Another Year In Pop: 4

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The official new era of pop back in the charts, as approved of by Radio 1, is here! Let's see how it's doing.

[Poll #1128640]

Well then.

This would seem like a good moment to remind everyone that a tick in one of the last two boxen is better than no tick at all - it helps keep the numbers consistent from week to week. Yrs truly, Mr Stats.

Comments

SHAME

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

at Not Heard Any running away with it! Fair enough on three of the four but Mary J's been kicking around since last Oct, which means either

a) poptimists have been aware for three months that Mary J has new material around but not cared enough about one of the greatest artists of our generation to find out what it sounded like
b) poptimists...had no idea that Mary J had new material out? in which case, um, how on earth do you get to hear of new music?

Re: SHAME

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I guess MJB hasn't been getting much airplay on telly or radio? i.e. media you pay little attention to but that everyone else relies on?

Re: SHAME

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

but everyone is on the internets surely! I mean, I know I can't rely on TV or radio coverage to actually hear about new music cuz it's so shitty, so I make a little bit of effort - scanning music news sites, blogs, wikipedia entries - every so often, because if I don't I won't hear about ANY new music.

Re: SHAME

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm 37 years old and I burned out from being a music journalist a decade ago. If a) they don't show it on The Hits or b) you don't post an You Tube link on here, I'm not hearing it. That's the great tragedy of the passing of Stylus and it's Daily Jukebox Jury or whatever it was called, because that made it fairly easy to keep up with what was coming out.

Re: SHAME

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I hope this isn't going to happen to me but I fear it's inevitable :(

Re: SHAME

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

Far from inevitable: there are plenty of people I can think of whose thirst for the next big thing remains undiminished by the passage of time. But it does happen to some of us, and (contrary to a popular theory) is not necessarily connected to acquiring children.

Re: SHAME

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I had three roommates in university and about the only thing that united us was love of music (albeit in many ways of varying kinds of music). But I remember having exactly this discussion after we had spent an afternoon debating which Metallica album was best and failing to be convinced by our one roommate who liked Slayer.

I'm not married but all things considered, I think I keep up pretty well (esp. since I hardly ever watch TV)

Re: SHAME

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

yes, but most of my internets use is at work where there is no chance to actually listen to any of this stuff...

(edited for clarity)

Re: SHAME

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ditto to not being able to hear stuff at work, but my choice is quite simple - either make a little bit of effort outside of work to find time to keep up (and it's never a chore, I love hearing new music, it's no difft to watching a DVD or just chilling out at home), or end up hearing nothing new ever...eg if I didn't make that effort I'd have NO IDEA that Trina has a new album imminent, and I'd have denied myself so much pleasure from hearing the leaked buzz singles.

Re: SHAME

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

meh, i've got 20 years of music i like listening to, the thrill of searching out the new has worn off somewhat...

this is why i appreciate you (and others) posting things here though, that HtwoO track was very funny, but sometimes, say if you post something on a tuesday, i might not be at a computer i can listen to it on until like saturday, by which point it's been swept away in a tide of friendslist and google reader

Re: SHAME

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Maybe there should be a weekly roundup post on a Friday or Saturday or something - just backlinks to all the actual new music posted.

This will become more U&K when I start my daily MP3 thing too.

Re: SHAME

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

"when" ;)

i found some COIL and sent it to pete btw.

Re: SHAME

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I second the point made by mcarratala - I still feel the urge to keep up, but the time and energy I have to devote to it is totally inadequate. The interweb isn't much help since it feels like I'd have to pull together stuff from all over it, given how fractured it feels - I suppose this is what some technical gizmo can do (RSS feeds?). Basically for me the choice is devote that energy to my dayjob and getting ahead in that line of work, or feed the music urge. For financial and self-esteem reasons, dayjob is coming first, which means, to put it bluntly, that all spare cash goes on books!!! Of course when the All-Lex-All-Of-The-Time magazine starts to appear I will be your first subscriber!

Re: SHAME

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

RSS feeds are pretty handy, but if you don't look at it for a few days it can be a bit "eek! how will i get through ALL THIS!" (haha, all my mp3 based rss feeds are COMPLETELY INDIE (and often rather retro as well))

Re: SHAME

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

re b. we wait for you to tell us dear ;)

also we are all r4c1sts, obv.

Re: SHAME

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Choice (a) for me.

Is that the very boring (but catchy) song on the iPod commercials? I can tell you that I personally have not cared about one of the greatest artists of our generation because, as far as I'm concerned, her most notable accomplishment in recent years has been the invention of the words "hateration" and "dancery." (Well, no, that's not fair -- she also made a U2 song enjoyable! [I don't actually hate U2.] But mostly I find her to be a very good singer of personality-free R&B.)

Although it does get hard to keep up with her new material, what with her releasing something every year.

Re: SHAME

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's been on commercials! Inventing the word "hateration" would alone be classic 4eva, even if she had never made any music at all.

Re: SHAME

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

I wonder if maybe I've been so disproportionately disappointed with her new stuff because all the words in it already existed. (Also, because she hasn't shouted, "Mary's back!" in any of it, which used to be my favorite thing about her.)

Re: SHAME

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

also do not forget teh rapping of

"I'm Mary J Blige, for a fact I don't rap"

Re: SHAME

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

well I would listen to them all if youtube was loading properly, but it seems to be up the spout this evening :(

OK listened now... well, to 3 of 'em

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Jay Sean - I'd nearly written this off after 2 minutes, but the last minute or so is rather good. I like the way the beat slooowwwss doowwwn, most obviously in the percussive 'break', but also at the end too(?). This (and Jay's past track record and the fact that he's a Hounslow boy) earns him a marginal tick.

MJB - I actively disliked this. I've never liked MJB's voice much and she dances like a granny in the video here (this could be down to the awful clothes though; she looks - and moves - much better in the tuxedo and trousers). I expect that finefinefinefine hook could grab me with repeat plays. But no tick for now.

BFMV - Over the top! Over the top! Yeah, nice to see some metal in the Top 40. I like the lead vocalist a lot. Song goes on a bit too long for a single and the rest of the band are merely competent at best. Worth a tick however.

Now heard all 4 of 'em

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

D. Jordan worth a tick in retrospect