Another Year In Pop: 26

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

We're halfway through the year, and Ne-Yo and Jordin/Chris have Coldplay trapped at no.2 in a cunning pincer movement! Elsewhere Mariah finally hauls her dead grandmothers into the top 40, and enough people downloaded '99 Problems' in 2 hours to get it to number 95...

[Poll #1213640]

(apologies for the deleted entry - forgot to put the last two options in!)

Comments

[koganbot]

I've been dismissing from my mind the chorus of "it's a bad year on the British charts" with the thought "Oh, it's just a patch of a few bad weeks." But the patch seems to be growing and growing, and the problem isn't so much the usual run of bad indie bands and half-assed dance remakes, which are always with us, but that, e.g., someone like Mariah will go with one of her album's weaker tracks. And a paucity of new great tracks from (for me) nowhere; haven't gotten any of those since "Cry For You" and "L.E.S. Artistes."

I don't think this bad patch is indicative of anything about current music or current tastes. Just random variation.

(Also, it seems to me there's been a lot less participation in poptimists this year.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

A couple of months ago the charts seemed really great. It's not even that particularly shit stuff has replaced it but it's all a bit stagnant and blah.

The last few things I tried to talk about on poptimists got, like, 3 replies each or something. I don't know where people have gone!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I admit I've been contributing less than usual. Combination of werk + feeling unenthusiastic in general.

[koganbot]

The thing is, it's a really interesting time for music. Of course, any time is a really interesting time for music, but also, what's interesting is also accessible, so it's not just left-field minimal weirdo hyphy stuff like Keak Da Sneak's "That Go" (I voted for it last year but it's just been released as a remix so will be elegible this year, too), but the fact that Vanessa Hudgens, of all people, releases a viable album drenched in beautiful blobs of harmony and showbiz blues-shtick complexities.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I must remember to download that...her UK PRs have said nothing to me, and they're one of the most hassly PR houses, so I assume there are no plans to release it here yet.

Yeah as ever I am deluged in great music, but when it gets met with silence there's less impetus to put effort into posting about it.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

LiveJournal suddenly got blocked on my werk PC about 10 days ago. This may be a blessing in disguise (I've been quite busy of late), but it means my appearances on poptimists will be more restricted from now on.

In any case there's nothing in this poll that's terribly inspiring, altho' I will check out the Ironik track when I find the time. For now though, that's two (potential) DLAs in a row. :(

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

For some reason I've found it hard to get up much enthusiasm to talk about current music. I don't know if this is linked to other things (comics, market research, etc.) eating up the part of my brain devoted to "thinking interesting things", or a side-effect of an increased strike-rate on Popular stopping me feeling fully in sync with now, or what.

I feel like I'm lacking any big battles or causes to get behind. Not that a big battle or cause would necessarily do me any good.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Halfway through the year, though, so an ideal time for a big rallying cry type post tomorrow!

[koganbot]

Well, I've had trouble finding time to even lurk on Popular, though it's an interesting time for the posters there. In some ways, Freaky Trigger and spinoff projects are a victim of their own success, in that there are now so many different places to go. Even a spate of good threads on I Love Music would likely go unnoticed by me, or if noticed, unparticipated in.