Is this really the best poll I can manage?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Sadly, yes.

[Poll #1085055]

Have you ever bought a record because of an end-of-year round-up? Was the NME's Christmas double issue ever a beloved yuletide tradition? What was the last end-of-year poll that actually managed to make you cross?

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I think I might have gone to The Internet Library due to one of the old ILX threads, and subsequently bought a few of the albums recommended.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I am torn because I NEVER make year-end lists and secretly think that people who do are totally SAD. But at the same time I use a lot of year-end lists as a way of catching up with things I've missed. In other words I let other people do the sifting and sorting for me, so if you make a list you are a tastemaker and cultural gatekeeper as far as I'm concerned!

[nicolars.livejournal.com]

I do the same thing! I have a huge bias against lists, but the year-end ones can be really useful.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm not bothered about music publication end-of-year lists because I rarely read any! I did read the DJ magazine Top 100 DJs of the year list and was APPALLED that Magda was only in at 84 (and the highest ranked lady was Lisa bloody Lashes at 82 or something).

I have compiled rolling lists for the last two years in a .txt file on my werk computer - v useful for keeping track of what's making me go 'hmmm' throughout the year (eg has everyone forgotten about Omarion's Ice Box already? YES YOU HAVE!)

I bought the Xmas NME once, mainly for something to read on a long train journey. It was awful. That's the only time I have ever actually purchased it with money.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Some of us had Ice Box on our list (and comp CD) last year!

[credoimprobus]

Ice Box: I haven't! It was fighting it out for top placing with Say It Right for over half of the year, actually, but by this point there are several more contenders (as one would hope).

I do my rolling lists the lazy way -- last.fm tag/media player playlist. (Though I haven't updated the latter in months thanks to the convenience of last.fm, heh. Need to get on that; 'll make listening the lot through in December rather easier innit.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I keep a rolling wordpad list of albums - this is easy as there's never exactly a surfeit of great albums.

I always intend to keep a rolling wordpad list of singles but this is TOO HARD as there are LITERALLY HUNDREDS of the things - last.fm this year has proved such a boon, there is no danger of me forgetting anything b/c if I haven't played it at home more than a few times it probably shouldn't be in the list anyway.

I don't really know why I do it (well NOW it is to submit to eg P&J or whatever), it's part recommendation, part knowledge that other people will be doing it and the public will pay attention so I gots to rep for my favourites, part sifting what I REALLY enjoyed over a year from what I was merely OK with, and part "YES PARIS HILTON IS BETTER THAN WHAT OF IT"

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I do that with wordpad, only with songs not albums- I stumbled across a really old one (well, five years or something) the other day and was mortified by the level of INDIE.

[martinv.livejournal.com]

I currently do the following
- top 50 singles (yes, 50, I am terrible) - since 2003
- top 10/20 albums (varies) - since about 2005
- top 10 gigs/festival shows - ditto

I like looking back. And also, around October every year, I panic that I haven't heard enough (to write a list) therefore go around hunting down everything I've missed. Therefore it serves a useful function.

I wish I kept rolling lists, but I am too crap.

I like reading others' lists but tend to prefer those of friends/LJ people to magazines.

I used to like the NME xmas issue - it did indeed excite me from about 96-99/2000 but not since. Have bought it occasionally and always been disappointed.

[koganbot]

top 50 singles (yes, 50, I am terrible) - since 2003

Terrible because it's not 150?

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Thanks to iTunes, my songs of the year are handily stored in a '2007 Favourites' playlist (currently at about 47 songs). At year end, I will go through that playlist to select my top 10. I have similar playlists for the past 3 years, and they're always a nice trip down 'Recent Memory Lane'. As for albums, most of my albums of the year will be represented by songs on the 'best of the year' playlist, but in any case, I am well aware of which albums I have enjoyed the most over the past 12 months, as they are the ones that I have listened to most often.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the Christmas NME between '96 and '99

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

I usually make a list but I haven't listened to much new music at all this year (apart from what is posted on here), so it probably ain't going to happen this time round!

