[identity profile] freakytigger.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] poptimists
Eight songs. Four to advance to the final votes. Here's how we do it:

You pick your favourite FOUR of the songs - no more, no less. The four highest scorers go through. It's easy! To help you decide, Poptimists members have written a short blurb for each of the songs explaining why it's awesome and should win.


"All The Things She Said": runaways waif-rock backstory (girlteens use exploitation as portal), pellmell frankie-ish backdrop (outsiders use BIG BOLD SOUND as self-announcement); obsessive worry-cycle on lip of VAST DECISION subtext: "can i trust you? will this work?"); in hazard EVERY LAYER, right up to manufactured meta-context and your respondent solidarity. ([livejournal.com profile] dubdobdee)

"Always On My Mind": Not for nothing was the first PSBs comp. called ‘Disco-graphy’: beneath their deadpan exteriors pump the hearts of boshin’ rave mentalists. Elvis sounded like he was just making excuses; jacking the melody to a Hi-NRG beat handbags self-pity to reconcile pop future with pop past. Best apology EVER! ([livejournal.com profile] byebyepride)

"...Baby One More Time": Though her first major hit, it has all we expect from Spears. The husky, honeysuckle voice, the hard rhythms of the opening minute, the few quick seconds of florid piano, and melancholic teenage heartbreak collapsing into the post Freudian eroticism of a not so innocent Lolita, who knows her history. ([livejournal.com profile] anthonyeaston)

"Can't Get You Out Of My Head": The year is 1986. A beautiful new face arrives on Ramsey Street. Fast forward 20 years, and through Charlene & Scott, 'I Should Be So Lucky', the indie 90s, playing at the Sydney Olympics and winning her fight with breast cancer, the pint-sized pop princess is still at the top of the game. Europop songs don't come much better, much catchier than 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head'. #1 in 40 countries. The world needs more Kylie, and Poptimists must surely vote for everyone's favourite Aussie. Also, she's tonnes better than Danni! ([livejournal.com profile] bengraham)

"Common People": A single mix, where your drunken aloof friend tells the room about the one thing that they really care about, and they're beautiful and impressive and they've obviously prepared this beforehand, and the longer one, where they reach out and grab your sleeve, and say no, this is IMPORTANT. ([livejournal.com profile] braisedbywolves)

"Pump Up The Volume": Silly samples galore, spooky space atmos, a punchy beat you can really feel plus that bouncy bassline that sounds as if you're being chased by Michelin Men in an inflatable roller disco. One of the oddest, controversial #1s in pop history so show this forward-thinking triumph of the dancefloor love. ([livejournal.com profile] stevem78)

"Running Up That Hill": VOTE K8. She is a National Treasure, everyone else left in put together: pop and rave and goth, all at the same time. 'Running Up That Hill' has beats which sound like galloping hooves, and is simultaneously a ballad, a banger and everything in between. She embodies pop. VOTE K8. ([livejournal.com profile] alexmacpherson)

"Toxic": Everyone had cruelly written off Britters after her Madge-snogging antics and dodgy Kabblah tattoos, but this song propelled her right back to the top of the pop mountain. Inescapable Bollywood string hooks and that killer chord-change chorus send Toxic veering between rave surrealism and classic Bond theme, which gave pop a well-needed kick up the charts. ([livejournal.com profile] katstevens)


[Poll #802785]

Thanks to all the blurbers, and may the best pop win! (or at least qualify)
From: [identity profile] chezghost.livejournal.com
I don't think it's the worst.

But I can see how it is the one of the eight with the narrowest scope, purely in that it is not a conventionally written song with a specific meaning like the others.
From: [identity profile] braisedbywolves.livejournal.com
I think Matt's saying the same as "PUTV keeps changing/bringing in new things throughout the track" IE you can't really get lost in it.
From: [identity profile] awesomewells.livejournal.com
That's not what I'm saying.

Putting Pump Up The Volume up as representative of all sample-based/tracky dance music and this community's attitude to it is a bit of a silly line of argument as well. I just don't think it's aged particularly well although I'd rate, say, Voodoo Ray about almost all of these.
From: [identity profile] chezghost.livejournal.com
PUTV does not sound any flatter than Voodoo Ray altho for certain reasons it's not as hip/authentic/ghetto.

I prefer Voodoo Ray (the right mix of it at least) too but doubt that would've won a NOW poll had it been on one.
koganbot: (Default)
From: [personal profile] koganbot
And thereby save us from the matter-antimatter explosion/implosion I alluded to below (though I suggest "...Baby One More Time" so that we can have a Britney TIE for fourth and therefore a special Britney runoff!). (Also, "...Baby" is better.)
koganbot: (Default)
From: [personal profile] koganbot
If "Looking for the Perfect Beat" had been in the running I'd have ticked it.
From: [identity profile] chezghost.livejournal.com
why is ability to get lost in a song a big advantage tho?

(i can see why it would be. i think that's another interesting point behind the choice being made and why - my post below touches on this and the possible reasons why also).
From: [identity profile] awesomewells.livejournal.com
Also this is a very silly kind of meta-argument to be having because it only requires PUTV to be most people's fifth favourite record for it to be lagging behind.
From: [identity profile] chezghost.livejournal.com
yes but it has oddly stopped picking up votes completely unlike the other tracks which gave the impression that you - yes YOU - had orchestrated some sort of ruthless campaign against it with much threatening towards anyone who was considering it giving it a tick - and all purely to spite ME. well you win this round but i live to fight another day buddy boy...
From: [identity profile] chezghost.livejournal.com
'scope' is the wrong word there. interesting that despite being a #1 (albeit quite novelty one hit wonder) hit it doesn't/can't occupy a place in people's hearts like a song with a more identifiable human point of contact/sympathy can. presumably some dancey tracks can but they'd be ones with a more obvious emotional sentiment (as kogan alludes to) and a recognisable face behind any voice.
From: [identity profile] braisedbywolves.livejournal.com
For this to be science would require that everyone has exactly four places in their hearts.
From: (Anonymous)
if i was on gothjournal, i would have voted for this steve, on principle.

hkm

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