The History Of Jop Part 25 aka Don't want to be your Daddy just want you in my Caddy

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

After an enforced absence, the History of Jop polls enter their final lap, reaching 2003. IT'LL ALL BE OVER BY CHRISTMAS! to coin a phrase. You get THIRTEEN ticks across thirty-nine singles: the Rapture were on last poll as well, the greedy beasts, so we leave them off this.


[Poll #888665]


Joptimists Go 2002

1. Work It (46 votes)
2. Can't Get You Out Of My Head (41)
3. Hot In Herre (38)
4. Fell In Love With An Girl (30)
5=. Like I Love You (29)
5=. Lose Yourself (29)
7. A Stroke Of Genie-Us (28)
8=. Oops Oh My (27)
8=. Hella Good (27)
10. Without Me (26)

Also be sure to go and nominate for the Poptimists end-of-year poll. Poll poll poll poll poll.

Comments

[cis.livejournal.com]

Was there a year in music more beautiful, more heart-fillingly wonderful, than 2003? In my preliminary ticky-box-fest there were only about five songs I didn't tick, and most of those I just hadn't heard. And there's all that young peoples' dancing music that J&P didn't cover!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

is funny because Ronan thinks 2003 was such an awful year for dance music in terms of big important 'anthems'...and bizarrely he is sort of correct altho there was so much great dance/pop this year plus numerous 02 hangover stuff.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

you are entirely correct!

TRULY AMAZING STUFF FROM ALL DIRECTIONS!

[dansette.livejournal.com]

Yes I can't believe those were all the same year! 2003 RULED!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

+ Coldplay's actually good song!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I think the music of the year for me was quite spread out - some of this stuff I heard before the year started, some after it had ended. But listed like that, it's utterly unfuckwithable.

Confession

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

In 2003 I started writing short reviews of every Radiohead song ever.

Look, I was on the dole, okay....

Re: Confession

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

BLOG IT

Poor old Grime

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Nobody yet saying Dizzee was most important :(

Good year this. I got married, started Popular (with the vague idea it might be finished by now - urk), my white heat of pop love not quite as intense as 02 but certainly not disillusioned as yet.

Re: Poor old Grime

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It is disillusioned now?! :(

You could make the Important case for a really large proportion of this list. 'Get Low' - harbinger of crunk. 'In Da Club' - harbinger of that really generic-Eastern ultra-polished Scott Storch strain of hip-pop'n'b which is probably the most ingrained, it's always around in a low-key kidz-on-bus way regardless of what Timbaland fannies around with. 'Crazy In Love' - harbinger of RETRO R'N'B, Rich Harrison and all that jazz (and conversely the chronic illness if not death of hyper-modern futuristic r&b). 'Beautiful' - reinvented Xtina as iconic popstar as opposed to trashy joke.

Is this the point at which the pop kids split from the r&b/hip-hop kids?

Re: Poor old Grime

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

But Dizzee turned out to be totally unimportant, didn't he?

Stacy's Bum More Like

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Why did people voters like this so much?

Re: Stacy's Bum More Like

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The video is actually DISGUSTING. And not funny. The song is worse. It's Passantino music basically.

Re: Stacy's Bum More Like

[cis.livejournal.com]

cos it's really great! In any other year I probably would have ticked it, and one of the amazing things about it is how it really could have been released in any other year - in fact I thought it came out a good two or three years earlier. It's very much the definition of a certain type of college-indie-rock (that for me starts with weezer's 'buddy holly'): aggressively tuneful, punk-pop without the punk- part, masculine-immature... good stuff.

Re: Stacy's Bum More Like

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Because I am shallow so liked the video, and a sucker for an obvious tune. Actually this is the only year in my life when I have watched a lot of music TV (i.e. The Hits) and so some of my choices are heavily influenced by the videos (e.g. Junior Senior, which would just have annoyed me without the visuals!).

Re: Stacy's Bum More Like

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

I have basically zero memory (this is the only year so far I have remembered 13 tracks from) but I remember Stacy's Mom, and how it goes, and it makes me smile? 'Radiation Vibe' is one of my favourite songs ever, still.