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Most of the last 20 years, I have not only made a list but also made a compilation (C90, now CD) of favourites for lots of my friends. I don't know if I will get around to that this year or not.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I am a sucker for EOY polls and have frequently bought - and continue to buy - records that feature on them. (Thanks for nothing, whichever rag it was that raved about The Avalanches.)

The Xmas/New Year double issue of NME was the only issue in the year that wasn't fit only for lining the budgie cage. I was a MM man as you know.

I probably got annoyed at the Q list last year (as per usual).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

my 'something totally different' answer to Q2 isn't actually all that different. I start thinking about it around June. Then I forget all about it again until December (or when prompted by others' listmaking). Relative positions on the list are only sorted properly on December 31st however.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Something that's always fascinated me is why - when it comes to pop - critics' lists are scrutinised to the nth degree but hardly anybody pays much attention to, let alone analyses, best-seller lists.

Contrast with the book world, for example, where what sells seems far more important.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Cos pop is a mass medium which is neurotic about whether or not it's art, and publishing is a mass medium which is neurotic about whether or not it's still popular?

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

I make lists every year but keep them to myself. I'd feel a bit silly claiming to know what the best ten albums of 2007 are unless I'd heard everything that had been released, which obviously won't happen, so I figure if I don't show my list to anyone else nobody will see how wrong it is.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

To the surprise of surely nobody I have always liked end-of-year polls FTB they are POLLS. I bought the NME Xmas edition even when it started getting rubbish and only stopped at around 2000, by which time thankfully Pazz and Jop had come along to sate my polling needs. Taking part in P&J was REALLY EXCITING for the first couple of years, and then doing the points thing got kind of annoying. I am also now excited by voting in my first Pitchfork end of year thing especially as people (well, pitchfork readers) (WHO ARE PEOPLE TOO) actually seem to be interested in it. Unfortunately this all means thinking about ballots far too early - I won't be voting in P&J any more but one of the great things about it was the highly civilised Jan 3rd deadline.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Incidentally on Poptimists this yr we will have:

- a smash hits style write-in poll around Wobstide as we had in 2006, for most fanciable human being etc. Covering everything except the important category of SONGS for which we will have

- a real actual poll (with a January deadline so the Samanda Xmas single can get its due.)

Enrique needs your vote

[koganbot]

Please vote in Pazz & Jop. Britney needs your vote.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

If there's an album I haven't heard which consistently pops up across year end polls then I am inclined to investigate. I have kept a list of top 40 singles and albums for the past few years, but I'm not sure if I can be bothered to do all the write ups this year.

[koganbot]

I bought Shoot Out The Lights by Richard and Linda Thompson because it finished fifth or something in Pazz & Jop. Was very disappointed. I was a fan of Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking, so was expecting this to have the same beauty, instead seemed just a regular folk-rock throwdown. I don't own it anymore and if I were to listen again I might think it's fine.

Thompson had an LP this year that on first listen was far better than I expected (better than Shoot Out The Lights? who knows?), and then I forgot that it existed. I only just thought of it now. Hmmm.

[lisa-go-blind.livejournal.com]

I'll usually pick a top 3 albums and a CD-R's worth of favorite songs (not limited to singles). I try to keep it more to "this is music that I really enjoyed this year" rather than a pointlessly definitive "this is the best music that came out all year." I find I'm always slightly behind anyway. I often won't hear some of the "best music" of a year until January of the next year, when I'm reading all the round-ups. If the writer describes it in an interesting way, or it comes up in several lists, or I've been meaning to check it out anyway but forgot about it, then I'll seek it out.

I start thinking about the year-end lists in the summer, and sometimes throw together a short list, but I really don't think about it again until December. This thread has inspired me though - maybe I'll get started on that.

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

As it was for the love of voting in polls that I joined all you Poptimists, it follows that I'm in favour of End of Year polls (not to mention End of Decade Polls – my write-up of the Obs films of the nineties here (http://film.guardian.co.uk/Feature_Story/feature_story/0,,113450,00.html) – haven't re-read it, probably wouldn't stand by that much...). Enjoyed voting in writers' polls in the days when I wrote, although I often struggled filling all the categories ("Clubs of the Year for The Face? Uh, what was that place I was dragged along to in July?"). The last time I could have managed an album of the year list would have been about 2000, I should think. But singles, sure...