ONE POLL TO END THEM ALL aka Jop Tournament Qualifiers 1

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Right. So we did 27 (or 28) Pazz and Jop polls, giving ratings on all 820 or so songs to have been tipped the wink by the Village Voice and/or Idolator critics. We're now going to find out which is best.

You can see the comments boxes for details of how this brobdingnagian poll has been compiled. All you need to do now, though, is pick your favourite from each group of four songs. SO EASY!


[Poll #911602]


Howl at your fellow poptimists, or justify your choices, below!

I may well post another four groups later today. It takes my mind off the horror of the charts this week.

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I ticked Daft Punk because I am listening to that song RITE NOW!

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Group D annoyed me somewhat, I really wanted to vote against Common People but don't like any of the other songs enough to justify it.

Choosing between Justified and Ancient and Here Comes The Hotstepper was agony. Ditto Group A.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

None of them that hard for me this time, except maybe Group B, I feel a bit bad for ticking Blur over Shaggy but what's done is done.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I keep switching from Hurt to Paid In Full but I think that group is a done deal.

I wonder if the all-conquering Van Halen might win the whole thing.

(Answer - probably not)

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Haha looking again they may not even win this round!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I feel Van have benefited from two fondly-regarded Britpop-era giants taking points off each other.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I feel that it's pretty indefensible that Blur and Van Halen are battling to win that group, rather than Shaggy and the Cardigans.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The sooner that mimsy Cardigans rubbish is kicked out of this poll the better - worst record in the entire 160, possibly.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Pah!

Are you going to post what the 160 are, or just drip-feed us with them? I am on tenterhooks wrt whether any Ciara is in! It's almost as bad as waiting for tennis draws.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I was going to call this the Poptimists Open ;)

Dripfeed, obviously. There's no Ciara, though the R&B boom is generally well represented.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Ciara:

"Lose Control" - 263rd
"Oh" - 277th
"Goodies" - 339th

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Cry cry cry cry cry cry cry cry cry cry cry :((((((((((((

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

And to think even sodding PAVEMENT made it in!!!!

:((((((((((((((

Poptimists why you break heart :(((((((((

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

YES! It is WORSE THAN THE CLASH!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i ticked it because of the four it's the one that would make me smile most if dropped in a set i was dancing to.

Methodology

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

1. Put all P&J results in a spreadsheet.
2. Generate percentages for each track.
3. Normalise percentages to take into account the difference between the number of ticks given (one-third of listed tracks, rounded up) and the ideal number (one-third of listed tracks).
4. Sort all entries by percentage.
5. Take top 32 as seeds.
6. Take next 128 as qualifier entrants. (i.e. the top 160 will appear in the poll at some point).
7. Section qualifiers into four 'pots' of 32 by popularity.
8. Randomly generate groups, one entry from each pot.
9. Begin poll. The winner of each group will go into the 'tournament' proper.

The data entry bit took me a couple of lunchtimes, the sorting and so on was v.quick on Friday evening.

Yes I am mental.

Re: Methodology

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

well done on the mentalism there

Wow...

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

This competition could be brutal if these are anything to go by... tough choices (between songs I really like) in A and C, and tough choices (between songs I like but don't love) in B and D.

Now gripped by sudden urge to hear Van Halen!

Re: Wow...

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Yes, very tough. Nice to see all the titans battling out in a groop of def.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I am more concerned about what songs DON'T go through from this lot ('Girls And Boys', 'Common People', 'Hey Ya' even though I ticked it) than I am about what songs DO (erm 'Justified And Ancient').

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, tricky stuff...

Is Gnarls really not that good?

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I can imagine people who will always vote for Pulp and Daft Punk, but only 1 vote?! The worst track of the day?

Re: Is Gnarls really not that good?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It had a fairly weak showing in its parent poll too. Timing is a factor, definitely.

Re: Is Gnarls really not that good?

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

It's a bad time for a huge long-lasting hit, some months later. I love it, but group D is insanely strong. It might be my 3rd favourite in that group, and is also my 3rd favourite in the 16 listed.

At the twenty vote stage

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Convincing win on the cards for Eric and Rakim, it looks.

Van Halen with an advantage in Group B - will it gain more ground as more Americans vote? Have to say I expected more from Shaggy here.

Group C too close to call, M's early push running out of steam.

All-conquering Pulp looking set for a Group D win, poor Gnarls in big trouble.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

This poll or series of polls may eventually prove a disappointment wrt sense of inevitiability of 'Common People' winning persistent.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

There's a long way to go yet, and some really brutal seeds waiting in the draw proper.

howling at fellow poptimists

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

STOP TICKING COMMON SODDING MEDIOCRE PEOPLE FFS

Re: howling at fellow poptimists

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

I ticked "Around the World"! It's a better song. Plus the music video will win any tiebreakers.

Contrary to what most people were saying, I had almost no trouble in this poll at all. Obviously, there were some good songs I left unticked, but in each group I had a clear favorite. Actually Group B, which was the weakest group by far, was also the hardest group for me.

[wholepint.livejournal.com]

ggggggggggggggggggaaaaaah. can't decide!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I have a question.

Why do Pulp win every single Poptimists' poll?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

A good question which has never been adequately answered.

Re: Methodology

[koganbot]

Fact that it is having to get in as a "qualifier" (won its History Of Jop but with only 38 votes) points to vulnerability. Assume many of those 38 will tick it in any poll, but I do recall it losing once before.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I would hypothesise the following reasons:
-Everyone can remember it
-Has a line about a supermarket
-Oh god I just remembered it was on the pub last night
-Jarvis Cocker is an interesting, articulate man who continues to make quite good music and has done a track with Richard X, which means he continues/moves into the pop sphere and the Pulp track is cemented as a classic
-The split between Pulp detractors and Pulp ...proactors or whatever the word ought to be means that people are forced to pick one of the marmite choices and the generally quite good nature of the song means a lot of people end up ticking it in these single-option polls, when initially it was just a tick out of a selection that got through because quite a lot of people are quite fond of it
-Some of Fall Out Boy's new album sounds a bit like it.

However, I have an annoying, furry hangover and so these reasons probably make no sense.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

I think the underrated Poptimist indie contingent has a lot to do with this as well.