The League Of Pop: THE FINAL

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Another experimental format, but of course. Check back every half hour as I count up to the WINNAH. 19 voters in total - about as much as for the Pop World Cup later rounds. I am hoping for higher totals in the Pop Open! But my workload caught up with my marketing (and reviewing!) skills so this was more of an epilogue than a climax to the League.

In fourth place...: TRACK 4: M2M - "Our Song", chosen by koganbot: 2 1st place votes, 4 2nd place votes. In his email when he submitted the song Frank mentioned that he'd sent it to a lot of people before, and indeed this was the only one I even theoretically knew.

In third place...: Track 1: DESTRA - "Independent Ladies", chosen by alexmacpherson: 4 1st place votes, 5 2nd place votes. A bold choice from the Lex, I thought, though this isn't as frenetic as most Soca. I was pleased to see it do well - led the field when I counted the first ten voters.

In second place...: Track 3: COOKIE CREW - "Born This Way", chosen by jeff_worrell: 6 1st place votes, 3 2nd place votes. My personal favourite of the four, keeps its infectious momentum going to the end.

In first place...: Track 2: HERBERT - "Moving Like A Train", chosen by inhibitorylinks: 6 1st place votes, 5 2nd place votes. The best individual performer in the League of Pop and so a worthy winner here, this was the most interesting and more-ish of the tracks for me, but ran out of steam (boom boom) towards the fifth minute. Even so would have got a 2nd place from me.

Well done Scott and thanks to the other three finalists.

Tomorrow you'll get five sexxxxxy traxx (ahem), anonymised and ready to vote on. If I can sort out some streaming media nonsense I will but I'll put them up as a zip too. GIRD YR LOINS.

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

what is the song that "inspired" this one, the chorus is hella familiar but i couldn't quite place it...

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

BeeGees innit.

This was also the only one I knew (apart from mine).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Trying to find songs no one would know was the biggest challenge - almost every direction I looked in I could usually name one or two poptimists who I KNEW would have heard the song. I could always have taken the risk of ceding a couple of votes in the hope that everyone who hadn't heard it would like it though...

[koganbot]

The Bee Gees' "Too Much Heaven." Reached number three in Britain, number one in the U.S. and Canada (late '78, early '79). "It had originally been intended for use in the John Travolta movie Moment By Moment, but was pulled before the film's release reportedly because Barry Gibb thought the movie was awful when he was shown a rough cut" (Wikipedia).

[koganbot]

The chorus baffled me, 'cause I couldn't tell if she was a nanny or a single mom. Neither quite made sense.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

She is every woman!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

thank you!

Own goal?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Will my own vote cost me dear?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

BAH - I'd actually thought of 'Independent Ladies' as my SAFEST bet! It has such a summery, glorious pop tune.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

And 3rd place out of 4 = not doing well :(

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I meant in points terms - until the last 2 votes came in today you were still third, but only by one second place vote behind the (equal) first two.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Do we get to find out who voted for what?

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

It was brilliant! Gutted to see this came third - it is so summery and uplifting and confident, I warmed to it as soon as I heard it and loved it more on every listen. Track Three (the only one I knew) was the only one that rivalled this for me. I found M2M a bit wet really, to be honest, and Track Two just seemed a bit too clever by half, whereas Destra was just out there to enjoy herself and it showed.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

You can't go back and edit the poll to make it view-to-all, sadly, but I will see what I can do!

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

So far it's in accord with my own voting - the M2M track was way too syrupy for me and I just couldn't get away from the Bee Gees version in my head, and Destra was a bit, well, nothing. Not bad but it hardly stuck in my mind... Again, I just kept thinking about Destiny's Child's much more fun Independent Women. It's like calling your song (I Can't Get No) Interaction and expecting you not to think of the Stones.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

And hooray, so it finished in line with my votes too! I guessed it was Cookie Crew, and I always liked them a lot, but the Herbert track was something else - like a great lost Moloko record. Wonderful stuff.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

One of things I loved about Independent Ladies was it sounds so much FUN compared to Independent Women. Feminism as uplifting and non-threatening to men vs Feminism as sung by scary Fembots. (I do like the DC one by the way though)

OK...(only botherd to do first place votes)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

DESTRA got first place votes from: lockedintheatti, bengraham, stevem78, ms_bracken.

HERBERT got first place votes from: hoshuteki, umlauts, strange_powers, jeff_worrell, lisa_go_blind, skyecaptain

COOKIE CREW got first place votes from: justfanoe, carsmilesteve, infov0re, bunkadoo, hauntedballroom, byebyepride

M2M got first place votes from: piratemoggy, glamwhorebunni

(Thanks to all the voters)

Re: Own goal?

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I would have voted for your track instead of Herbert which would have levelled the scores. But I already knew it. Brilliant choice by the way.

[koganbot]

Well, turned out not to need my vote (I'm assuming 2nd place votes only counted for 1) but glad to contribute to Herbert's victory.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, I toyed with more abstruse weighting systems but 2 pts for 1st, 1 for 2nd seemed the most sensible in the end.

Moving Like A Train!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the original (was saving all of these until after the result) but the Smith'n'Hack rmx is OMG INCREDIBLE.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Fembots though! They are the most fun thing for me. And really, the Destiny's track is hardly threatening.

[koganbot]

Also, did anyone else have the trouble I had playing the Herbert track (would crash my mp3 player about half the times I tried it - like just now - and the player claimed the file was corrupted)? Anyway, really like the chicken scratching guitar and the soul soundtrack interpolations.

Strangely, was the Cookie Crew who didn't really reach me. Maybe this is 'cause I've heard so many amazing rappers from that era - Sharrock, Shanté, Lady B - so my reaction was, "This is nice, but..."

Re: Own goal?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Answer to my question = yes. If I'd have abstained, it would have been a tie. I did really like the Herbert track, however. So it seemed to churlish not to recognise the fact.

Extra layer of irony: I had to ask Tom to find the Cookie Crew song for me, as I only have it on vinyl. If he'd been unable to track it down, one of the songs I had in reserve was by ... Herbert (well, a Herbert remix to be exact).