My Pazz and Jop Ballot, 2003

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

1 Beyonce featuring Jay-Z Crazy in Love Columbia
2 T.A.T.U. Not Gonna Get Us Interscope
3 Girls Aloud No Good Advice Polydor import
4 Sean Paul Like Glue VP/Atlantic
5 Darkness I Believe in a Thing Called Love Atlantic
6 Vybz Kartel Sweet to the Belly Greensleeves
7 R. Kelly Ignition (Remix) Jive
8 Kardinal Offishal Belly Dancer MCA
9 Lene Nystrom It's Your Duty
10 Dr. Ring Ding Bombs Over Baghdad Seeed

Still like all of these, though some more than others. The ballot (Lene aside) doesn't take into account a huge load of great Europop I got into right at the end of the year, around the time I want on honeymoon to Poland. So bump Dr Ring Ding and Lene for "The Magic Key" by One-T ft Cool-T and "Libertine" by Kate Ryan if you like.

Re: My Pazz and Jop Ballot, 2003

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

My TATU vote, incidentally, was actually a vote for A Side and B Side, the fantastic studio version of their Eurovision flop "Ne Ver Ne Bojsia".

Reverb and starkness of line

[koganbot]

My Pazz & Jop singles ballot for 2003 (w/ an excerpt from my comments). In April or so Xgau had said that we were in the midst of hip-hop's worst commercial moment, a statement I found inexplicable. I think he was deeply offended by "Get Low," ended up voting for one of the other remixes of it (other than the one I voted for) because it had fewer of the original lyrics. If my memory's right, he mentioned that it was his daughter who had to convince of the song's greatness.

I'm not sure I would now call this my best list ever (and how come I didn't put "Baby Boy" on it?), but "Beware Of The Boys," "Get Low," and "In Da Club" could well end up being my top three songs of the decade. Amazing.

FYI, Beat-In-Azz - real name Michael Crooms - had previously been calling himself DJ Smurf, and is now calling himself Mr. Collipark. Recent productions include Young Jeezy's great "Trapstar."

1. Panjabi MC f. Jay-Z - "Beware of the Boys/Mundian To Bach Ke" (Sequence)
2. Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz f. Ying Yang Twins - "Get Low" (TVT)
3. Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz f. Ying Yang Twins and Pitbull - "Get Low (Merengue Mix)" (TVT)
4. 50 Cent - "In Da Club" (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope)
5. Justin Timberlake - "Cry Me a River" (Jive)
6. Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz f. Mystikal and Krayzie Bone - "I Don't Give a F" (TVT)
7. Black-Eyed Snakes - "Rise Up!" (Chairkickers' Music)
8. Electric Six - "Gay Bar" (XL)
9. David Banner - "Cadillac on 22's" (SRC/Universal)
10. Celine Dion - "Drove All Night" (Epic)

This is the best singles list I've sent since 1999, maybe the best ever - which, given the unfathomable amount of music and my feeling of always playing catchup, may not be a particularly significant statement. But 2003 wasn't my worst commercial hip-hop moment in years, in fact was among my best.

One quick example: Beat-In-Azz, producer on most Ying Yang tracks, has found a way to use LARGE sounds while still including lots of elements within the music. This is not easy, as big sounds usually drive everything else out. He's capable of running spooky whoo-whoos, Ennio Morricone whistles and horn blasts (which are spooky themselves), and Euro-operatic synth-orchestra accompaniments all at once, and this along with whatever the rhythms and rappers are doing. I'd have thought that the Morricone sounds, especially, would have demanded open space to be effective - room needed for reverb and starkness of line. Somehow, in this guy's music, these are not lost. (Best Beat-In-Azz I've heard so far: "Sound Off" on the Ying Yangs' Alley.) All this on records that don't aspire to do more than throw a good party, apparently.

And when I throw my mind into hip-hop, I am finding some lyrics to move my heart and engage my mind (see review of Me and My Brother) but I do think I'm having to meet the genre more than halfway in this regard, and I long for a Shady or Spoonie, someone who will make the move towards me as well. Maybe it's here where I understand your disappointment.

Re: Reverb and starkness of line

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Was "Get Low" a jump in terms of objectionable-ness?

Wither the Darkness

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

You all loved them at the time. I always thought they were wrong.

Re: Wither the Darkness

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I ticked it!

Amazing

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

What makes this poll so amazing is that this is NOT ONLY an excellent year for music, but that Pazz & Jop got pretty much all the right songs. Other than "Come Clean" this list has my entire top 5 for the year and probably at least 7 or so of the top 10.

