(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

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think her album will be more important in the long run in the US actually, where to my knowledge they don't have high street house at all, or any kind of dance presence on radio/the charts. Selling ANY dance to America = impressive feat indeed.

Over here it's kind of a two-pronged attack because it's coming up through the indie as well - Justice, Ed Banger, Feadz and our old friend Mr Oizo are quite rock-based, and with various indie groups (eg Test Icicles) working closely with them who knows what will result? And Uffie's 'Ready To Uff' is exactly the kind of novelty white-girl hip-hop I can imagine gatecrashing the charts..

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think I heard that Uffie record - it was horrible! Exactly the kind of thing I'd imagine would totally enrage you, Lex.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Uffie and Lily Allen are good/evil flipsides of the same coin, yes. But it's a lot more fun to dance to Uffie, and she isn't as up herself as Allen (well she is but not musically), and I can't resist that whole stutter effect on "I - I, I, I - I'm ready to fuck!"

'Pop The Glock' also OK but would be better if it sampled 'Sweet Dreams' outright rather than puttering around the riff.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh it was "Pop The Glock" I heard - atrocious, hugely worse than anything Lily Allen's done.

Did you ever hear Northern State?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Ready To Uff' is the better Uffie banger by miles (nb many people disagree with me here). I did hear Northern State, and I didn't mind them, I think I enjoyed their album in a vague way - I approved of them more after that infamously dreadful P-fork review, but I can't even remember what the songs were called now let alone how they went.