And The Winner Is...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Always On My Mind" by the Pet Shop Boys. Well done Neil and Chris.

Commiserations to Jarvis, and to rub salt into the wound here is a link to the worst record ever.

(However the existence of this does prove that Pulp = Pop, so it's not all bad news.)

I Love #1's - 2003

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Last week you lovely Poptimist types decided that Return To Sender was the best #1 hit of 1962, with 25 ticks. But burger-munching jumpsuit wearer Elvis also fared least well, Good Luck Charm and She's Not You claiming only 3 ticks each. This week catapults us right into the booty-shaking, lesbian-filled pop-idle current decade: it's 2003!

( Ft The Kumars? Can't anyone sing a song on their own these days? )

Scott Manson is an idiot

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

As found in last Friday's London Lite, under the heading of 'Scott Manson's Clubland', possibly the daftest piece of dance music journalism ever:

Plug in for a charge of Electro therapy

The rumours were false: clubland is not dead. It was just resting. To be fair, the sort of bacchanalian nightclub that would probably see P.Diddy pronounce it "a bit much" did dwindle, replaced by identikit dancetarias playing pop trance and filled with hard-faced blokes and women who looked like they had put on blusher with the vigour of someone brushing a horse.

Elsewhere, it was all "The Strokes this" and "NME that" and "oh, you still listen to dance music do you?" Guitar based rock was the hot ticket and gig-going became the new clubbing.

Now, I LIKE incredibly loud, raucous sounds. Don't get me wrong. I watched Big Brother and I once dated a woman with two children. But this was a sad time as dance music, the most vibrant youth culture since punk (and which lasted 10 times as long) appeared to be withering on the vine.

Or was it? Slowly, from about March this year, coming out of the annual dance industry jamboree that is the Miami Winter Music Conference, a sound emerged that caught the ear of tastemaker DJs, producers and, crucially, punters. It had funk, it had bass and it had immediate appeal across different dance music tribes. It's called electro and it's the sound of summer.

The appeal of this dirty, bassy sound ranges from cool London pirate stations such as Passion FM through to the Hed Kandi-style funky house disco-pubs where tanned young chaps and girls in short skirts slug Bacardi Breezers by the bucketful. Not since rave has a sound been so universally popular, with traditional House DJs such as Eric Morillo playing the same records as the darkest "grime" DJs. Listen to the Tocadisco mix of The Egg's Walking Away or Mandy's Body language or anything on the German Kompakt label and you will see why dance music has pulled itself out of the doldrums. Electro is the sound of now and it's brilliant.

[Stuff about where to hear this exciting new sound omitted]

The dance floor has been invigorated. Go seek out some electro-shock therapy.

The History Of Jop Part 1 aka Everybody's Talking About Pop Musik

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Obviously nothing can replace the Now Polls in our hearts. But koganbot suggested doing polls bassed on the Village Voice Pazz and Jop feature, and that seemed a good idea to me.

The what and what? The Pazz and Jop poll* is an annual poll published by the Village Voice newspaper** in New York. The idea is that every rock critic in America - and latterly in THE WHOLE WORLD (sort of) - gets to vote for their favourite albums and singles of the year. We'll be looking at the singles polls here, historically the poor relation of the albums polls ftb loads of critics not bothering voting in them.

These polls will be done canon-style, i.e. you pick your favourite ten out of the top thirty singles. Or in this case, because this first one was a small enfeebled thing, you pick your favourite NINE out of 26.

The point of the polls, as well as the usual timewasting comment fun, is to get a handle on how critical opinion works and has shifted and where you agree and don't and all that fun stuff.

Without further ado - TO THE TICKY BOXES.

( Eskimo, Arapaho, move your bodies to and fro )

*don't worry too much about the Pazz bit.

**whether there will still be a Pazz and Jop poll following the VV's recent takeover by The Man, I do not know.

Canonadmin

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I have far too much time on my hands. Sugababes, Abba and Fat Bob & his Cureists are there before Prince as well but for some reason the page won't go past March. Do let me know if there are any I've missed*!

Watch this space for more canons, coming soon to a community near you!

*The Spice Girls did have their own poll in January but it didn't include ticking their songs. I'm almost sure there was a Duran Duran-non as well but I couldn't find it anywhere.