Re: Amazing

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

For the record, top 5 is "Come Clean", "Hey Ya", "In Da Club" [all probably top 10 for the decade to this point], "Cry Me a River" and "Ignition (Remix)". Also threw a tick to New Pornographers who were my number 2 favorite single of the year at the time (behind "Hey Ya"), and which I still kind of like.

[epicharmus.livejournal.com]

1 R. Kelly Ignition (Remix) Jive
2 M83 Run Into Flowers Gooom
3 Lil' Mo feat. Fabolous 4Ever Elektra
4 Reverend Dan It's Getting Bongo Rock In Herre (The Incredible Bongo Band vs. Tiga) no label
5 Deftones Minerva Maverick
6 Wayne Wonder No Letting Go Greensleeves/Atlantic
7 Snow Patrol Spitting Games Universal
8 Andrea Doria Bucci Bag Southern Fried
9 Linus Loves Stand Back Data Records
10 Alicia Keys You Don't Know My Name J Records

Eh. Not really thrilled with this list. Maybe only three or four are actually still loved by me. (#1, #2, #3, and #7.)

3 Doors Down, Chingy, Evanescence, Black-Eyed Peas

[koganbot]

Got impatient waiting for Britain to show up, so I'm posting Billboard anyway (usually let Brit crits go first). The Billboard top 40 singles, 2003:

Billboard's Top 40 singles, 2003

1. "In Da Club" 50 Cent
2. "Ignition" R. Kelly
3. "Get Busy" Sean Paul
4. "Crazy In Love" Beyoncé f. Jay-Z
5. "When I'm Gone" 3 Doors Down
6. "Unwell" Matchbox Twenty
7. "Right Thurr" Chingy
8. "Miss You" Aaliyah
9. "Picture" Kid Rock f. Sheryl Crow
10. "Bring Me To Life" Evanescence f. Paul McCoy
11. "Get Low" Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz f. Ying Yang Twins
12. "Baby Boy" Beyoncé f. Sean Paul
13. "Shake Ya Tailfeather" Nelly, P. Diddy & Murphy Lee
14. "21 Questions" 50 Cent f. Nate Dogg
15. "All I Have" Jennifer Lopez f. LL Cool J
16. "Beautiful" Christina Aguilera
17. "I Know What You Want" Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey f. The Flipmode Squad
18. "I'm With You" Avril Lavigne
19. "Drift Away" Uncle Kracker f. Dobie Gray
20. "Magic Stick" Lil' Kim f. 50 Cent
21. "P.I.M.P." 50 Cent
22. "Bump, Bump, Bump" B2K & P. Diddy
23. "Into You" Fabolous f. Tamia or Ashanti
24. "Can't Let You Go" Fabolous f. Mike Shorey & Lil' Mo
25. "Mesmerize" Ja Rule f. Ashanti
26. "Where Is The Love?" Black Eyed Peas
27. "The Game Of Love" Santana f. Michelle Branch
28. "Lose Yourself" Eminem
29. "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)" Ashanti
30. "Cry Me A River" Justin Timberlake
31. "How You Gonna Act Like That" Tyrese
32. "Rock Your Body" Justin Timberlake
33. "No Letting Go" Wayne Wonder
34. "Frontin'" Pharrell f. Jay-Z
35. "Landslide" Dixie Chicks
36. "Work It" Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott
37. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" Jay-Z f. Beyoncé Knowles
38. "Don't Mess With My Man" Nivea f. Brian & Brandon Casey
39. "So Gone" Monica
40. "Air Force Ones" Nelly f. Kyjuan, Ali & Murphy Lee

How come "Baby Boy" didn't make the Pazz & Jop 40?

Re: 3 Doors Down, Chingy, Evanescence, Black-Eyed Peas

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I really don't know why 'Baby Boy' gets dismissed so easily - I think it's a monster, definitely better than 'Crazy In Love'. It does have this generic "Eastern beat ft Sean Paul" feel to it though, and because a lot of poptimists only like r&b when it steps outside of r&b, generic songs which take note of the genre's boundaries and stay within them don't get so much love.

Beyoncé POV:

1. Irreplaceable
2. Baby Boy
3. In Da Club
4. Ring The Alarm
5. Work It Out

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Surprised by Frontin' over Beautiful.

Unsurprised, but endorse, Cry Me A River over Rock Your Body. Was Like I Love You in the last poll?

Unsurprised, but don't endorse, Seven Nation Army over The Hardest Button To Button.

And no love for The Seed 2.0 :(