Jop Tournament: Semi Finals

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Nissy vs Madge! Jacko vs Britney! Go go go!

[Poll #931988]

Turnout was down last round, maybe because of all the complicated extra questions (or maybe because people are sick of the poll - almost over now!), so I've kept this one simple.

Oh, comment away of course, but please no chat on the lines of "Who I will vote for in the final" :)

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

So far it's looking like koganbot's predictions were spot on.

Anyway both these were hard decisions for me - two songs I think are genius pinnacles of pop and two songs which I think might be genius pinnacles but I've heard a bit two often. The Madonna/Missy decision was a lot closer, and there's no way I'd be unhappy at the one I didn't vote for winning. The Britney/Jacko was a bit easier - "Toxic" is more exciting but there's a bit more to "Billie Jean", and also I feel that poor old "Push It" should be AVENGED. (I'd have taken "Push It" here EASILY).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, v. hard this time. I may change my mind on BOTH my picks before voting closes.

[koganbot]

Well, I was spot-on since I was predicting "Get Ur Freak On" vs. "Billie Jean" in the final, so obv. I was predicting them to make it to the semis, but I thought "Push It" would be their greatest challenger, and "Toxic"'s being her is a surprise. (Wouldn't be here except that third-party voting for the PSBs cut into SnP's totals, which implies to me that though SnP would have won head-to-head, "Toxic"'s fans are more committed to it.)

[koganbot]

"Toxic"'s being here, that is; comments today suggest that "Toxic"'s not being her (compared to some of her other tracks) has helped propel it.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

At the time I posted that your two picks as finalists were absolutely romping home (10 to 1 in one case) - obviously things are a lot closer now!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I shocked myself by voting for Missy over Madge! I did not expect that but it's TRUE.

'Toxic' has well outstayed its welcome, Baldney or no.

The extra questions were ace!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of surprised Toxic went through, and as such have ticked it merrily.

Also Missy vs Madge seems a lot easier now. Into The Groove has been around longer yet sounds fresher.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Easy for me. I am more bored of Billie Jean than I am of Toxic, but I am all about Get Yr Freak On now after dancing to it on Saturday and being reminded how awesome it is. Also a Madge v Jacko final would be BROING.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Converseley I've gone off Push It a bit since Saturday - I remember thinking the first half is awesome and then it runs out of momentum a bit despite the beat and the hook being untouchable. Needs more MCing late on.

History of Jop vs History of Pop

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I love these four songs, and they are all amazing pop music, but for some reason this final four (and the final eight even) seem less exciting than the equivalent stage in the Now polls.

Toxic is the only song to make both.

Re: History of Jop vs History of Pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think not having the ideological colossus of Common People in there is making it all a bit less tense.

Re: History of Jop vs History of Pop

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I think i'd also take Running up that Hill & Always on my mind over any of these as well. Although if Push it had made it that would have been a different matter.

Re: History of Jop vs History of Pop

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah with the Now polls there were still sides to take and cheerleading to be done at this stage. I have my two obvious favourites in this but nothing to be shocked or shout about, bar AGAIN wondering wtf it is about 'Toxic' which elevates it so much - above all of Brit's other singles even! - for so many.

There is only one song to have featured in the P&J poll which I think I would vote for above everything left, 'Try Again'...

My Toxic blurb still stands

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

as written in the latter stages of the NOW polls (http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/230053.html):

"Everyone had cruelly written off Britters after her Madge-snogging antics and dodgy Kabblah tattoos, but this song propelled her right back to the top of the pop mountain. Inescapable Bollywood string hooks and that killer chord-change chorus send Toxic veering between rave surrealism and classic Bond theme, which gave pop a well-needed kick up the charts."

Toxic narrowly missed out on the NOW semi finals to Kate, PSB, Pulp and tATu and roundly beat ...BOTM. Is its success in this poll really that mysterious?

[pot80.livejournal.com]

Go team Madonna!

Suggested FITB question for the final

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Which one of the four semifinalists would you have voted for?

Both races today are so tight (as of right now), you can only call them on gut feeling.

Re: Suggested FITB question for the final

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

Billie Jean. I was bummed it was drawn against toxic, as I can't really remember the other two and didn't feel qualified to vote.

Because Lex Demanded It

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Full seedings and what became of them:

1 Madonna: "Into the Groove" - SEMI FINAL
2 Britney Spears: "Toxic" - SEMI FINAL
3 Soft Cell: "Tainted Love"/"Where Did Our Love Go?" - LAST 16, lost to Neneh Cherry
4 Destiny's Child: "Say My Name" - FIRST ROUND, lost to Joy Division
5 Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott: "Get Ur Freak On" - SEMI FINAL
6 Missy Elliott: "Work It" - LAST 16, lost to "Billie Jean"
7 Beyonce featuring Jay-Z: "Crazy in Love" - FIRST ROUND, lost to Salt N Pepa
8 The Human League: "Don't You Want Me" - QUARTER FINAL, lost to "Into The Groove"
9 Madonna: "Like a Prayer" - LAST 16, lost to Human League
10 Deee-Lite: "Groove Is in the Heart"/"What Is Love" - LAST 16, lost to Salt N Pepa
11 The Specials - Ghost Town - SECOND ROUND, lost to "Billie Jean"
12 The Smiths: "How Soon Is Now?" - SECOND ROUND, lost to Kelly Clarkson
13 Michael Jackson: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" - QUARTER FINALS, lost to "Get Ur Freak On"
14 Cyndi Lauper: "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" - SECOND ROUND, lost to Neneh Cherry
15 Nelly Furtado - Maneater - FIRST ROUND, lost to Christina Aguilera
16 Britney Spears: ". . . Baby One More Time" - LAST 16, lost to "Into The Groove"

