The Poptimists Review Of The Year 2006: Dancing about Arguetexture

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Two somewhat difficult categories to administer today - the "argument of the year", difficult because only one thing really got widely nominated. And the "thing to dance (to)", difficult because nothing got nominated twice!

Here are the 'argument' nominees.

The Paris Hilton Wars: Is PH's album a triumph or a travesty? Should it be taken seriously? What are the hataz really playing at? Here's The Lex vs Plan B, and Dave Moore on Paris at Stylus.
Indie vs Emo in the Freaky Trigger Comments Box: This one will run and run. Delve in here and here.
Lordi: Worthy Eurovision Winners?: The argument that tore the Eurovision community apart - pantomime or "real rock"? And is that a good thing anyway? If anyone can point me to evidence for this argument I'd be grateful.

As for the dance to nominees...

"Monster" is a rock song about a hill and a monster.
"We Are Your Friends" is a much-loved golden oldie.
"Chicken Noodle Soup" is big on YouTube.
Magda is a tea-making DJ.
"We Share Our Mother's Health" is Scandiravian.

[Poll #893038]

You can still vote in earlier polls and nominate for the remaining categories.

Comments

Re: Shitheads March To Victory

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Right, feeling marginally more together now.

Non-relevant to your comment thought-
I've been giving Paris' album a re-listen today and originally wondered what I found (musically) objectional about it, (I was actually thinking 'this sounds like Margaret Berger redux') due to having started at 'Heartbeat' but when it got to her cover of 'Do You Think I'm Sexy' and the first five tracks of the album (I have my media player set to loop things) I suddenly remembered how much a lot of it completely turned me off. I'd kind of prefer to think she put no work whatsoever into a lot of the tracks and that the people she was working with just thought she was a joke, because to me the tracks seem pretty crap and she's an even worse popstar than I thought if they were serious effort but that, of course, is gut taste reaction and entirely subjective.

In response to what you said, I've looked at what I said last night and realised it's not such irredeemable dribble as I thought it was (or not entirely, anyway) but I failed to discuss properly what I wanted to. My perception of the Paris progression would be thus:
-Person hears Paris record
-Person thinks is not awful
-At this point, progression splits into 'Paris fans' and 'Paris haters,' obviously we're talking about the haters to a large degree here and so that's what I'm talking about for the rest of this "progression"
-Person wrestles to reconcile opinion of Paris Hilton The Socialite Brand with Stars Are Blind The Quite Good Pop Song By Paris Hilton
If Paris could have made herself into a pop star via the promo etc. she would have been far more acceptable to people than as Paris The Socialite With A Pop Record. Paris The Socialite With A Pop Record isn't something that a lot of people will brook much fuss about, because its just Paris The Socialite holding a CD and becomes the equivalent, to some degree, of Katie Price and Peter Andre's recent release. Jordan/Katie Price is kind of an interesting parallel with Paris, in Brit terms, actually: famous for a sex tape (by no means do all page 3 models become as famous as she did, even if they do have grotesquely surgically enhanced jugs) she's gone on to become something else and also had a stab at a pop career in a vaguely similar way to Paris; Katie's attempt flopped faster and had a smaller budget but that's maybe why Paris also flopped in Britain and why she really isn't popular. I could actually stomach buying something by Jordan if it sounded like the Paris album (or specifically, if she released 'Heartbeat' or 'Screwed,' both of which would fit reasonably well) but I get a sort of celebrity fatigue regarding Paris. I think it's possible that because we have our own breed of Paris-ite in Britain, we find her kind of unnecessary, by and large and so she doesn't especially trouble us to hate or love. We also, of course, have Posh Spice, when all else fails.

I might just be being comedically British here but I think Paris is just something very alien to a lot of people here, same as if we exported Jordan everyone would go 'Oh my god, the British really hang on everything this bimboid does' we (taking "we" to mean "me and other comedically British people") look at Paris and say 'Oh my god, she's really big news in the US' whilst reading an article about Jordan and Peter's new house in heat magazine. I can't specifically put my finger on what separates Jordan/Katie and Paris for me and I think it probably is something unpleasantly snobby about inherited wealth (since really, I ought to be annoyed far more by a woman who plays a part in the page three industry, something I object to a lot) but somehow, Jordan's ridiculous, frothy, frivolous and stupid but fun, where Paris fails to be fun.

I don't know whether Paris is held in the US in the same way Jordan's held in the UK (with Jordan, one article will be saying how nice and normal and clever she really is and the next will be screaming what a tramp she is and how much she should fuck off and die, which I suspect is pretty similar to Paris' reception in the US?) but if she is... well I'm not sure what it says but I think that's something vaguely important in sociological terms.

Re: Shitheads March To Victory

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

key diff between Paris and Jordan/Vicky B is class - Paris, as bimba as she plays it, convinces as nu-aristocracy (cf Marie Antoinette) because she was born into wealth and had the consequent expensive upbringing. (I suspect this is v key to understanding how she perfected her trademark blank gaze.) Vicky B was only ever posh in the ironic sense, and of course Jordan is Working Class Heroine &c - which means they both get subjected to the classic meeja Janus-face when it comes to working class women, "brava, she has worked hard for her money" vs "what a slut eh?". In both cases though media commentary is condescending, it acts like it's superior to J and VB. It can't do this with Paris because nothing about her lifestyle is actually dependent on the media.