poptimists | The History Of Jop Part 13 aka It's fun to lose and to pretend

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pazz jop

The History Of Jop Part 13 aka It's fun to lose and to pretend

Back after a short absence it's the Pazz and Jop poll for 1991 - a particular blockbuster of a poll this with TEN ticks to be shared between 28 singles (would have been 29 but for C&C Music Factory cropping up last year too).

There's a fair bit of ground to cover in the comments boxes, I'm thinking!

[Poll #845917]

1990: Time For The (Poptimist) Guru

1. Groove Is In The Heart (48 votes)
2. Vogue (42)
3. Nothing Compares 2 U (34)
4. Gonna Make You Sweat (28)
5. Been Caught Stealin (26)
6. Justify My Love (25)
7. Hold On (24)
8. Kool Thing (21)
9. Epic (19)
10=. Welcome To The Terrordome (18)
10=. 911 Is A Joke (18)

Note very rapid drop off in vote totals from 1-3 down.

Threaded | Flat

Big in the last poll or two - close to vanished in this one!

Also - what happened to the "legacy" singles artists that have tended to crop up in these polls? (Fogarty/Stones/etc.) I guess Prince in the NPG era counts, but was there a shift in who was getting polled around this point? Or did the Year Punk Broke (TM) focus all minds on the present?

Really statring to wake up to music now, 19 ticks on the first go-through (and The La's would have made it 20 at the time).

Responsible for SO MUCH BADNESS including THEIR OWN WHINY SHIT.

'Smells Like Teen Booty' not enough to redeem them as still way inferior to 'Bootylicious'.

This is not a very exciting list? Loads of the ones I like from here, I like other versions better ('I Touch Myself' - Scala Choir; 'Losing My Religion' - Tori Amos).

Worrying trend re. lack of love for "OPP" - get it together ppl!!

Good work to The Lex and Dr T for also ticking CMB - BOO HISS to the soulless hataz in the 'worst' box whose alternative picks I dare not investigate.

This splits into: indie anthems that I hate; some hip-hop stuff I have not heard; some good-ish pop stuff; but hardly a great selection.

+ isn't Losing My Religion by REM one of the worst things ever released? Vapid and sententious (OED: 'addicted to pompous moralizing').

Greil Marcus on the Geto Boys song is my favourite thing ever by him. (It's my favourite thing ever by them too, but I've heard less of them than I've read of him).

Was this a double A-side in the states? It was two separate singles in the UK. And both marvellous.

I had trouble ticking nine, and I nearly didn't tick Nirvana. I only did because I wrote my A level General Studies essay on Kurt Cobain. I will be interested to see the NME/MM polls for this one, I imagine the UK to be WAY superior to the US around this time. Get on one matey!

"Mind Playing Tricks On Me"

"How I Could Just Kill A Man"

in best/worst comments boXor.

(I have never liked Divynyls btw - sounds like sub-par Cher)
(Negativland I had a brief and regrettable fling with)

Where is CeCe Peniston?

According to Rob Sheffield, the winner of the 'TURNED ON THE TV, SAW ALL THE SMOKE AND CHURNING BODIES, ASSUMED IT WAS MORE OF THE COLLAPSE OF HISTORY OVER IN THE SOVIET UNION, NOTICED IT WAS REALLY LISETTE MELENDEZ' AWARD for 1991 was Lisette Melendez. ("Nobody won it last year.")

