The Pop Open: What It Is and Who's Who

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The Concept

The idea of the Pop Open is very simple: you pick tracks which you think the community will enjoy. The community vote on them and the best selectors go through.

How It Works If You’re A Player

41 Poptimists entered the Pop Open, so I’ve divided them into seven groups of five and one of six. All you have to do in the first round is send me ONE song – in MP3 format if at all possible. Each group has a theme attached to it, which you can bear in mind as little or as much as you like when you pick your entry. Thanks to umlauts for his neat suggestion as to themes.

The themes aren’t meant to be strict – they’re just offering voters another criteria they can use when ticking, if they want.

Each week I will anonymise the tracks for one group, and post them for us all to vote on. The top three in each group go through to Round 2, which I’ll post rules for when we get near it. You are not allowed to reveal which is your track or identify it!

To save me organisational time, I’d like ALL the tracks for round 1 in before I start posting them. Send them to leagueofpop@gmail.com by Wednesday 6th June please! (i.e. you have two weeks) The first group will start on Monday 11th.

How It Works If You’re A Voter

Every Monday, I’ll post a link to a zipfile containing 5 tracks (6 in week 8). You download them, listen to them, and pick your favourite two tracks WHICH YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW. (If you only like one track, only pick one – but it can’t be one you already know). If you like, you can base your choices on the week's theme.

On the Wednesday I’ll put up the voting poll for you to register your choices, and open comments. If you know what a track is, it’s up to you whether you identify it or not (unless it’s your own!). The gap between posting and voting is to let people download and hear the tracks before the poll goes up.

The following Monday I’ll post a reveal of tracks and players and formally announce who’s through to the next round.

Who's in what group? Here goes:

Group A - Theme: Passion. atommickbrane, credoimprobus, cis, mcatzilut, ms_bracken. June 11th.

Group B - Theme: Love. anatol_merklich, braisedbywolves, fugitivemotel, w3ft, xyzzzz_. June 18th

Group C - Theme: Sex. bengraham, carsmilesteve, infov0re, mcarratala, strange_powers. June 25th.

Group D - Theme: Money. boyofbadgers, byebyepride, dubdobdee, martinskidmore, piratemoggy. July 2nd.

Group E - Theme: Violence: friend_of_tofu, jel_bugle, katstevens, lisa_go_blind, skillextric. July 9th.

Group F - Theme: Religion: blue_russian, inhibitorylinks, justfanoe, umlauts, zenith. July 16th.

Group G - Theme: Injustice: alexmacpherson, celentari, hauntedballroom, lockedintheatti, ruudboy. July 23rd.

Group H - Theme: Death: freakytigger, kill_yr_idols, MACKRO, mippy, poptasticuk, stevem78. July 30th.

Don't worry if you're away on the date your group starts - like I say I want all the tracks in in advance.

There we go - any questions? Not too complicated I hope - just pick a track and send it in really!

Comments

question

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

what is MACKRO? is it a giant crab which lives on gas?

Re: question

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It is an blogger who wants to join the Pop Open! He will have to join Poptimists first though.

I mean, yes, it is.

Re: question

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Close. MACKRO is a headband that sticks to the ceiling like a gecko, quacks like a duck and connects to the Internet. ()

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I am looking forward to it!

(p.s. our home interweb is up and running now so I will def be able to dll the playoff songs, yay!)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I assume all players still get to vote in all the other groups?

My group goes in a week I'll 99% be away - which is GOOD because I don't miss the chance to vote in the others.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

All players get to vote in all groups, their own included. (Not if they're away obv.)

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Okay, I think I've got a track in mind. Excellent job!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

so we won't be able to vote for ourselves, unless we pick something *we* don't know...

also, how about a second "oh i knew that one" poll along with the voty one, so we can see how known our tracks are?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Carsmile, I'm shocked at your trying to increase the orgafun!

Good idea though.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

My database has 254 tracks it suggests for the theme money. Actually that is the out of date copy I have at work - the one at home will certainly have more. I think I will probably manage to find something that fits the theme.

I assume the 'don't know it' rule applies to the track - e.g. if I could spot that the song is Money's Too Tight To Mention and the singer is Michael Jackson, the fact that I have never heard that recording means I don't know it. Would this extend to live versions? That is, if I submitted a live version of Simply Red doing it, would that mean that only people who knew that version would disqualify it from their votes? (I don't actually plan to submit any Simply Red, I should reassure you all.)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Precedent suggests that live versions would fall under DO know. (from the reverse situation where WBS recognised Jessica's track from having seen it done live.)

