To recap: Yesterday, we were forwarded a splenetic rant purporting to be the lead essay for the Village Voice’s forthcoming Pazz & Jop Poll; we figured its hackery and misdirected vitriol made it too over-the-top for it to be legit; then we found some curious Microsoft Word info that made us wonder… MORE »
Posts Tagged ‘jackin\’ pop’
top
“Westword” Wha?: The “Village Voice” Vitriol Mystery Continues
Earlier this evening we opened the Microsoft Word copy of that slam-filled Pazz & Jop essay we received today–we needed a chuckle–and while checking out the “Properties” window, we found a curious attribution under the “Last saved by” field: The username “westword.” Westword, for those of you who haven’t been keeping tabs on Village Voice Media’s ever-expanding empire, is the Denver-based link in the alt-weekly chain; it’s enough of a coincidence to make us wonder if we were wrong in dismissing the whole brouhaha as a prank on the new kids. (A few of VVM’s editorial higher-ups seem to call Denver their home as well.) Any ideas on who might have leaked this to us, and why, can go to the usual address; for now, we’re going to play with the “track changes” function and see what else we can turn up.
After the jump, a full screenshot of the Word document we were leaked, complete with “Properties” screen. (Note the word count–1,100, which seems to be an awfully long-winded way of saying “We’re taking our ball and going home.”)
MORE »
top
The “Village Voice” Doesn’t Know Jack
A short while ago, a tipster sent us a lengthy screed that’s purportedly the opening essay of this year’s Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. It’s a defensive, angry little rant that’s directed at our own Jackin’ Pop poll, and we have no idea if this is real or not. But what the hell. MORE »
Parsing The Pop: Hot 100’s Top Tracks Get The Cold Shoulder
Honestly, we weren’t expecting Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” to do well in Jackin’ Pop–chalk it up to music writers’ bias against musicians who are pathological knit-cap wearers. But we were surprised that it didn’t get a single vote from our critics, given that it was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 this year. Sure, the Hot 100 does tend to skew on the adult-contemporary side of things, and the end-of-year charts do favor singles that came out in the year’s first half–the seemingly everywhere “Crazy” only came in at No. 7 on the year-end list, while the Jackin’ Pop No. 3 “My Love,” which was released as a single in the fall, ended the year at No. 61. (And forget anything as comparatively outré as the poll’s No. 5, “Wolf Like Me.”) But we glanced at the Hot 100’s top ten and found that three of the year’s top 10 songs—including one that was a near-miss on one of your Idolators’ ballots–received no votes at all, a stat that we found a little odd. (Isn’t there someone out there who will admit to liking that James Blunt song?)
After the jump, we compare the Billboard Hot 100’s top ten with their Jackin’ Pop results.
MORE »
Parsing The Pop: The Reissues Keep On Truckin’
Yesterday, we highlighted the re-issues section of the Jackin’ Pop poll, and asked for a help tracking down some MP3s (especially since many of the entries were budget-taxing imports). MORE »
Parsing The Pop: Some Voters Had A Hard Time Curbing Their Enthusiasm
For those of you tired of poring over the Jackin’ Pop albums and singles lists, we turn now to the Enthusiasm 40 list, which complies the albums that got the most amount of points from the least amount of votes. MORE »
Parsing The Pop: Giving Reissues Their Day On The Charts
The Jackin’ Pop reissues poll was handily won by the deluxe edition of Pavement’s Wowee Zowee, and while its upper reaches were filled with familiar names–David Byrne, Brian Eno, R.E.M., The Clash–we were pleasantly surprised by a few of the results. MORE »
Parsing The Pop: Are We Stuck In The Middle?
Of the 5,200 words that make up Michaelangelo Matos’ all-encapsulating Jackin’ Pop essay, this passage seems ripe for further debate/deconstruction/dissing: Because what our critics did hear isn’t especially inspiring. MORE »
Parsing The Pop: Lining The Critics Up In A Row
Let the fantasy baseball comparisons continue: Thanks to master statistician Glenn McDonald, numbers obsessives can now pore over the critical alignment ratings for the inaugural Jackin’ Pop Critics’ Poll. MORE »
Parsing The Pop: Thinner Margins At The Top?
One thing that’s for sure: Posting the Jackin’ Pop results has lured mathematically inclined Idolator readers out of the woodwork. One reader decided to put the poll’s results into a historical context:
Hi, this is probably the sort of thing that would only interest an obsessive-compulsive stat/list geek, but I found something that I believe places the Jackin’ Pop results in an interesting light. The Jackin’ Pop page says that 497 critics voted for 1300 different albums. According to information I got from robertchristgau.com and villagevoice.com, the 1998 Pazz and Jop had 496 critics who voted for 1242 different albums, similar numbers.
