ZVEN-SATIONAL ENGLAND BREAK SWEDISH HEARTS

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Pop World Cup - Group B Report

It's England v Germany in the last 16 as zenith's men forced their way out of the group stage with a gritty victory over Sweden. The shocking success of Trinidad and Tobago had left England and Sweden with everything to play for in this final group game. A draw would have sent Sweden through, and the tie was deadlocked for long periods but England's slow build up ultimately paid off. Sweden's team had plenty of prior tournament experience but some critics back home have suggested this had led to complacency - their young manager the_roofdog will be downcast tonight. The result leaves zenith with plenty of ammunition against those commentators who suggested that England's game was drab and anti-pop, though with a very tricky tie against Germany to look forward to he won't be resting on his laurels yet.


Sweden fans' joy turns to despair

In the other group B match Trinidad and Tobago brushed aside Paraguay to emerge as group winners and set up an intriguing game against Ecuador, which the Caribbean team must be approaching as favourites. jel_bugle has been effusive about the wealth of options at Trinidad's disposal and his confidence has not been misplaced so far. Paraguay gave a good account of themselves in all their games but a place in the last 16 always looked beyond them.

Full Results

Trinidad and Tobago - 156 points (QUALIFY AS WINNERS)
England - 127 points (QUALIFY)
Sweden - 119 points
Paraguay - 100 points

Pie Chart Topping

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

( Pie Chart Filling )

Morningwood still at the top, but now sharing their slice of the pop pie at 9 plays each with Pop World Cup entries: Bodies Without Organs (yay the all conquering* swedes) and Sir Lancelot (plucky Trinidad/Tobago). England trailing behind in 4th place... BREAKING NEWS swedes swizzed as England qualify!! What mad science is this?

However winning on points - as predicted last week- are Teh Knife with FOUR songs. My that's almost an entirely new album there. I suspect that the mysterious TARWATER may feature here next week. SEE YOU THEN

pop-as-sound vs pop-as-ethos

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

This is something which came up a) between Gareth and I last night at Lovelife, and b) in the comments box of the last post in the wake of Sweden's first round upset/The Knife's dominance of the pie thingy.

It's been noticeable recently (over the past year or so definitely) that the ahem 'online pro-pop community' seems to have collectively decided that 'pop' is a fixed sonic genre: synth-based, very gay (large elements of androgyny and burlesque), very white (a deliberate move away from turn-of-the-century r&b-influenced pop eg Britney, Xtina), and Swedish for preference. I don't like much of this stuff as I find it all very bloodless - those I approve of (Annie, The Knife) often have a harder electro edge, but for the most part it's incredibly unimaginative and wimpy (Bodies Without Organs, those terrible people whose entire career seems to be based on covering the Pet Shop Boys) - and as we all know, WIMPY = INDIE.

But surely the entire point of 'pop', the point of music made with commercial impact in mind, is that it can never be rooted in any particular sound: it's anything and everything which cannibalises anything and everything else, leading to sonic results all over the musical map. It's an ethos rather than a genre - I think the scattergun Xenomania approach typifies it quite well - which means that the pop umbrella can cover everything it or you or the public wants it to.

How do you view pop? And what's your view on the trend towards wimpy, bloodless Scandinavians being held up as some sort of ULTIMO-POP?

Keep On Moving

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Two things said by the Lex on the Poptimists chart thread:

"Gareth and I were talking last night about how a lot of the pro-pop people appear to have collectively decided that pop is a sonic genre rather than...anything and everything which cannibalises anything and everything else with an eye on the charts and sonic results all over the map, which is how I would want to define and approve of pop."

"I think my view of pop is the, the pure poppist view! the "pop-is-not-a-sound-but-an-ethos" argument which means that anything from Avril Lavigne to Stardust can be pop if it wants but that any attempt to define pop on strict sonic boundaries, or to make music based on these definitions (as many of these Swedes seem to do), is itself r*ck*sm or even worse INDIE"

Worth more discussion I reckons. Maybe we should ignore the whole qn of indie as I honestly think it's a side issue, and let's also try and leave rock1sm out of this until we know what it means, but yeah, is pop a sound or an ethos, or a sound that epitomises an ethos, or WHAT?

(If yr starving for actual YSI fun I will have some goodies for you tonight, including Bosh of the Week)

(Meanwhile for full on comments box madness scroll back to the Now 18 poll and look at the bottom - EEK)

PJ dunkin'

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Pazz and Jop time again - here's my ballot, I feel a bit guilty for not taking longer over it. 2005 was a strange year.

(from that you can access the whole bunfight, if you like - I've not actually explored it yet, even the singles list feels quite distant from anything I care much about. Is it just me or do the concerns of US and UK music fans feel further apart now than any time since about '95?)