Who and what brought me to the music, 2009

[koganbot]

Over on his own Pazz & Jop ballot, Josh Langhoff recommends that we list the "gatekeepers" who introduced us to our favorite music. Someone named "Chuck Eddy" recurs on his list. In any event, here's my P&J ballot again, this time with the added info of who or what first led me to the music. (I don't think "gatekeeper" is the right term, really.)

Singles 2009

1. Shystie ft. DJ Deekline "New Style" - Kat Stevens on poptimists
2. The Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow" - Lex Macpherson on his lj
3. Love And Theft "Runaway" - Chuck Eddy on the ilX Rolling Country 2009 thread
4. MC Lars ft. Brett Anderson & Gabe Saporta "Hey There Ophelia" - Moggy on her lj
5. Timberlee ft. Tosh "Heels" - Lex on his lj
6. The Lonely Island "I'm On A Boat" - Dave Moore, either on his Cure For Bedbugs blog or his Tumblr or his lj or by email
7. Das Racist "Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)" - Kat Stevens, either on her lj or on poptimists
8. Rich Boy "Drop" - MySpace music front page (and my previous fandom of artist, whom I'd first heard back in '05 on Denver's reggaeton station when it was playing the shit out of the remix of "Get To Poppin'" featuring Pitbull)
9. Girls Aloud "Untouchable" - ?? I think it was through the Singles Jukebox
10. Röyksopp ft. Robyn "The Girl And The Robot" - Dave Moore by email, but I didn't start liking the song until it came up for review on the Jukebox and I revisited it

Albums 2009

1. Taylor Swift Fearless - My own vast insane fandom brought me to this one, with the help of Big Machine Records and various radio stations and other outlets (first heard Taylor on the radio in summer '06 but it was Jimmy Draper who insisted later in the year that I listen to her first album)
2. The-Dream Love Vs. Money - I think it was Lex who was talking this up first, but it might have been Dave. My interest already existed because of "Ditch That" (recommended by Luc Sante) and "Umbrella"
3. Ashley Monroe Satisfied - A Columbia publicist sent me the promo back in early 2006, probably at the instigation of Chuck Eddy, who was still music editor at the Voice (alb was shelved, finally released on iTunes this year)
4. Rihanna Rated R - The world at large
5. Scooter Under the Radar Over the Top (The Dark Side Edition) - Chuck Eddy, on my own lj (but I'd gotten him interested in Scooter in the first place, and I think it was Jeff Worrell who'd gotten me interested in Scooter)
6. Lily Allen It's Not Me, It's You - The world, again, with special input from Erika Villani; but it was Mitya who first talked up Lily to me in March '06 on Rolling Teenpop, with enthusiastic support from David Orton and William Bloody Swygart; Mitya'd heard about her from Popjustice
7. Martina McBride Shine - The Ross-Broadway branch of the Denver Public Library (but it was Chuck Eddy who got me interested in McBride back in '99 or so)
8. Electrik Red How To Be A Lady: Volume 1 - This must have been Lex, again, on lj, with Dave right on his heels
9. K'naan Troubadour - Heard "ABC's" by accident when the record company was promoting it as its single of the week on its YouTube site which I was visiting for some other artist's track; finally got back to the album because Chuck and Xgau had praised it
10. Brad Paisley American Saturday Night - Chuck Eddy on ilX's Rolling Country 2009 thread

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Anyway, my own (not ballot, final list as per Tumblr) -

1. ELECTRIK RED - How To Be A Lady: Volume 1 [ILX R&B thread]
2. TAYLOR SWIFT - Fearless [Frank Kogan]
3. THE-DREAM - Love vs. Money [Already anticipated based on Love/Hate]
4. DJ QUIK & KURUPT [ILX thread on "Hey Playa!" started by RTC]
5. RIHANNA - Rated R [Already anticipated based on entire career to date]
6. FEVER RAY - Fever Ray [Already anticipated based on The Knife - weirdly the first I realised she had a solo project was when I was browsing 7digital in Dec 08 and saw that the "If I Had A Heart" single had been quietly released, and wondered why I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere - I bought on sight obv]
7. MARIAH CAREY - Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel [Already anticipated]
8. GUCCI MANE - The Movie 3-D: The Burrprint/The Writing’s On The Wall [Already anticipated based on Back To Da Trap House, obv the combined sterling efforts of Jordan Sargent and David Drake made me pay a lot more attention to him]
9. THE XX - xx [Sophie Heawood, who I saw going on about them before anyone else]
10. MEANDERTHALS - Desire Lines [an actual promo CD sent to me by an actual PR! archived emails reveal this to be Jim @ Ampersand PR]

1. THE-DREAM - Fancy [already anticipated blah blah]
2. VISTOSO BOSSES - Delirious [Maura on Idolator]
3. KINGDOM ft. SHYVONNE - Mind Reader [Alex Bok Bok and Sara Manara - the Kingdom mix on their Lower End Spasm site and the countless times they played it at Night Slugs this year]
4. SADE - Soldier Of Love [whoever started the ILX thread alerting us to new material]
5. STUSH - We Nuh Run [Alex Bok Bok tweeting excitedly about this]
6. ELECTRIK RED - Drink In My Cup [ILX R&B thread]
7. SHYSTIE - Pull It (Ill Blu Funky Mix) [Tim Finney]
8. RICHGIRL - He Ain’t Wit Me Now (Tho) [RTC on the ILX R&B thread]
9. CRAZY COUSINZ - Inflation [first heard during a Crazy Cousinz set at FWD]
10. GUIDO - Orchestral Lab/Way U Make Me Feel [uh not a clue, actually! last.fm tells me I first played them on 27 March, lj tells me I'd only just joined Twitter at the time so probably not that, no emails about Guido from then...would guess that Dan Hancox mentioned him to me in person]
11. ALICIA KEYS - Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart [Maura on Idolator]
12. ROYAL P - Between Us [Tim Finney]
13. JEREMIH - Birthday Sex [ILX R&B thread]
14. MS DYNAMITE - Bad Gyal [Gabriel on The Heatwave]
15. STICKY ft. LADY CHANN - Your Eye Too Fast [Gabriel on The Heatwave]
16. NICKI MINAJ - Beam Me Up Scotty [heh I think I discovered this one ON MY OWN - probably after someone posted a youtube with a Minaj verse on the ILX autogoon thread and I went a-youtubing]
17. THE BANGZ ft. PINK DOLLAZ - Get It Girl [Alex Ostroff on Twitter]
18. TEEDRA MOSES - Put It In The Wind [on her Lionhearted mixtape, which I ordered off her myspace to ~support real talent~]
19. SUBEENA - Boksd [Melissa Bradshaw had been talking about Subeena for a while, one day I realised I hadn't actually heard any of her stuff and acquired this from the internet]
20. NINA SKY - On Some Bullshit [hmm I think this might have been the Jukebox, actually!]