POLL 08: Most Interesting Pop Thing

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The poll for most interesting Pop Thing - as with the other polls we're doing this CANON STYLE i.e. you pick your three most interesting pop things from this list of all* the stuff that was nominated.

[Poll #1314032]

*except I removed noms which were about Poptimists itself, mostly to get it down to 15.

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised there's no "Lil' Wayne appearing on 50% of all hip hop tracks recorded this year", but then did I nominate something? No.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

well, that's hardly interesting by this stage! mostly v welcome but hi dere 2007, and indeed 2006.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

He seemed genuinely inescapable this year in a way that he didn't before, but possibly I've just been listening to more non-single tracks.

Ha ha okay, "On October 3, 2007, Vibe magazine ranked a list of 77 of Lil Wayne's songs from 2007, deciding upon the best song from Lil Wayne on the year" - I happily withdraw my remark!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Bassline's emergence was more in 2007 - its retreat back underground in 08 isn't all that interesting. All the bassline boosters should find time to come to Night Slugs (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=48445116803) next Thu by the way...

No 1 is UK funky house - I find the twists and turns of UK garage endlessly fascinating (and an endless source of great music), and this is an especially pleasing one, what with the soulful vocals and soca influence and deep grooves and pop choruses. Plus, it's still impossible to predict where the scene will end up - it feels like the future is emerging all around you.

No 2 is the Cassie non-album (which I am currently writing an overdue piece on EEK) - both for what it says about the industry and for her own aesthetic being endlessly unpackable.

No 3 is Katy Perry - like all right-thinking people I dislike her intensely, and I don't really find HER very interesting, but her success and the discourse which has sprung up around her is. Remember when we were all bemoaning the lack of a zeitgeisty 'Umbrella'-esque monster pop dominator? Well...we actually had one! But I can't remember the zeigeisty song of the summer ever being hated as much as 'I Kissed A Girl' was...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think Kanye West would have been my fourth choice, just cuz he's such a complex public figure. Nearly ticked Beyonce and Sasha Fierce but as much as I enjoy it, there's not actually that much to say apart from "whoa, fierce outfits". Autotune and whorepop continue to be interesting, but I don't think they're specifically 08.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is a good point about Katy Perry - who seems on course to win. I don't see how Cassie is different from tens of other good acts who don't get to release their records, but maybe as you say the industry is going this way more and more.

I ticked funky house - like you say, always interesting to see what that scene will do next. I also ticked autotune and whorepop - both because they're good general stand-ins for stuff that did interest me a lot (largely the same stuff) - the mechanical-human and mechanical-sexual interfaces in pop, which are kind of old stories that seem freshly relevant to a lot of what I listened to this year. I didn't want to tick Kanye because I'm really not interested in HIM as an artist/person especially.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Haha that's interesting, you love his album more than I do but I'm more interested in him as a persona. I mean, apart from all the conflict going on there and the frankly shamelessly needy way he flaunts his insecurities through his ego (and his BLOG), he just seems like the first pop star to become a superstar - on a Madonna/Prince/MJ/Britney/Beyonce level - in this Brave New World 2.0 of ours. And like all of them (except Beyonce!) he also appears to be going completely loopy.

Cassie's music would be fascinating even if she'd got to release her album - I could talk about it all day tbh, because it's never very apparent where the source of the power is, or why her songs are as great as they are.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

oh that's what Hoarpop means. I thought this was a veiled wobs ref or something, as in hoarfrost

actually, I still don't get who or what this is aimed at

[koganbot]

Danity Kane, Pussycat Dolls, the Stupid Shits, etc.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I nominated (and obv ticked) Kanye because of his omnipresence this year: American Boy, 808s, Flashing Lights and of course his BLOG which is just mental.

Bassline tick vg, something so awesome charting then VANISHING entirely.

Beyonce/Sasha - probably the single artist I have posted on poptimists about most this year!

[martinv.livejournal.com]

I think Kanye appears 3 times in MY top 20 of the year, which is saying something. Definite tick for him as a result. Not sure about the rest of this list though...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Bassline didn't vanish though - the scene is still going strong! Its chart presence vanished cuz the tracks stopped getting licensed to big labels, radio stopped playlisting tracks (presumably b/c two token hits were enough) and so on.

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I could only manage 2 and they aren't especially "interesting". Hmm.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I stuck on harmonies, which feels like a koganbot nom, because I thought about them this year in a more conscious way than I usually do -- and I think that the pretty much across-the-board vocal manipulation that's probably peaked in the Autotune nomination is partly responsible. But even outside of obvious production tricks, I think that, e.g., Fleet Foxes mostly get by on harmonies (or at least harmony-laden prettiness) in the same way that Danity Kane does. And the neo-soul fallout, which is WAY more consistently good than most of the Winehouse previous wave, does neat stuff with harmony. The Pipettes could only imagine.

(Anyway, most interesting thing isn't the same as most original, is it? Because even though some of these were more ubiquitous last year or in previous years, they might be more interesting this year. Like hoarpop's decreasing ability to shock despite or because of its desperate lengths to do so, maybe?)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

"I stuck on" = "I'm stuck on"

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Maybe matching music trends to the New Depression is ahead of its time in 2008...

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute, surely "Taylor Swift's dresses" is the koganbot nom!

[koganbot]

(I had three noms: Taylor dresses, harmonies, and Autotune.)

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

I didn't find any of those things interesting except Same Difference. Sigh... I do fear Poptimists and I may be growing apart.