The Historiography of Pop Part 6 aka The Sweet Sixteen

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Sixteen songs remain, eight will go through to the quarter-final polls.

This poll will be open till Wednesday morning. What I'd like for the next round is for the winning eight songs to get 50 words each from an advocate (i.e one of YOU LOT) saying why it should be the overall WINNAR. So if you fancy doing this, let me know.


[Poll #800734]


LET BATTLE BEGIN!

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I would like to do a blurb please!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

OK, but what for?

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

Give her Common People!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Shush. I'll do Stardust if that's ok?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's fine - IF IT SURVIVES!

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

I'll do Killer if it survives :(

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

If there are any left over then I'll do one. I'm not that fussed rly, they're all good!

[juror8.livejournal.com]

Final 16 video breakdown:

Relax: normal night out in Liverpool circa 1981. Laugh-a-minute bukkake symbolism
All The Things She Said: St Trinian's hen night, HBO style
Music Sounds Better With You: Should have been a Belle and Sebastian video.
Always On My Mind: Joss Ackland's spunky backseat
Together In Electric Dreams: MANNEQUIN!!!!
Toxic: RIP Sexually Attractive Britney, 1999-2004. To live in the minds of those you loved is never to have died at all.
Baby One More Time: ICONIC!
Killer: Early 90s video by the numbers, revolving heads and wacky weird colour effects and all.
Running Up That Hill: Kate dry humps a ballet dancer
Love Machine: Flair cocktail bartenders always get the girl. Fact.
Can't Get You Out Of My Head: FUTURISTIC!
Justified And Ancient: Dancing tribesmen, Tammy Wynette in a crown, visuals reminiscent of Night Trap on the Mega CD
Pump Up The Volume: Cost about 14p to make
Maneater: It's a big dog!
Freak Like Me: "Y'all invited to a party. There's gonna be dancing, fucking, and fighting" "How many people are gonna be there?" "Just me and you"
Common People: He's literally in a supermarket! Hilarious.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

"Pump Up The Volume: Cost about 14p to make"

wonderful footage tho - surprised it was so cheap/available to source really.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i can do a blurb!

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I'll blurb Always on My Mind if it makes it, if you like!

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Blimey three of these are virtually neck and neck!

[juror8.livejournal.com]

On the off chance that "Love Machine" survives, I'll take it, btw.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Blimey, this has got proper tricky now.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I voted for Common People, but I'm happy to see it's not romping its poll for once.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It bloody is! Against a landmark pop tune! wtf!

NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS. GRRR.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

It IS a landmark pop tune!

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I'm a Pulp supporter, but I'm not happy to see them going through at the expense of "Freak Like Me."

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I can do: "All The Things She Said" "Always On My Mind" "Together In Electric Dreams" "Toxic" "Justified And Ancient" "Pump Up The Volume" "Freak Like Me" "Common People"

there'll be tears before bedtime:

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Running up that Hill vs Love Machine... 50%/50%

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I'll do a blurb - any song is fine.

Glad to see T Horn vs T Horn productions. Surely it should be Britney vs Britney in the next round if both get thru.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Yes, one Britney must go!

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

if its not too late, i will do it

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Can you do 50 words on "Baby One More Time" before weds morning?

[koganbot]

"'...Baby One More Time' is not as bad as the rest of the songs on this poll. It contains the word 'hit' but not in the title. But it was a hit in 1999. In short, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to be hit one more time."

(exactly 50 words)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This would be quite a good idea for a feature!

[koganbot]

"For a song with ploddy, cloddy rhythm, 'All the Things She Said' is not bad. My Aunt Agnes had ploddy cloddy rhythm, and she was not bad either. She had moments of emotion and so does this song. Alice Cooper had ploddy cloddy rhythm but he was not a lesbian."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"I am ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas. I am not ashamed that Kate Bush is from Texas. Because she is not from Texas. She is not even from the USA. It is appropriate that she is running up a hill because Texas is flat."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"Rob Sheffield put 'Relax' on a cassette tape for me and told me to relax, but I couldn't because I'd said that it was British haircut pop and he corrected me and said that it was new wave and I do not like to be wrong and told him so."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"'Love Machine' is based on the song 'Laundry Service' by Shakira which has a washing machine on the cover and Shakira shakes and rolls her hips in the video like she is both a washing machine and love machine. Girls Aloud have many hips that in aggregate match Shakira's hip."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"Britney Spears' 'Toxic' is a very good song. It is about being co-dependent, which means that you are so in love with someone that you cannot say no to them even when you would rather be watching TV. The song is by Cathy Dennis who once had a hit herself."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"The Sugababes' 'Freak Like Me' has a riff from Gary Numan that is such a big riff that it is like a big shaggy dog such as a collie without a bone that is therefore searching for it and running everywhere and you had better not get in its way!"

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"'Justified and Ancient' is very pretty and it has Tammy Wynette who is also very pretty even though she got old. The problem with this song is that everybody is dancing but she is only sitting and then she is standing but she is just swaying not really dancing much."

(exactly 50 words)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i'd like to blurb that tatu fnar fnar

[koganbot]

Too late! See above!

[koganbot]

"'Pump Up The Volume' was famous for being stuck together from other songs and this was postmodern and made us question creativity. Then a judge said that these things weren't good so we had to stop them but 'Pump Up The Volume' had never harmed anyone so we didn't stop."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"'Maneater' first sounds like it is made out of wood since all you can hear is the thump of wood but then the singer sounds like a rubber tree which has rubber inside wood and proves there is more to wood than just trees and leaves and floors and houses."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"'Common People' is about a boy who understands there is a right way to sit in the shopping cart but also understands that he is never to know what it is; so when they promise to make him prime minister he turns them down since he prefers the checkout girl."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' goes 'la la la, la la l-la la' and so it is descended from a long line of rock 'n' roll songs that use 'la' in combination with lots of other 'la' or 'di' or 'dum' or 'yeah.' It is very good."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"'Always on My Mind' is by the Pet Shop Boys who knew some boys who worked in a pet shop but had never worked in a pet shop themselves. This didn't stop them from associating with such people, and this song is evidence that a lot is on their minds."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"'Music Sounds Better With You' has a beat that stays with you. I like this very much. The video stars a boy whose parents don't get along so to be happy he builds a large-sized model plane and he takes it out and lets it fly and it soars magnificently."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"Adamski's 'Killer' features the singer Seal, who does not copy his singing style from actual seals, who sing instead of barking but the singer Seal doesn't bark, his singing is smooth instead. You could say that his singing sounds like how a seal looks rather than how a seal sounds."

(exactly 50 words)

[koganbot]

"'Together in Electric Dreams' is like being adrift in a sea of computer wavelengths. This is fine if you don't get seasick. Some people take years figuring out what they want to do, but the singer here doesn't spend time filling out forms, he just opens his mouth and sings."

(exactly 50 words)

Stardust...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

...clearly aren't going to win their bout, but I wrote the blurb anyway for PRACTISE:


House maestros Stardust seemed to come out of nowhere with this track in the summer of 1998, and once arrived it just would not leave. In fact it was so catchy that Braxe and co never bothered doing anything together ever again, and stayed up on their little silver cloud returning model aeroplanes to small French children. Deceptively simple but never boring, it remains an ageless dance classic. Fact Of The Day: Thom Bangalter's dad wrote D.I.S.C.O!

Re: Stardust...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Also on a completely unrelated note - have we already done a Cher canon? I can't remember. She's next in line for my Diva series innit :-)