Please to welcome...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

katstevens joining me as a community admin!

New Poptimists userpic!

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[chezghost.livejournal.com]

In my evergoing pursuit of something or other I decided to compile a list of all the singles to have entered the charts and peaked between positions 41 and 75 this year so far. I managed to track down most of them on iTunes so I could listen to an extract of each one. Observations / conclusions:

1) Most of the songs are crap.
2) If you think there's a lot of British nu-indie/rock in the top 40 there is just as much if not more bubbling under - it really does seem to be the dominant chart species now more than ever.
3) There is no real difference in quality between the stuff that makes top 20 and the stuff that languishes between 41 and 75 (this goes for ALL genres really).
4) That said, there really isn't a big sense of 'this SHOULD'VE done better' pervading the following lengthy list bar a handful of exceptions which I have marked with an asterisk (based on my personal tastes/preferences natch).

But daer poptimists I am interested in YOUR views too, so have a look down the list and mention in comments any songs YOU particularly like/think deserve more attention for some reason. I am thinking of including a bunch of these songs in a poll to go with the monthly top 40 poll (August poll next week, probably Monday).

( UK singles to have peaked between #41 and #75 this year so far )

It really makes you wonder just how poorly singles by The Knife or the stuff you see on Channel U or all that European Young Person's Dance music must be selling.

Of Pop And Polls And Fun

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Following on from a discussion between Frank and Julio and I on the P&J thread about what "Let It Blurt" by Lester Bangs was doing there (you hopefully don't need to read that discussion to understand this post tho...)

Frank says: And assuming that a vote for ["Let It Blurt"] is a joke is no different from assuming that a vote for "...Baby One More Time" or "Stars Are Blind" is a joke.

But equally some of those votes MIGHT BE JOKES! Just cos we disapprove of irony or mockery as a way into (or deflection of) enjoyment doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

To look at the social context of dancing rather than the social context of polling, if you play Britney in a club full of people who mostly like credible rock or alternative or punk or dance music (not too dissimilar from the voter base of P&J), some people will dance who wouldn't describe themselves as liking it, because they're making a joke or showing off or striking a pose or whatever.

Same thing happens in a poll, and just like dancing there's a continuum: as a poll gets bigger and more formal, voters take it (and themselves) more seriously, and the ones that don't get statistically ironed out and so results which MIGHT carry an implication of private enthusiasm or private irony (same difference, statswise) become fewer and fewer. The P&J poll these days is definitely at the serious end of this continuum, the Poptimists polls generally at the frivolous end due to the fact that the social element of polling is much more explicit here.

The '79 singles results are P&J at an earlier stage in this process than it's reached now and I was delighted to see the Bangs single placing because it seemed to me to carry traces of the 'social-ness' of P&J (and 'rock criticism' itself, if you like).

Which may be just as patronising to Bangs-the-musician, but there you go.