Poptimists Tracks Of 2008 PART FOUR

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The hairy cornflake returns with Nos. 20-11 of your favourite tracks of the year.

20. GIRLS ALOUD - "The Promise"

Perhaps a lower-than-expected showing for perennial Poptimist darlings GA - their retro-themed video is not embeddable.

17=. MARIA DANIELA Y SU SONIDO LASSER - "Duri Duri"

This year the chart's been particularly good for niche enthusiasms getting a welcome shot of publicity. Here's sometime Podcast Panellists MDYSSL with some very bouncy pop.

17=. LILY ALLEN - "The Fear"

It's not even out yet! Though, unlike Cassie, it will be.

17=. KLEERUP ft MARIT BERGMAN - "3AM"

It's not just Robyn who gets to voice moody Kleerup tracks you know.

16. BEYONCE - "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)"

If you liked it then you should have embedded it.

15. ALPHABEAT - "Fascination"

Sign of the music biz times (if true): Alphabeat have apparently been dropped by their UK label because their FIFTH single off their album flopped. Remember them this way! (NB the Bimbo Jones remix picked up a fraction of the points here).

14. RIHANNA - "Disturbia"

Last year's runaway winner makes a decent showing again.

13. HOT CHIP - "Ready For The Floor"

They really are trying to look like Buggles in this video, aren't they?

12. SOLANGE - "Sandcastle Disco"

Solange Knowles outpolls her sister, even if she hasn't outsold her.

11. KANYE WEST - "Love Lockdown"

Non-embeddable warriors! Kanye might feel hard done by here to be honest since SEVEN different people voted for this. If we were doing it solely on mentions he'd be at #5.

What powerhouse kept him out of the Top 10? Check back tomorrow when ALL will be REVEALED (and then at the weekend for the monster list of everything).

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

(Speaking of hip-hop: ONE hip-hop track so far (Lil' Mama)? ONE? Despite this being a stellar year, singles and albums wise? Oh, poptimists.) ("It's not big in the UK" doesn't wash as an excuse given half of these!)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I've still never heard Taylor Swift. I probably should at some point.

[koganbot]

[koganbot]

I wouldn't bet on Taylor this year. "Should've Said No" is great great great but not so great as to have made my Poptimists list (I have it as number eighteen), and since it was a two-years-old album track I don't think the people likely to like it here noticed that it was a single this year on the country charts. "You're Not Sorry" is very good (my number thirty-five) but hasn't been getting much attention (as a single was digital-only), and "Love Story" is good but I'm guessing it's not getting three voters - or even one - on poptimists.

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

Was 'Tim McGraw' this year? I would have voted for that as my #3 if I'd remembered that it came out this year!

[koganbot]

No, "Tim McGraw" was summer of 2006, though it held on until early 2007.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

(what's kanye then?)

(ok, so this album might be emoelectro, but he's still hip hop, right?)

Results 1 - 10 of about 9,770,000 for kanye hip hop.

Results 1 - 10 of about 6,100,000 for kanye not hip hop.

looks conclusive to me...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Kanye is a (former?) hip-hop artist who has made an album which is not hip-hop in the slightest!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, the tracks he's appeared on so far have not been hip-hop by any stretch of the imagination.

He has made guest appearances on tracks as a rapper this year though, and it's possible one or more of those may appear tomorrow.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ha it would be a MAJOR upset if one of those didn't make it!! "One or more" though - omg has 'Put On' made it? Tenterhooks! And as I assume 'A Milli' has made it, poptimists may well have redeemed themselves hip-hop-wise.

Andrew's comment below has put some sudden FEAR into me regarding MGMT though :/

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'And as I assume 'A Milli' has made it'

doubtful

[koganbot]

not hip-hop by any stretch of the imagination

Disagree. The T-Pain vocal Autotune style is all over hip-hop these days; Kanye's doing it and Wayne's doing it and T.I.'s doing it. It's not rap per se but it is hip-hop. There's a difference. Hip-hop covers a broad range, started as DJs manipulating funk breaks with rappers only one element, not necessarily the main one. Also included graffiti etc. I don't know if all factions within hip-hop accept it, but then some factions won't accept crunk and snap either.

[koganbot]

"Accept it" meaning "accept the T-Pain Autotune style."