The NME top 50

Higher than the sun - Primal Scream
Justified & ancient - The KLF
Loosing my religion - REM
Starsign - Teenage Fanclub
The concept - Teenage Fanclub
Get the message - Electronic
Smell like teen spirit - Nirvana
Unfinished sympathy - Massive Attack
Pearl - Chapterhouse
Size of a cow - The Wonder Stuff
Sexuality - Billy Bragg
I won't try - Midway still
Only love can break your heart - St Etienne
Playing with knives - Bizarre inc.
I'm to sexy - Right said Fred
Happy - Ned's atomic dustbin
After the watershed - Carter USM
Feel so sad - Spiritalized
Set adrift on memory bliss - PM Dawn
Wear your love like heaven - Definition of sound
Waterproof EP - Kingmaker
Motown junk - Manic street preachers
Where the streets have no name - Pet shop boys
Endless art - A House
You love us - Manic street preachers
The fly - U2
Infiltrate - Altern 8
Destined to be free - Fabulous
Apparently nothing - Young disciples
What do I have to do - Kilie Minogue
My legendary girlfriend - Pulp
Gett off - Prince
Carwash hair - Mercury Rev
Cream - Prince
Dominator - Human Resource
No score after extra time - Thousand yard stare
Not superstitious - Leatherface
Superelectric - Stereolab
Planet of sound - Pixies
Bring the noise - Anthrax/Public Enemy
Go - Moby
Missing on the moon - Field Mice
Tasty fish - The other two
There’s no other way - Blur
Pregnant for the last time - Morrissey
Words that say - Mega city four
Young people - Pooh sticks
Tremolo EP - My bloody valentine
Drive that fast - Kitchens of distinction
Frozen EP - Curve

Notice that indie has basically 'won' by this point.

I have a meeting in 5 mins so someone else can do the MM chart, which makes similar and grim reading (w/more of an emphasis on gothy shoe noize I guess)

'Black Or White' is the last good MJ song. It's all downhill from here.

1. Corina "Temptation" (Cutting Records)
2. Lisette Melendez "A Day In My Life (Without You)" (Fever)
3. Enigma "Sadeness" (Charisma)
4. Naughty By Nature "O.P.P." (Tommy Boy)
5. Shonen Knife "Lazy Bone" (Rockville)
6. Sandee "Love Desire" (Fever)
7. Mysterious Art "The Omen"
8. Geto Boys "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" (Rap-A-Lot)
9. Ce Ce Peniston "Finally" (A&M)
10. R.E.M. "Losing My Religion" (Warner Bros.)

I was a complete chump for not voting for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "How I Could Just Kill A Man." My excuse on the latter was that it came out late in the year and I hadn't fully absorbed its brilliance. Also, it scared the shit out of me. (It scored #5 in 1992's poll.) My excuse on the former isn't very good: I was so full of utter resentment at the triumph of "alternative" over so much better music that I wasn't willing to acknowledge that it had produced a great song.

I still haven't finished unpacking from moving, so I don't know what box Sandee and the Mysterious Omen and Shonen Knife are hiding in - therefore don't know if they belong, or were basically overrated by me in order to defeat Nirvana. If I hadn't voted for them I might have voted for "Unbelievable" or Mylene Farmer's "Psychiatric" or Yo-Yo's "Stompin to the '90s" just to keep Nirvana off.

Anyway, the top three songs of 1991 ("A Day In My Life Without You," "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Temptation") could well be the top three songs of the DECADE, though I might sneak "Lollipop (Candyman)" or "Nann" or "...Baby One More Time" or "Violet" or "Doll Parts" ahead of "Temptation."

surprused by lack of GnR actually - can't remember the reviews for Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 at the time but remember the excitement here - stores opening at midnight for 'first time ever' etc.

Still liked a lot of Brit indie and shoegazer - this was the year of "Tremelo" and Loveless after all. But I was getting into "dance music" in a fairly significant way too thanks to chart hits by the likes of Cathy Dennis, Don Pablo's Animals, T99, t' Prodge, Candy Flip etc etc, as well as indie dance crossover stuff - this was also the year of Screamadelica and Blue Lines don't forget. I bought quite a few dance comps on cassette tape this year and listened to Pete Tong's R1 show quite a lot. That was where I heard the "Urge mix" of 'Gett Off' first.

My favourite LPs of the year, at the time, were Seal's and PM Dawn's respective debuts, with World of Twist's Quality Street coming in third. (De La Soul is Dead is clearly the best LP of 1991 in retrospect though.)

But one Stanley/Wiggs song towered over all of the above...

