A Year In Pop: 17

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The last poll of April.

[Poll #976589]

As ever you can go back and tick etc etc (or untick). Just follow the tag!

Comments

[koganbot]

Tickless:

Sunblock. Awkward and clunky bosh dance, no lift, no joy, basic tedium.

The View. Yes, I listened a whole two-thirds way through.

Lostprophets. Guy wonders if his heart will ever mend. I won't be there to find out.

Shirley Bassey. Good hard dance rhythm that keeps pushin'. The singing is overdramatic. Like, that's a surprise. Well, it's really overdramatic. And then she sings louder. Strong but not fun. Annoying.

What I actually did tick:

Amerie. Good beat. Voice overrated but this is fine.

Amy Winehouse. Her voice is appallingly mannered. Reasonable song, though.

Manic Street Preachers. I have never heard them before. This is a nice guitar-pop tune. Would be better if the guitguy did wicked '60s riffing rather than this whiny chime, but the melody is pleasing.

Groove Armada f. Stush. I have heard one previous Stush and two previous Groove Armadas. The latter group apparently rip off Basement Jaxx, who've always bored the fuck out of me and scored zero on my emotion meter, and I didn't know enough to notice the resemblance. And I don't care, 'cause this is terrific, all knees and elbows, great for thrashing. (OK, there's a boring fanfare that sometimes interrupts the proceedings, but the rest is great groove and gash.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Frank, I keep meaning to ask - what is a handy site which updates the Billboard top 100 each week? Does it have archives? I might start checking it in order to reassure myself that some chart somewhere has decent music in it. I just saw that Bjork's scored only her second ever Billboard 100 hit!

Manic Street Preachers. I have never heard them before.

Lucky you.

[koganbot]

Well, you can get the Billboard yearly charts here.

I don't know if anyone archives the weekly Billboard charts (have a feeling that Billboard might try to knock someone out of business who does that; but you should Google and see what you fing). The basic Billboard site itself has loads of interesting charts.

Wikipedia has many articles on the Billboard charts and their methodologies.

And if you're looking for U.S. airplay charts, go to Mediabase. (They only give you top 30s and top 50s at their main site, but here are full lists (going 1,000 songs deep!) for the charts I think you'll be most interested in:

CHR Rhythmic ("rhythmic" is mostly hip-hop/r&b stations, though nine dance stations are included in the totals)

CHR Rhythmic w/ recurrents

mainstream top 40

mainstream top 40 w/ recurrents

mainstream urban ("urban" goes for a bit of a more adult-oriented and specifically black audience than "rhythmic," which means more ballads, I suppose (the white guy who does well on "urban" is Robin Thicke, not Justin Timberlake); but I have a feeling some of the decisions as to what station goes into what category (top 40, rhthmic, or urban) are fairly arbitrary.)

mainstream urban w/ recurrents

AC overall

AC overall w/ recurrents

Limitations of the Mediabase numbers: Obviously, they only take into account stations that report to Mediabase, and the rankings are based on total plays without regard to the size of the listenership or what time of day a song is played (though info on that is included in the chart).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Gosh this is complicated, so many charts! And you have to go to the Billboard radio website to actually get the full 100. Thanks anyway. It's a lot better than the UK chart.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

AHA! (http://www.musicsquare.net/charts/billboard_hot_100)