Poptimists 2006 Poll: Act of the Year!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Today's category is the slightly nebulous Act of the Year - six acts got more than one vote and we present them below: interesting to note the Poptimists heavyweights who didn't get multiple nominations.

Girls Aloud put out a Greatest Hits record.
Lily Allen MySpaced her way to stardom.
Justin Timberlake brought sexy back.
Paris Hilton was much talked about.
Aly and AJ were the salvation of teenpop.
Cassie stripped R&B down.

[Poll #899559]

Lifetime achievement and Track of the Year to follow!

Comments

Re: Meng are endangered species in pop

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Pop's always been coded female, though, hasn't it - only the BOYBAND TRADITION really gave men ("men") any sort of presence as performers and that really has died out (unlamented, too: the best of girl groups is ridiculously better than the best of boybands).

(How does Robbie deserve it more than Cassie?! I have no truck with the "they have more media presence" argument when the SONGS are so much better. Cassie made two of the three best songs of the entire year!)

Re: Meng are endangered species in pop

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

This is back to the "what makes a good pop star" argument again innit? For me, media presence is absolutely essential for that.

But FWIW I do like at least three songs on Rudebox more than "Me & U".

Re: Meng are endangered species in pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I agree that if I'd called the category "Star of the Year" I wouldn't have expected Cassie to get nominated or voted for.

Re: Meng are endangered species in pop

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

> "Pop's always been coded female, though, hasn't it?"

Hardly. Beatles, Monkees, T.Rex, Osmonds, David Cassidy, Bay City Rollers, Duran Duran, Culture Club, etc etc. For a loooong time it was mostly coded male.

Solo artists in history

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

(according to Poptimist canons done!)

LAYDEES - Mariah, Whitney, Cher, Celine, Diana Ross, Britney, Madge, Kate Bush, Kylie (= NINE)
MENG - Elton, Dave Bowie, George Michael, Jacko, Lionel, Morrissey, Prince, Cliff (= EIGHT)

Pretty even.

Re: Solo artists in history

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Most of those meng got few-to-none in the way of ticks for noughties songs though, whereas nearly all those ladies have at least one highly tickworthy song from this decade.

So my main argument above stands.

Re: Solo artists in history

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I have a canon lined up for this afternoon. I have gone off #1 polls for the moment.

Re: Solo artists in history

[koganbot]

Boybands (incl. early Beatles) are coded female too, in that girls are whom they're for. In fact, boybands more female than are female divas, who to some extent are coded gay male.

But two of our choices - Aly & A.J. and Lily Allen - are significantly coded rock as well as pop; and those two codings do not undermine each other but make both these performers threats in a way that (I'm guessing) GA, Timberlake, and Cassie are not. But of course the biggest threat is Paris, who's actually closer than anyone else on the list to "rock star," even if she doesn't code rock. And both she and Lily code more masculine than any of the others (incl. Justin).

Mentioned Paris to a group of teenagers yesterday, and they all said they hated her. Reason given - unanimously - wasn't that she had no talent or that she was famous for doing nothing or that she was frivolous. Reason was contained in one word: "Bitch."

Btw, my vague impression is that emo today is not your grandpa's emo, in that emo guys are coding "female" and "glam" in the way that I don't think they were until a few years ago (which is why emo is starting to bleed into goth). But coding female can mean a number of different things. Which type of female are they coding? Well, I think "bitch" is part of it. But I'm basically ignorant of emo and its star-like behavior, so this could be all wrong. But I think coding female is one of the things that allows them to start acting like stars rather than acting indie or acting like big-selling but starless Adult Contemporary crossover rock bands (Hinder, Nickelback, the Fray). (I mean, how many male rock stars are there today?)

Re: Solo artists in history

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Actually, recent emo strikes me as more outwardly misogynist than the stuff that preceded it (which I guess might have been inwardly misogynist, my frame of reference isn't great, but I doubt that most emo bands of yore would have written a song called "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" etc...of course, the misogyny in these cases -- and maybe it's just P!ATD -- is so ludicrous that it's hard to take it very seriously).

Mentioned Paris to friends at a party, same response. On the rock star tip, I think the reigning rock star of the year -- male or female -- is LINDSAY. Imagine what the press/public reaction to a male rock star living the life she lives and saying the things she says (seems like most male rock stars these days are totally bland loser WIMPS).

Re: Solo artists in history

[koganbot]

Coding female doesn't stop one from being misogynist. But I think (and this ties in to what you were saying about Lindsay) that coding female allows postpunk "sensitive" men to ROCK, since the full-on cock rock thing is no longer available to or believable in them.