Who's sitting P&J out this year?

[koganbot]

Dave over on Tumblr:

I like voting in it — stayed on board for the Jackin’ Pop year (voted in both polls) and have thought about staying on this year, since for better or worse it’s the only huge critics poll. Glenn McDonald is still doing stats, which alone kind of makes me want to participate. Just wondering if anyone is staging a parallel poll or “vote for Hinder” style shenanigans.

I'm voting (also voted in '06, when they fired Chuck and Xgau and, not incidentally, shut the door on me, too). The poll obviously doesn't mean what it once did: it's not going to reveal many surprises, since these days polls and wrapups and sum-ups are all over the Internet weeks and months prior. Also doesn't have the brains on call it once had. But it's the only place where ballots and writers show up in bulk, and it can provide an excuse for mass taking-of-stock all over the Web, not just at the Village Voice site. I remember some exciting ILM back-and-forth back in the day. Better some chance for a mass taking-of-stock than zero chance of a mass taking-of-stock, and there's no good reason for me not to be part of it.

Given that Pazz & Jop has little news value anymore, maybe the Voice will opt for intelligence, deciding that that will draw the reader. I wouldn't bet on it, or trust them to know it when they see it, but I can hope. Not that I'm likely to notice if they do: I haven't been reading their or most people's year-end talk for years. But I'll surely look at a lot of ballots. Looking at ballots is how Trevor Link found me last year, and therefore how I found him.

Mid year I'd have guessed that the Korean track most likely to garner multiple votes would be Sistar's "Alone." This was before "Gangnam Style." Don't know if anything other than "Gangnam Style" will exceed "I Am The Best"'s seven votes last year.

Speaking of Dave, a.k.a. DJ Bedbugs, this is the first year a friend of mine is a serious candidate for my albums ballot.* But he's also someone whose lists I'm checking for overlooked music. It would be ironic if something he recommends knocks him off my ballot. Am listening right now to the Dave-recommended Rebirth, by Jimmy Cliff; has a couple corkers ("One More" and "Bang"), but I don't know if there'll be enough to carry it through.

Currently on the bubble: Serebro, Miss A, DJ Bedbugs, Orange Caramel, Jewelry, Taylor Swift, After School.

*Iirc. Maybe I voted for a friend or two in years past and have forgotten.

Comments

Re: (Chuck Again)

[koganbot]

As for laziness, I'd say that through the early and mid '70s Pazz & Jop's voting pool was likely above average in originality and intelligence, but that's just because it was still close to the pioneering days of rockwrite, and the originators with new ideas are the ones who'll risk 'em on a new enterprise. But of course, with P&J (as opposed to the music section itself) Christgau was seeking the average; in the early-to-mid '70s he just didn't have access to it yet. Averageness came later. But I doubt the species has gotten lazier in the last thirty-five years. And as for people voting for what they should rather than what they like, I doubt this is more a factor now than in the past. I think most people mostly vote their guts (and listen with their guts); and most people's guts are as middlebrow and conventional as the rest of their bodies. They find what they vote for very moving. I wish they'd use their minds more.

Re: (Chuck Again)

[(Anonymous)]

I have to wonder, though, whether the electorate hasn't gotten dumber over the last ten years or so -- Seems to me like at some point the influx of anybody-can-do-it blog critics diluted the pool. (Not that your average blog critics are dumber than your average print hack, except that...well, a lot of them are.) I definitely don't get nearly as much out of the comments as I used to. Though part of that could be me losing interest, part of it could be no Xgau around anymore to select the best comments and arrange them into a coherent conversation, part of it could be voters (like me -- I haven't sent in comments since I left) just not being as inspired anymore to come up with good comments, what with the comments not appearing in print, Christgau not providing a backboard to bounce off of, the New Times draining life from the Voice, there being no real conversation to join into, the Internet providing better conversations all year long to join into, etc.

I saw a lot of originality and intelligence in Pazz & Jop at least through most of the '80s -- I wouldn't say the early '70s were the highlight of the poll by any means. The poll results -- though not Christgau's essays, or the comments -- started to bore me/lose me in the early '90s (and didn't get much better while I was actually there), and plummeted soon after I left. Though that probably has way more to do with my own veering off from focusing on the genres of music most other critics focus on than anything other factor.

Re: (Chuck Again)

[(Anonymous)]

Of course two reasons the early '70s weren't P&J's high point (which is what I meant, not "highlight") is the Xgau's essays were really short before 1977 or 1978 and hadn't fully gelled into interesting commentary yet, and he didn't start printing voters' comments as sidebars until 1983 (when I supposedly inspired him to start.)