arbitrarily.
With respect to the 0 and 1 star ratings, it has to do with personal preferences. I’m sure there are countless examples of songs that charted high that we despise with a burning passion. One poster here loathed The 5th Dimension’s “hippy crap”, so obviously they’d give “Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In” with a 1 or 0 star. I’d give it a 4 because I happen to like it.
Conversely, some “overrated” other songs in my estimation because of a strong emotional connection to childhood, even if it was only what I’d consider fair to middle-of-the-road (such as Sly & The Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime”). Emotional attachments do play a big role, obviously.
Actually I already have another process in mind, but it would take that much longer, if I continue with the “1 week” turnaround. I’d like to end these in a few days, but then, I fear some would have trouble getting votes in during the week as opposed to nicely doing it on the weekend.
Although I could try a different process, I feel since I subjected 3 decades to this I have to start the ‘50s that way, but that’s probably just me being anal.
I would like to do all the decades with a new spin.
It would STILL be heavy on the chart successes, but more like a “round 1” for every year and playoffs after all years are complete.