Poptimists Readers Poll No.1: BEST THING TO DANCE TO

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

LET THE POLL COMMENCE. I'll be posting a couple of these every weekday. First is "Best To Dance To", which unlike last year actually had several things getting nominations from different people so I barely had to use the randomiser Poptimizer.



[Poll #1105403]

All the other categories are STILL OPEN and you are encouraged to vote: http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/489167.html

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I have played all of these (except Soulja Boy) in order to make people dance, but have not actually danced to any myself. I chose T2 because I think you could do lots of different dances to it. Soulja Boy is too difficult; Rihanna requires a prop; Britney is going to win lots of other things and Rogue Traders was a glorious but unrepeatable moment.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also as amazing as 'Umbrella' was on dancefloors it wasn't really conducive to really good dance moves beyond waving a brolly around.

The actual most fun moving to do to 'Gimme More' is to try to recreate Britney's VMA performance - it fits the song really well actually! sort of stumbling around in a druggy haze.

Soulja Boy fantastic obv but as with many songs with steps you have the slightly annoying choice of either following the steps, which feels a bit rigid and is also hard to do drunk, or deliberately not following the steps, which feels like the easy way out.

T2 for the win anyway! Especially as 'Heartbroken' is responsible for at least one of my greatest dancefloor moments of the year: when Dexplicit played 333 for London's first bassline night everyone KNEW he'd drop 'Heartbroken', and sure enough when he did - about halfway through the set - the place EXPLODED.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

you TOTALLY HAVE danced to rogue traders!!!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

COBRA STARSHIP COBRA STARSHIP COBRA STARSHIP.

Er - um, this is actually really hard! I am still trying to decide! Rogue Traders was a one off, Gimme More is gimme-cky and involves, like the Lex says, just stumbling around trying to be Britney which is fun... Umbrella needs a prop... Heartbroken is good to dance to but I've never felt TRANSPORTED by it when dancing! And I've never danced to Soulja Boy I don't think (headphone head bop aside)!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

If you want moar cobra starship then go and do the nominations poll!

(They are in at least one category already tho I think)

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Because Jpop has eaten my SOUL I am finding it hard to nominate non-ridiculous options that only me and maybe Cis have heard of! I will try and reign in the madness tho and vote it up.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Ah but whot if cis has also nominated them!! Also in most cases things w/one vote are going in the randomiser for a couple of wild card finalists so there is hope for yr jpop dudes yet!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

In a very real sense there is no hope for them but never mind :)

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Was unable to restrain myself from the video votes but otherwise I've probably just nominated the same things as everyone else HURRAH!

[cis.livejournal.com]

i had this plan to put 'COBRA MOTHERFVCKING STARSHIP' in every nominations box but i chickened out. :(

Rogue Traders: footnote pl

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

What "one-off unrepeatable moment" are we talking about here?

Re: Rogue Traders: footnote pl

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

You'd have to ask the peeps who nominated it whether this was the actual reason, but I'm referring to the song's appearance in the penultimate episode of Dr Who and then its riotous reception at Poptimism the Friday after.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

Britney is so the runaway winner here that it's painful. Even months later the reaction it gets on dancefloors is immense.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Another point in Britney's favour is that it's a song I only 'got' when I heard it loud in a club.

But I'm still voting for T2 - the number of people who go mad for it is smaller but the intensity of their madness is greater I think.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

You have clearly never been in Ghetto or G-A-Y Late when 'Gimme More' has come on then....

Weedle-weedle-woorp (phwarp-phwerp-PHWIP-phwop)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

T2FTW! I dance round the living room every time it comes on Hits!TV and even when NO MUSIC IS PLAYING.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Voted Britney because I just love the sound, and it's easy. T2 good but still things about it that bug me (the vocals a bit too shrill/cloying, bass/low-end issue).

'Crank That' is far too slow+minimal to me. Not my idea of good dancin' hip-hop. Made for rolling at 5mph with the top down like 95% of all that kinda stuff no? I do not drive :/

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

or dance :/

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

It looks like dancin', it feels like dancin', but brother it ain't dancin'

[koganbot]

This is insanely difficult, the choices being so great. So far "Crank That" is in trouble, prob'ly because, like me, everyone's afraid of the steps. Perhaps there could be a mashup version of "Gimme More" and "Umbrella" where the dancers are divided into britneys and rihannas, and the britneys hit the rihannas with umbrellas.

I've not actually heard Rogue Trader. Off to the Internets.

[koganbot]

Perhaps initially the rihannas carry the umbrellas onto the dance floor, the britneys wobble around for several seconds in response, then snatch the umbrellas.

Historical sources of the umbrella dance (part one)

[koganbot]

Don Allred gives notes the historical sources from which the umbrella dance derives: "This seems like a radical advance on handbag house, in which girls would dance around a pile of handbags (not safe to leave them at the tables)."

[lastclearchance.livejournal.com]

"Crank That" is also in trouble because the implicit locale of the dancing in the poll is "in a club or somesuch, or else by yourself or with friends" not "on youtube". The Soulja Boy is (not necessarily generally, but enough to diminsih its chances in the poll) too prescribed for the former and too performative for the latter,

"Voodoo Child"

[koganbot]

But Rogue Traders are aliens! Well, Australians. And they're doing the Elvis Costello version, not the Jimi Hendrix! So the dancing to it would be this jerking new wave thing, I'd think. I like this, but (as implied by others above) it's made for moments, not for multiple skankings; too frenetic.

But the Soulja Boy is so easy!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

First you jump and cross your legs twice. Then you step forward and kind of slap your knee or something. And then there's a part, I think, where you kinda lean back and something happens with your legs, too. And then SUPERMAN! And then CRANK BACK THREE TIMES in both directions. Can't believe y'all are having trouble with it.

[nicolars.livejournal.com]

I voted for Rogue Traders because...well, look at my icon. But all of the songs are pretty strong.

[credoimprobus]

Am I the only one who'd rather've seen Don't Stop the Music than Umbrella up there? I go all ridiculously hands-in-the-air every time it comes on!

(Of course I have NO ROOM TO COMPLAIN seeing as I didn't get off my arse about submitting any nominations, hahaha.)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

There are still 10 categories where your nominations would count!

[credoimprobus]

I don't know what to nominate in most of them! This being the main reason for the succumbing to the lazy earlier. (Okay, so I may have to drop some noms in the few I do have something for, innit.)

[kill-yr-idols.livejournal.com]

"Crank That" has GONE OFF every time it's been played, at every possible occasion, this year - either, yeah, you can do the steps (which aren't that hard, and it's really easy to drunkenly bluff with the SUPERMAAAAAN lunge/breakstroke and the tapping one foot with the opposite hand), or just, y'now, CRANK DAT. There's lots of stuff to dance to - the usual low-rolling What You Know stuff (which is good for dropping low), the skittery drum-machine is great for, um, jittering (Detroit Jit-ing) about to, and of course YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU which you can air-punch or wind back or, y'know, make a Lex Luthor "WRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!" facial expression (http://lexownshubbard.ytmnd.com/) to go with it.

T2's great to dance to, don't know Rogue Traders at all, "Gimme More"'s not the best Blackout track to dance to by a long shot, and as everyone's said, "Umbrella" isn't thaaaat good to dance to (unless it's the Lil' Mama remix, obv).