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I voted for Sway n Stush (which I'm very disappointed not have seen so far, I can't imagine it'd be top 10 so figure it's not here at all), plus a TI track (Dead and Gone) which I imagine I'm the only person who voted for it, which is a shame as it's bloody fantastic.

[koganbot]

I think the Sway n Stush has a chance.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I should've voted for Sway & Stush but it ended up coming in at like 30th on my list (http://alexmacpherson.livejournal.com/215505.html).

My favourite TI track of the year was 'Let My Beat Pound' but I did consider voting for 'Whatever You Like' as his biggest hit (which I like) but then um didn't. 'Dead And Gone' is slated to be a single next year and I think it could be huge, it's definitely Justin's finest vocal performance in years.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

You're right that it's a great vocal performance by Justin; in fact I love every element of it - the production is fantastic (but I am a sucker for strings & piano in a song) too, and the "i turn my head to the east" section in the middle eight is a real highlight.

Hopefully if it's a single in 09 it'll be as big as it deserves to be

[cis.livejournal.com]

One day I will have to get you to explain what it is about 'whatever you like' that's good! it's just so boring and blah and blarey.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It works in much the same way as 'Get Busy' for me, this addictive melody which undulates so smoothly from one section to another and back again without even seeming to pause for breath; plus, it's lilting and suave but also really fun to sing along to. And TI's voice makes me weak at the knees.

ALSO U&K:

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Haha that is still the only version of "Whatever You Like" that I've heard.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

plus it has this wonderfully deliberate "What You Know for the laydeez" feel to it - "fresh off the jet to the 'jects where the Gs at" to "I'll gas up the jet for you tonight and you can go wherever you like".

And "My chick can have whatever she wants" - pause, snare, echo - "go in any store, buy any bag she wants".

[koganbot]

Is not as big as it used to be in the U.S. either, even though the number one album is Tha Carter III. I don't know what to say. In 2004 my P&J singles list was all hip-hop or dancehall hip-hop in combo, the one exception being "Galang," which itself was informed by dancehall and hip-hop. This year one hip-hop track snuck into my P&J list at number ten, V.I.C.'s "Wobble" - the sort of track that inspires Nas types to declare that hip-hop is dead - and it only placed nineteen out of ten on my Poptimists track list. Of the 35 tracks I was considering for the list, two were out and out hip-hop tracks (the aforementioned "Wobble" and Vein's "Get Up Stand Up" f. Pitbull) and a couple of the r&b tracks had guest rappers (Missy on Danity Kane's "Bad Girl" and Young Jeezy on Mariah's "Side Effects"). The only hip-hop album to seriously contend for my P&J was Kead Da Sneak's uneven (and v. long) Deified. Last year was - for me - fairly sparse as well: two hip-hop tracks in my P&J (one of 'em dropping from my Poptimists tracks list) and three r&b tracks w/ featured rappers. A lot of it is my not looking nearly as much at hip-hop as I was a few years ago. It used to be where I'd listen first, now it comes after a whole hunk of other things. And the decline of ilX has played a role here, since the last I looked at its hip-hop discussion - a couple years ago - it had descended to a lot of snarky half-articulate bullshit. (How's ILM these days? I go to rolling country every couple of weeks, and every now and then I'll also look at the New Answers lists and click on a bunch of threads, with the usual dull results.)

A good deal of this is me: even 1999 through 2004, when hip-hop was first in my sight, I was being engrossed musically in it but except for Eminem it wasn't touching my heart, a lot of the most interesting music coming from the thugs or from frat hoppers like Lil Jon and Ludacris. "Get Low" and "In Da Club" were my numbers two and three for 2003 and would do just as well if I made a decade list for the '00s (number one is "Beware Of The Boys," also from that year - is the Bhangra track "Mundian To Bach Ke" with Jay-Z added very prominently). It's incredible music but part of me just didn't give a shit.

But also, hip-hop doesn't seem to be dominating the U.S. the way it used to. Sure, T.I. and Kanye and Wayne are up there consistently on the charts, but they're hardly dictating the style.

My proofreader took the day off

[koganbot]

Kead Da Sneak = Keak Da Sneak

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ILM is fine. I ignore like 90% of it but I'm used enough to the regulars on the rolling hip-hop/r&b/techno threads (and even like some of them!). More about sharing new music and immediate reactions rather than "conversation" but that's fine, I go there because there's so much enthusiasm and hunger for hearing new music - I absolutely need to share that somewhere and nowhere else really provides.