Best Song of 2001: Heat #7

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

So close! But Wyclef beat Andrew WK by one vote (not mine!). However even if pop-metal is not represented in the finals it is clearly made an impact on all your hearts etc.

Back to the heats now, and this penultimate bunch of 2001 features up-and-coming young guns Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg and the Manic Street Preachers. It's heat #7!

• You get a maximum of TEN TICKS over the three bits of the poll. The top five will go through to the next stage.



• If you want to change your vote (or tick too many by mistake), you can edit your votes by clicking on 'Poll #12345' then 'Fill Out Poll'.



• UK chart placings given in brackets.



• You have until Friday lunchtime to vote.



• Rep for your favourites in the comments! Youtube embeds very welcome.

[Poll #1448661]


Cheeky edit: this is probably a good juncture to point out that it is POPTIMISM on Friday! Details here.

Comments

Destiny's WHY-ld

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I never really liked Survivor that much - the vocal line is like a relentless bludgeoning round the head but not in a good way (unlike say 'Lose My Breath' which at least does what it says on the tin)

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Because of the flipping amazing bridge:

I'm wishing you the best
Pray that you are blessed
Much success, no stress, and lots of happiness
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna blast you on the radio
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna lie on you or your family yo
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna hate you in the magazine
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
I'm not gonna compromise my Christianity (that is the funniest bit)
I'M BETTER THAN THAT!
You know I'm not gonna diss you on the Internet
Cause my momma told me better than that!

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ALSO because you can sing:

OI'M ON THE CIDER
OI'M ON THE CIDER

along to it.

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I would say it is a relentless bludgeoning around the head in a good way, sorry! I think it's my favourite DC song.

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It is the pinnacle of Beyoncé's self-righteous bible-thumping megalomania and as such UTTERLY CLASSIC. Bringing earthquake-level force to the moral high ground.

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

(I didn't really expect anyone to agree with me on this opinion!)

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It's a pretty common opinion! Especially as critical luv for DC tends to coalesce (rightly) around the Writing's On The Wall singles - the Survivor album and especially this track is almost antithetical to it - it succeeds on very different terms. So anyone with any investment in DC making music like TWOTW long-term would've been turned off by the bellowing, bludgeoning megalomania of Survivor.

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[koganbot]

I admire the Writing's On The Wall singles - even nominated a couple of them, iirc - but I feel so much more from "Survivor," the bludgeoning, if that's what it is, occurring because on this song DC and Beyoncé don't sound deft and on top of things, instead sound like they're fighting and at risk. Of course, Beyoncé's fighting moods sometimes cause her to bash around too much. Her solo career is mostly a subject for further research for me, as I don't own a non-DC Beyoncé album; but I feel that as she gets older she's willing to be more vulnerable and frantic, which hurts some songs and helps others but generally makes her much more accessible. So I ought to get the albums. The DC nonsingles were mostly forgettable, which is why I was hesitant to get the Beyoncé albs.

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a bunch of DC album tracks I have a lot of affection for: "So Good", "Hey Ladies", "Perfect Man", "Fancy", "Independent Women Part 2". Beyoncé's B'Day is a brilliant, brilliant album; Sasha Fierce is pretty good, though I think I overrated it at the time due to earworminess; Dangerously In Love really is the stereotypical R&B singles-plus-filler record.

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Agreed on B'Day - Frank, you should *really* have a listen to it. It's in my albums-of-the-decade list for definite, even if 'Deja Vu' was the least good lead-off single Beyonce has released (luckily it is the first track so I can skip straight to 'Get Me Bodied').

Re: Destiny's WHY-ld

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh how annoying I had a reply and it vanished.

Anyway yes thanks - might post the pop mix on Tumblr, it is a mess!

The ending was as upbeat as I could make it: I think Gaga has sort of cracked everything about being a successful, media-relevant pop star EXCEPT the "making amazing music" part, and the fact that she's so successful without that is kind of miserable but perhaps not unexpected (there have been pop stars w/o amazing music before, and will be again). I mean, her latest thing of doing a special "monster edition" of her album so she can dress up as vampires etc - I really like that, the implicit acknowledgement that nobody's buying CDs so why not do silly limited editions for publicity. But the music is for the most part feeble (very difficult to pick a track for the spotify list).