My top 15:

1. Saint Etienne - "Nothing Can Stop Us"
2. Primal Scream - "Higher Than The Sun" (+ various remixes)
3. Prince - "Gett Off" (7" mix / 12" 'Urge Mix')
4. My Bloody Valentine - "Swallow"
5. Electronic - "Get The Message"
6. Definition of Sound - "Wear Your Love Like Heaven"
7. Slowdive - "Albatross"
8. The Belltower - "Outshine The Sun"
9. PM Dawn - "Paper Doll"
10. Seal - "The Beginning"
11. My Bloody Valentine - "I Only Said"
12. The Prodigy - "Charly"
13. PM Dawn - "A Watcher's Point of View (Don't Cha Think)"
14. Slowdive - "Catch The Breeze"
15. Blur - "There's No Other Way"

Whither Blood on the Dancefloor?

Billboard Top 29 1991

1. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You - Bryan Adams
2. I Wanna Sex You Up - Color Me Badd
3. Gonna Make You Sweat - C+C Music Factory
4. Rush Rush - Paula Abdul
5. One More Try - Timmy T
6. Unbelievable - EMF
7. More Than Words - Extreme
8. I Like The Way (The Kissing Game) - Hi-Five
9. The First Time - Surface
10. Baby, Baby - Amy Grant
11. Motownphilly - Boyz II Men
12. Because I Love You (The Postman Song) - Stevie B
13. Someday - Mariah Carey
14. High Enough - Damn Yankees
15. From A Distance - Bette Midler
16. All The Man That I Need - Whitney Houston
17. Right Here, Right Now - Jesus Jones
18. I Adore Mi Amor - Color Me Badd
19. Love Will Never Do (Without You) - Janet Jackson
20. Good Vibrations - Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch Featuring Loleatta Holloway
21. Justify My Love - Madonna
22. Emotions - Mariah Carey
23. Joyride - Roxette
24. Romantic - Karyn White
25. I Don't Wanna Cry - Mariah Carey
26. Hold You Tight - Tara Kemp
27. You're In Love - Wilson Phillips
28. Every Heartbeat - Amy Grant
29. Sensitivity - Ralph Tresvant

13yr old stevem's year winners:

best album: 808 State 'Ex:el' (actually found it a bit hit n' miss at the time but the ones i didn't like then i came to appreciate more as i got older, so this really just a big vote for the big two singles (plus 'Olympic' altho this was not on the cassette version :( back then)

best single: Prodigy 'Charly' (was embarassed because i didn't hear this until they showed the video on TOTP but had noticed the buzz about it everywhere inc. on newly legal Kiss FM - mind blown instantly hurrah)

no shamen yet? boss drum? "pro-gen" revival of move any mountain?

I moved to Europe this year, and so completely missed "the year punk broke." I remember asking my clueless mother to go out and buy "The Fly" single for me on the day it came out and mail it to me.

A friend made a cassette for me in December or early 1992, which was the first time I heard Nirvana (and some other stuff). Electrifying, but I still loved (and love) Achtung Baby much much more. But I remember coming back to the US in 1993, I guess, and feeling like the whole world had changed. Suddenly I didn't understand the music scene at all.

it was v hard to buy a copy as the reckid stores kept selling out.

I WAS TRAINING TO BE A TEACHER when SLTS came out. i bloody loved it, and i felt v embarrassed re any "trendy teacher" thing cos so did the yr 11s, and i managed to never mention it in school.

sadly the same cannot be said, and i hang my head in shame now at the thort of it, when i let my guard down over: daisy chainsaw (spotted "logo" on a pupil's folder) and SULTANS OF PINK (I completed the line "... bumper to bumper")

BITE MY KNUCKLES IN WHITE SHAME

With two Poptimists breaking ranks over the Unrest single (which I have never heard, but everything else I know by Unrest is seriously bad), only "Pop Goes The Weasel" remains unticked! Is it that awful?

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Whatever happened to house?

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GOD I HATE NIRVANA

Yeah You Know Me

COLOR ME GOOD MORE LIKE

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My hands were all bloody from tearing up the concrete

Dream Warriors

UK >>>> US

Here Is Something You Can't Understand

dubdobdee vs infov0re FITE!

Most Inexplicable Omission

Greatest Award for 1991

Meanwhile In Britain

Jacko's last stand

I was a Complete Chump for not voting for "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

yooooooooooooo couulld be miiiiiiiiiine

At the time...

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Billboard 1991

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am i being previous again

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no subject

3rd Bass