Can't be bothered to work out who lost to who but here are the other seedings.

17 Prince: "When Doves Cry"/"17 Days"
18 Pet Shop Boys: "West End Girls"
19 Neneh Cherry: "Buffalo Stance"
20 Britney Spears: "Oops, I Did It Again"
21 Kelly Clarkson: "Since U Been Gone"
22 Michael Jackson: "Billie Jean"
23 OutKast: "Ms. Jackson"
24 Destiny's Child: "Independent Women Part 1"
25 Prince: "1999"/"How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?"
26 Blondie: "Call Me"
27 En Vogue: "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)"
28 TLC: "No Scrubs"
29 Prince & the Revolution: "Raspberry Beret"
30 The Breeders: "Cannonball"
31 Amerie: "1 Thing"
32 Aaliyah: "Try Again"

Re: Because Lex Demanded It

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised 'Maneater' ended up seeded so high!

Poor 'Say My Name' :(

[koganbot]

"Into the Groove" vs. "Get Ur Freak On": "Freak" more ferocious, rocks harder, slinks and slides harder, stings and twists more. Still, voting against "Groove" wasn't easy.

"Toxic" vs. "Billie Jean": "Billie Jean" has way more feeling.

Get Ur Rock On

[koganbot]

I claimed in Why Music Sucks #2 that "Billie Jean" rocked as hard as any current rock and that Teena Marie's "Lips To Find You" rocked harder. Actually at that time was willing to argue that elevator music rocked harder than current rock, and "Billie Jean" wasn't just rocking hard but rocking harder. This didn't mean that I thought "Billie Jean" and "Lips To Find You" should have been reclassified as rock ("Lips" comes closer), but that if you wanted to hear "rock" you had to go to nonrock to hear it. (Then "Welcome To The Jungle" came along to upset that theory.) Anyway, of our four semifinalists, "Get Ur Freak On" is the closest to hard rock as I once knew and loved it; also is the one I could most imagine myself having created. Which doesn't necessarily mean I'll vote it in the finals (if it makes it), since "Billie Jean" is also worth doing; but with "Billie Jean" I just may have less capacity to identify with the doing. In any event, "Get Ur Freak On" is way closer to the rock I grew up with than (e.g.) "Common People" is. (Which doesn't mean that something like "Get Ur Freak On" is better than something like "Common People" in principle, though I happen to think in this instance that "Freak On" is way better, and so do my viscera. Lots of hip-hop is closer in feeling to the original garage rock than the White Stripes are, but again that doesn't automatically mean that it's all better than the White Stripes [though a lot of it is].)

The "rock" in "hard rock" has a double meaning: one, it's hard like a rock; two, it has a strong rocking back and forth motion. Can't think of many of the "rock" songs in the P&J since 1979 that are hard rock in this combined sense. Without looking back through all the P&J's, "Welcome to the Jungle" is the only one that comes to mind as a "rock" song that really rocks (don't think "Violet" made the P&J [just checked; it didn't, kinda fell between two years; the look back reminds me that "Sabotage" and "Fight For Your Right" rock pretty well, though neither pulls my heart strings like "Violet" or "Jungle"], but "Jungle"'s not as rocking as "Set It Off" or "Bring The Noise." "Keep On Rocking In The Free World" is ecstatic and wonderful, but Neil Young is less rhythmically adept than a busy single or a dragging tail pipe.

Re: Get Ur Rock On

[koganbot]

less rhythmically adept than a busy single

Than a busy signal. Grrrr, need to type slower.

Re: Get Ur Rock On

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

"Common People" was never really rocking in terms of riffs/song, more that its lyrics kinda spoke something. Of course, the album version has that ranty angry bit toward the end to reinforce its "point" that got cut in the single version (I think).

Looking at yr second para: would something like "La Bamba" qualify for "hard rock in a combined sense", or isn't the riffage hard enough? What about "Jump"? That is probably hard, but I don't know if it has a strong "back and forth motion" (does it?)

tie break!

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

will someone change their Madonna to Missy? (32-32 as i post) we don't want some kind of beatles vs rolling stones thing, which is what madonna - jacko is gonna be? ;-) ;-) ;-)

Re: tie break!

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, Missy's got another vote. So now we have a Beatles vs. Dave Clark Five thing. Much better! ;)