Jop Tournament: The Final

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Following a draw in one of the semi finals we have a three-way clash for the title of "Best Track Ever To Be In A Pazz And Jop Poll". Madge, Missy and Michael - choose wisely!

[Poll #933501]

And that wraps up the era of the monster polls, unless anyone can think of a new idea. But why would they, with the League Of Pop almost upon us (and plenty of canons to be done).

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Where were you in 2001?!

[koganbot]

Well "Groove" and "Billie Jean" were massive hits in their time and (unless you were my parents or someone) you were going to hear 'em lots no matter who you were or where you were in the western world (and prob'ly if you were in any city in Asia or Africa for that matter) (remember back in '87 someone in one of the early issues of my fanzine relaying a friend's complaint that in Bali everyone was listening to Madonna and that this was swamping "Gamelan"). In the U.S. "Freak On" only got to 7 on the Hot 100 (that's the kind of number that Ashley Parker Angel and Nick Lachey got recently) and 7 in rap sales and 3 on the hip-hop/r&b chart and didn't rule on Denver local radio; think it crossed big on both club and hip-hop dance floors and hit our particular demographic - whatever that is! - harder than it hit either club people or hip-hop people in general. So someone's 2001 could pretty easily miss "Get Ur Freak On." But what we're doing here is noticing crucial songs to "us" that also got critical cred, Madonna getting the least. In their respective Pazz & Jop polls "Billie Jean" was number one but with close competition from "Every Breath You Take" and "Back On The Chaing Gang," "Into The Groove" was number eleven, getting less than a third of the votes of winner "Sun City," and well behind world-famous tracks like "Old Man Down The Road" and "Makes No Sense At All," while "Get Ur Freak On" totally creamed its competition, number one over a very distant "Clint Eastwood." But the thing about pop is that it contains a whole lot of who-knows-what including oddities, one-shots, wonderful failures, subworld faves. My only real disappointment with the History Of Jop competitions is that people didn't search out and listen to "I Know You Got Soul" (far more important than "Freak On," though not better) and "Set It Off" and "Square Biz" and "Heartbeat" (which for proto-poptimist types in NYC in '81 was that year's "Get Ur Freak On") and "Jam On It." It's stuff like that where you can really test whether critics have merit as a distribution system that somewhat counters the radio. Yeah, I know, you guys have lives and all, and I hope League Of Pop will have people willing to champion a particular not-quite-ubiquitous genre (such as freestyle for instance, which never made the P&J lists), in other words willing to be such meritorious critics. (I didn't volunteer for the League owing to lack of time, but will be quite willing to give advice to anyone who wants it.)