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]

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

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

why so?

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

too hip-hop for pmists (and too slow and minimal for me personally). i would've thought 'Lollipop' would get more votes than it at least.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Pop Appeal Watch: "A Milli" is the only track all year that my wife heard on the radio and asked me to identify. "It's really good. It's got a guy going Emily Emily Emily or something in the background"

Her track of the year, incidentally, was "Head Shoulders Knees And Toes", which Matt DC informed us of a couple months ago.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

"too hip-hop for poptimists" - it saddens me that this sentence can even be written. I think you're wrong though! Enough American votes, and quite a few UK poptimists got on board late (after that essay of all things but never mind).

'Lollipop' wtf? It's fine, but also a lazy and unremarkable Autotune-wagoning track with nothing remarkable about it all, and which certainly doesn't showcase Wayne's talents particularly.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i am happy to be proven wrong here. i still don't like 'A Milli' much (i get why others love it tho) but i did include it (and the NeYo freestyle) in my 08 mix but you would probably dislike that i blended it with Seb Tellier's 'Elle' - part of my ongoing beautiful dream of getting French dudes to produce US rap and rnb...)

'Lollipop' just seems somehow "more pop" - agree with you on that anyway.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I have 0 idea what people mean by "more pop" any more.

I love S Tellier and 'A Milli' but...separately.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

"I have 0 idea what people mean by "more pop" any more."

really i mean i think 'Lollipop' is...less uncompromising than 'A Milli'. a better comparison with 'A Milli' might be 'Drop It Like It's Hot' but again to me the latter seems more pop as it's got more conventional or traditional hooks...and a chorus! But it must still be one of the most minimal rap tracks ever to have made the top 10 here. same goes for Busta's 'Touch It' (but there a recognisable sample surely drew more people in).

But none of that really explains success of 'A Milli' in the US charts where the game is totally different. i'm just talking conceptually, sonically it confounds (my?) expecations/defies convention.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think it's a bit reductive to assume that less compromising = more pop: it seems to me popular success can be down to novelty or familiarity or a mix of both (new ppl providing something familiar, or vice versa, maybe). Compromise is a strategy for getting to familiarity, but lack of compromise is a strategy for getting to novelty.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

"I think it's a bit reductive to assume that less compromising = more pop"

Yes it is reductive and my argument doesn't quite work in that much of this decade has seen hip-hop increasingly stripped down (as if a contest to see who can make the most out of so little) but no less popular in the US for it.

But at least it explains why I don't like it (can't speak for the rest of the UK, too many other factors).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't think 'A Milli' is even that harsh or uncompromising sonically? The beat is great, and I could understand being irritated by it, but it's hardly that WTF - as you say hip-hop has been trending minimal anyway - surely the appeal of 'A Milli' is Wayne himself, the lyrics and the cadence of his flow and his voice, generally. Pretty much all the enthusiasm I've seen over 'A Milli' has been about his lyrics and performance rather than the beat.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'surely the appeal of 'A Milli' is Wayne himself, the lyrics and the cadence of his flow and his voice, generally. Pretty much all the enthusiasm I've seen over 'A Milli' has been about his lyrics and performance rather than the beat.'

yeah this is exactly right of course. that's just a problem if you're used to being attracted to hiphop by the beats or a more eventful or detailed production first. this is why i can't get with much hiphop now (or at least don't talk about it much), however good or distinctive the lyrics/flow/voice/performance aspect otherwise. that may sound narrow-minded but it's just a question of where preferences lie.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

if you don't pay attention to hip-hop lyrics then fair enough but you shouldn't be surprised at the success or otherwise of any given track, b/c that's not how the genre operates!

it's an interesting qn though - do you mean you really never ever know/care what's being said? there are still some hip-hop tracks I love primarily for the sound (inc the voice) rather than specific lyrics, but when the lyrics are as prominent (and great) as in 'A Milli' I can't not notice them.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

"if you don't pay attention to hip-hop lyrics then fair enough but you shouldn't be surprised at the success or otherwise of any given track, b/c that's not how the genre operates!"

I still think it's surprising when it gets as stripped down as it has done in the last few years. I might've said this about Master P 10 years ago too tho...

And it's not that so much not paying attention to the lyrics, just not regarding them as the most important part. This applies to me with all pop anyway! Lyrics are nothing without something for me to catch onto musically (even if that's just a sample sometimes). I often read rap lyrics quoted on the net and don't get why they're being presented as so great (hearing them in context obv better). but sometimes there is cool wordplay or jokes that it's easier to appreciate. it can take years for the appreciation to come thru with some stuff too. getting that distance from the hype can be useful.

I'd hate for this to get to a point where it's like unless you value lyrics and MC performance first you're wasting your time but I think that may be something which has taken over.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

"I love S Tellier and 'A Milli' but...separately."

Understandable and fair enough, but you know acapellas ('A Milli' is virtually an acapella anyway!) of these tracks are made available for DJs to drop it over other stuff, and in this case there are many possibilities there. At least I didn't do a Girl Talk and throw it over some crusty 70s rock...

[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."