The History Of Pop Part 36 aka So much for all your highbrow Marxist ways

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

AROOOO! AROOOO! GOTH ALERT! Yes, it's Now: The Placebo Years, or Now: 1997 as you might otherwise call it. I remember this as a deeply fallow time for pop but then I was living back at my parents' house, working sub-minimum wage (OK there was no minimum wage back then) and listening to EARLY MANICS records. Oh to be 23 again (not in a grillion years). Other new faces include Mansun, Sash and the Chemical Brothers. And TEH FIRST EVER INTERWEB NUMBER ONE. Well, it was if you were reading USENET.

Now 35 saw the Spice Girls triumph at the second time of asking, "Say You'll Be There" beating Pulp into a close-ish second, with Suede, the Pet Shop Boys and Undiesworld tying for third. It also saw a sudden dip in the number of people voting, probably because they were all on holiday, or because the late-90s were rub. But they weren't really, where they? Were they??!!


[Poll #708236]


VOTE ME GOOD!

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Actually what I meant to say re. DivCo was "Murray Lachlan Young with strings".

"Your Woman" may have been the thing I was wrongest about in the 90s.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Divine Comedy = bunch of cvnts barely more acceptable than Blur and The Beautiful South</pred>

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Don't know:

Damage again.
I can remember Kavana but not what he sounded like.
DJ Quiksilver
Amen UK

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Check yr gmail re: Quiksilver.

i like everything you hate

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

and that includes both mansun and the divine comedy

SPIT AT ME

Re: i like everything you hate

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Hi dere!

Re: i like everything you hate

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I ticked Mansun but not DivCo, I would have ticked a different Comedy single maybe but this one is a bit too nursery rhymey.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Lots of boy band types who I would probably like now but who passed completely by at the time! I don't think I've ever heard Kavana or 911, and not even this BSB song (and BSB are my favourite boy band EVER).

The real battle is actually 'Don't Speak' vs 'Your Woman' haha - I love both and 'Your Woman' is probably my second favourite on this but come on 'Don't Speak' is a monster and 'Your Woman' could do with some beefing up, maybe a bosh version.

Underrated

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

TEXoR - good song well made, hurray for honest pop-rock craft eh, shame it isn't the versh with ODB on it.

Robert Miles - it's a great song! Very ABBA-esque!

Sheryl Crow - see NOWs passim.

Re: Underrated

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was uncertain about the Texas song. It sounds good in my head now, but I disliked it at the time. I def. need to hear it again.

Re: Underrated

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah this R Miles is quite Xmassy I always thought! Haha I wrote "cosy and blissful but also a bit melancholy" = IT IS PROTO-KOMPAKT.

Texas = good song well lifted from 'Sexual Healing' surely. I am in total favour of the old pop plagiarism but this is quite hilariously blatant.

Re: Underrated

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

wasn't it the RZA? that version is far better.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I hate Placebo almost as much as I hate Oasis. It disgusts me that Brian Molko exists in this world.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Nancy Boy" was for some years a real honest-to-god Guilty Pleasure, I would put it on jukeboxes in pubs and then pretend it wasn't me. Eventually the magic world of TEH INTERS WEB came along and I downloaded it and realised that actually I hated it.

I have never felt anything other than helpless larffter at any other Placebo track.

[juror8.livejournal.com]

HOMOPHOBE

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Encore Une Fois' = total French listening exercise, I can hear Mme Meare's bellow of "ECOUTEZ!" in my head right now.

TWAT

[thenipper.livejournal.com]

Am I going to be the only person who admits to liking the Jamiroquai song?

Re: TWAT

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

no

Re: TWAT

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i grudgingly ticked it because i realised i like the way it unfolds as a song!

by no means my favourite Quai track tho

The Wretched Of The Earth

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This may be the worst Beautiful Sth track, it's SO PERT. If it hadn't been censored it would be the actual worst track in the WORLD.

Pete claims that Virtual Insanity is a great song, sometimes I agree, today I don't. I sort of want Jamiroquai to be better than he obviously is.

When did Cathy D do Waterloo Sunset??? Blimey, I ticked it anyway.

Mark Morrison - from hero to ?

U2 - Discotheque - has a shoddier, more dishonest exercise ever got to No.1?

Beetlebum - this is the indiest record yet on a Now poll. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily though in this case it is. This was Blur 'discovering' lo-fi or Pavement or something, no?

Re: The Wretched Of The Earth

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The weird thing is, I'm OK with 'Beetlebum', but I completely loathe Pavement.

Chemicals 100%

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

IT'S THE BIG BEAT REVIVAL! IT'S REAL!

Re: Chemicals 100%

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

*goes to untick it*

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

It's carnage in the boybands! IE with 16 votes in, the stretch from Kavana to Backstreet Boys has precisely 0.0 votes between them.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Cis and I were talking about this on Sunday: these are all minor boy band songs, not their standards, of the sort you'd only ever have actively heard if you a) were a fan of the band or b) bought this Now album. And we're basically out of the timeframe of everyone's pop-youth-tweenie nostalgia period, I don't think any poptimist was buying Nows at this point, so while the MASSIVE pop tunes - Spices and so on - still filtered through...these didn't at all.

He said "Angel, your halo ain't fitted that good for a little while now"

[juror8.livejournal.com]

Is there more Alisha's Attic to come in latter Now polls? I'd hate for them to be reduced to such a poor showing as this one.

Re: He said "Angel, your halo ain't fitted that good for a little while now"

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think this is their only shot.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

No-one remembers Kavana!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Erm? ate most of my post! I meant to add: except me! What, no-one else remembers the video where he took his top off? I CAN MAKE YOU FEEEEEL good (dooobeeedoobbeeeee).

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

People not voting for Don't Speak:

why aren't you voting for Don't Speak?

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Didn't like it then. Not bothered now. 'Just A Girl' is still the second best thing Gwen has ever done tho! Quick table:

1) What You Waiting For?
2) Just A Girl
3) Let Me Blow Your Mind (with teh Scorpion Queen Eve)
4) Bubble Pop Electric
5) Hollaback Girl
6) Hey Baby
7) Hella Good
8) bored now but quite a few other good things actually, enough to make a top 20 if bothered