(188 comments)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The recent Now polls have been total blockbusters in terms of comments - and lots of votes too. This runs us up against the technical limits of LJ, i.e. that an over-50 comments thread is a chore to read, and a 2-page one requires particular dedication even beyond that. Not much we can do about that, other than pass the thematic ball forward more often (i.e. start new threads).

So why's it happening? Well Poptimists is bigger now, and this is a period we all remember, and a lot of us were online then and fighting various crucial ideological pop battles (ahem) and so there's an urge to either defend territory hard-won - or complicate history by asking questions which Pop Fervour made us less likely to pose at the time.

It's interesting* that there's a definite hard kernel of a 00s Pop Canon there - after poll after poll with winning scores in the 70s, Britney, Kylie, S Club, Destiny's all post scores of 90%-ish, and I can think of a few more tracks that are likely to do similar. (Obviously a lot of this is a quirk of demographics - we've set up a community where ppl who like that sort of thing can wander in.)

*especially cos of the relative lack of majority-votes and high-scorers for the current month polls stevem runs - has pop got worse, or just more diverse?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

How are lowest common denominators formed, though? i.e. why has the LCD ended up at boring this rather than lovely that?

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

a lot of hard effort by misguided fewls at Radio 1/NME axis of indie?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

People who were at the height of their pop-loving years (school/uni) during Britpop now in positions of authority in the media?

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Because L-C-D is by definition boring i.e. law of diminishing returns sets in on the pop production line -- this is why there will have to be some new infusion of energy. This is why things like L**y A***n will do well and very quickly be forgotten, because it sounds like something new when it fact it isn't; the new has to sound strange, so can't be instantly acceptable. The likelier cross-fertilisations will come from 'dance' or 'urban' I'd guess, both of which 'experts' seem to think are in phases of intense inward experiment, which will then tend towards looking outwards and be open for cross-fertilisation again at some point.

I haven't heard the Madonna apart from the first single, which was excellent until she starts singing. My particular gripe is that she crams every bit of space with her rubbish voice and idiot lyrics.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

heh, Lowest Common Denominator Soundsystem. How apt ;)