Remixes are shakier ground.

To be honest cos it's an aggregate vote I'm happy to leave know/don't know as a guideline for individuals to interpret.

[koganbot]

If I had known there was a category VIOLENCE I would have considered participating (also since participating is way simple), though fact that I suddenly do not have time for anything still makes my nonparticipation welcome.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll have time to vote Frank!

(also hope it's the good sort of not having time)

Groupos Del Meurto!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

D and H (ok, clearly H is sort of a group of death anyway, but you know what i mean)? maybe E as well?

this is based solely on who i know out of the groups, obv. no doubt there will be a dark horse or three appearing out of the woodwork, if that's not too much of a mixed metaphor...

Re: Groupos Del Meurto!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

F is a hard one - tricky theme, three strong performers in the LoP, and umlauts and justfanoe who are voracious devourers or pop.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

So I have until July to create a bosh remix of 'Hit Me With Yr Rhythm Stick' then!

(obv all previous promises of actually making some bosh have come to naught so don't get excited, anybody)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

No, you have until June 6th.

So...

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

If I follow this correctly, in my group, a song such as "Like A Prayer" would have virtually no chance of going through despite being ace, because virtually everyone would know it and therefore unable to vote for it.

Correct?

Re: So...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes - the point of the Pop Open (like all these competitions) is to find new icons of worship!

(The canon polls, now polls etc. are for praising the existing ones)

Revealing before/during the vote

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

If you know what a track is, it’s up to you whether you identify it or not (unless it’s your own!)

I know it will be impossible to enforce an RULE on this, but I reckon there should be a gentleperson's agreement not to identify tracks before the reveal. Everyone's been good about this during the LoP, doing no more than dropping the odd hint or cryptic remark. It shouldn't be much of a stretch to extend that practice to the Open, I'd have thought.

Re: Revealing before/during the vote

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I agree, but I think five days pre-reveal might kill the momentum of discussions a bit. We'll see what happens - maybe I'll say "no reveals" on the first group and drop it the week after if it stilts discussion.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

How were we grouped and given themes? Was it random, or did you think for example that I would for some reason suit money?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It was random, or at least it was RAND() on excel.

[nicolars.livejournal.com]

I am looking forward to this, it should be fun.

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Whee! I am excited. Also, wondering how many death records I have...

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

I was feeling like SUCH a clever clogs for suggesting the Paninaro theme for the categories, and how do you thank me? By plunking me in god-forsaken (eh) religion with those monsters. Bah! (cries).

Should be fun, though.

[inhibitorylinks.livejournal.com]

Let me just say that I am not AT ALL comfortable with playing against you. And within the confines of religion, no less! Ack!

MACKRO IS..

[mackromackro.livejournal.com]

..merely the haploid cell for that flatulent crab.

I am the completion of the flatulence.

(How do I join poptimists?)

(how to join)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Click on this link:
http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/profile

...and near the top of the page this takes you to, you will see another link you can click to join the Community.

Injustice

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I'm not feeling particularly inspired about this one compared to most of the others. Mainly because it'll force me to think much harder about what to submit than the others would have done!

Re: Injustice

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes it's a hard one. On the other hand, you CAN just ignore the theme and hope brilliance sees you through!

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I thought we were going to have to pick a song every week (I understand why not now I know 41 people entered) so I already had great ones for Joy and Sex which will now go to waste! Maybe I'll be able to wedge them into a futue round, if I get through, but they'll definitely be no use for death. In fact, there couldn't really be a harder category for me, since pretty much all my songs are super-jolly ones about love and dancing.

[mcatzilut.livejournal.com]

I'm both psyched and scared. I wanna open up my musical taste for consideration. I also don't wanna be voted out in the first round. Scary!

[kill-yr-idols.livejournal.com]

K-rad! Gonna be a fidgety two months between submitting a track & people getting to hear it, tho.

... lucky Gmail's expanded the attachment size to 20 megabytes in time for this, eh?

[mcatzilut.livejournal.com]

Should we detag and rename the track before we send it in?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

No - leave that to me! I need to know what everything is. (I've already picked mine so it doesn't affect my group)

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Tom I am sending you my track now.