Taking Sides: Reliable Versus Unreliable But Potentially Novel (Or Not)

[koganbot]

I'm something like three weeks behind in reading the Singles Jukebox. So here's a sociological question:

Supposing I had time to read only one but not both, should I

(a) catch up on the Jukebox entries I've missed, or

(b) read the Pitchfork's P2K, The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s?

The thing is, it didn't occur to me that the answer should be anything but (a) until I pondered the fact that I've read plenty of Jukebox entries but have rarely read Pitchfork, only going to the latter when someone on ilX or some other community or some blog had linked a Pitchfork piece. Of course, there are reasons for the preference, but wouldn't taking a look at the Pitchfork 500 potentially give me surprising info or ideas that I wouldn't get from the more familiar Jukebox? (That's not a rhetorical question.) I have looked at P2K a little, the blurbs that Tom wrote or highlighted on one of his Tumblrs, and from there my eye wandered to some neighboring P2K blurbs. And of course I'm likely to continue clicking on Tom's links.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Jukebox will be there for catching up, but it might be nice to catch P2K during the zeitgeist, just to follow the thread of conversation. For someone who's never read the site regularly, it's an interesting melting pot of styles from c. 2003-present, trad indie assumptions mingling with (now-trad in its own way) post-"Toxic" P4K poptimism (I think the word is justified here -- there is a more cheery attitude toward the role of mainstream pop as a cultural touchstone, I think) and niche genre specialists and the random freelancer (Matthew Perpetua, etc.). Basically it's a microcosm of what happened in the P4ksphere and its echoes for the past six or so years, if not the whole decade (the site was much different c. 2000 and most of their big reviewers from that time have essentially retired from writing altogether).

[koganbot]

Ah, but taking the question I actually posed, suppose that I'm not going to have time to catch up on the Jukebox, so I have to choose one or the other.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I don't believe it! (Anyway, Jukebox tracks have been eh of late, through no fault of Jukebox -- just not the strongest crop of contenders.)

[koganbot]

Yes, but I'm asking you to make a choice.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Well, I've clearly chosen P2K lately over reading or WRITING for Jukebox. I need to do some blurbs 'fore I get the boot!

[koganbot]

Fwiw, as soon as I finished typing this I read the Toby Keith blurbs that were sitting atop the Jukebox, and went from there to Sugababes plus comment thread, and now I'm on Pearl Jam. (I'd rate the Toby 7 or 8, the Pearl Jam a surprisingly solid 7, and the Sugababes, well, it was too sleep-inducing for me to remember what I'd rate it. Also, in regard to the 'Babes comment thread, somehow I'd never noticed the connection between Timberlee's "Heels" and "I'm Too Sexy" (which I've never liked), whereas the Benny Hill connection whomped me instantly. Musically "Heels" is not remotely dependent on "I'm Too Sexy"; the connection is that she uses the phrase "I'm So Sexy" followed by a reference to apparel, which may not have been inspired by Right Said Fred at all, though I can see why the former might make someone think of the latter.)

[koganbot]

The Toby, by the way, has very strange lyrics, very lunkheaded in his depiction of what happens here but the message seems not only to be "My country right or wrong, even when it's predominantly going wrong" but "there's something about my country's combination of right and wrong that is especially compelling, makes for quite a ride." This latter makes the message different from Stephen Decatur's famous "My country write or wrong" quotable, which I'd originally seen as, "My country, may she ever be right, but my country right or wrong," though the Wiki entry on the subject gives the toast as "Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!" The Keith maybe implies that if you get rid of the wrong you risk eliminating something crucial, though presumably he'd be in favor of getting rid of some of the wrong, as who wouldn't. Relevant here would be LeAnn Rimes' "Family," a better and much smarter song, about how her family's ongoing catastrophe was a living, bubbling-over priceless thing.

[koganbot]

Write or wrong? (Yes, if we don't write, we are wrong.)