Frank's low scores peoples pop world cups
Tom Ewing's Peoples Pop Polls are moving off Twitter in the next couple of days, and as this will have a big effect on turnout and maybe even what the polls do, I thought now would be a terrific time to post my "Frank's low scores peoples pop world cups" file. (I'll link the polls' new location when Tom posts it; he'll surely post the info at the Twitter site and likely on the Freaky Trigger Peoples Pop page as well.) [EDIT: Actually, poll functionality was much worse elsewhere, so People's Pop Polls moved back to Twitter but are winding down, will end next May unless Twitter becomes impossible sooner.]
For what the polls are, you can read Tom's explanation at the aforementioned Freaky Trigger page. My own explanation is this:
Tom's invented a game where he gets a bunch of us to listen to music that other participants choose, and gets at least some of them to listen to music that *I* choose. It's quite brilliant, actually, this strategy, since it allows me to force my enthusiasms on others while getting me in turn to listen to and take account of other people's enthusiasms, and in the process keeps a lot of us hooked. This goes along with many of Tom's other projects, which often are about confronting himself with other people's tastes and choices and cajoling us to confront his own opinions and tastes, meanwhile we discover and/or rethink a lot of good music, and find new worlds and new ideas. The Peoples Pop Polls are in the category of what he and friends call "orgafun," which means he finds a way to turn the adventure into a game or competition. In these Pop World Cups, Tom's practice of pitting sharks against sharks and minnows against minnows in the qualifying round, as well as creating "B-side" subtourneys, ensures that a lot of tracks that are new and surprising to many of us stay in the conversation for more than one round.
Bali Baby "Designer"
My nominees, though, rarely stick beyond the qualifiers. This is not because my taste is so singular, necessarily, but because I just fell naturally into the role of, let's give 'em something new, let's give 'em something they don't know, let's give 'em something *I* don't know.
My first nominees were for a charity poll in May 2020 for Refuge, a women's shelter, and so I chose tracks I loved by two artists who'd courageously participated in the New York Times's Me-Too series back in 2017, Tina B and Vanessa Carlton. You shouldn't get the impression from this that my nominees going forward were a punch bowl of worthiness, however: I quickly decided that the electorate was veering too easily to postpunk and Britpop and fairly well-known Anglo-American pop, rock, and soul - music that was okay, usually, but surprisingly unsurprising given Tom's own exploratory nature. I shouldn't have been so surprised, given that it's probably an ironclad psychological law - the mice effect - that people prefer the music they're most familiar with. But I decided I was going to nominate what there wasn't enough of and, for that reason, what people ought to and maybe wanted to hear, but I particularly wanted to include stuff that challenged the middlebrow massive that kept giving victories to artists like David Bowie and Talking Heads. So I sought out old Korean ballads and new fucked-up Soundtrack rap, and stuff on the border of gratingly great and gratingly unlistenable. And of course reaching out beyond myself means, you know, reaching out beyond myself, and reaching to the world's music means reaching to a world that's often awash in chauvinisms and sexism - though almost certainly a lot of the c's & s, being in languages other than English, I didn't pick up on even as I was nominating it. Anyway, not to be simplistic about artists I've often made little effort to understand in context, but my nominees have included guns, butts, and guns and butts together.
But also, crucially, I'll only nominate something for which I feel enough of an emotional commitment that when people inevitably vote it down I'll think, "What's wrong with these people?" So even with all the variety, and even though I was mostly eschewing rock, nonetheless you get a footprint from this music that pretty clearly says "Frank Kogan" and that sounds not so surprising from someone whose official favorite album is still Raw Power by the Stooges (but definitely the Bowie mix; hey there, middlebrow massive!).
So here are my nominees. The file hence this post got its name 'cause about a year into the polls I wanted to see how my new low scores compared to my old low scores so searched out the early qualifiers. Then several months after that I decided "might as well include everybody no matter how they scored" but kept the file title as being evocative and usually correct anyway.
The polls are of two types, year polls and theme polls. A year poll consists of tracks that were first released during a particular year (e.g., 1990), each theme poll uses tracks that fit a particular theme chosen from a pool that voters had suggested, those who nominated previous poll winners often getting a leg up in the suggestion process - though the final choice is usually by vote. Themes lurch all over the place, e.g., Death And The Afterlife, Placenames, Album Closers. For the theme polls I'll tend to veer older or newer than the '80s-'90s preferences of the voters, often seeking low-status modern hip-hop or little-known overseas songs, sometimes also hip-hop. Ditto hip-hop and overseas for the year polls, though I also keep an eye out for country music. For me, the nominations search is as big an adventure as the poll itself. One of my great moments was the 1980 poll, when I chose two performers I hadn't even heard of 24 hours before nominating them - but nonetheless those were tracks that I could absolutely get behind emotionally. Occasionally I'll nominate a track like "Funky Broadway" that I normally would consider too high-profile but that I think absolutely needs to be in the poll and I don't trust that someone else will nominate it. For 1999 I wanted to make sure the Eve track that got in was the one that best represented the year's daring spirit. For 1980 I made sure someone had already nominated "That's The Joint" before happily picking Cho Yong-pil. My reggae nominations have consistently done so well that I've pulled back on nominating reggae.
Cho Yong-pil "길잃은 철새" (A Stray Migratory Bird)
But despite my nomination strategy, I almost always manage to be shocked, once again, each time, at how poorly my nominations do - I mean, what's wrong with these people! - except, after Cho Yong-pil's ballad predictably crashed out in 1980 (it's a bravura performance, by the way) I was shocked by how well Moon Joo-ran's ballad did in '66 and how well Kim Hye Yeon's flighty trot did in '94.
Normally, once a track does badly, I'll at least have a theory, however specious, as to why: Wesley Gonzaga is too piercing, "Déranger" is too deranged, Wa$$up are too teen, "Theme From A Summer Place" is too cheesy (and ran up against unusually strong competition; so did Bonnie Guitar; so did Kidd Kenn). But for number-one-loser Backbone's "5 Duce- 4 Tre," I don't have a clue. It's a vintage Dungeon Family track, one of the greats of 2001, with beauty unspooling around the rap and the sound effects. The only insight I have is that Juvenile's great "Back That Azz Up" (not my nom) didn't poll nearly as well as it should have, and it also has long beauty unspooling beneath the track. So at least the voters' blind spot is consistent.
Backbone "5 Duce- 4 Tre"
Farah's "Losing My Religion" got varied comments, from aghast to I'm Voting For This, So What! And So There! But I couldn't find words to tweet out any of my own reasons, which'd've included how the mannered talking vocals and the empty space of the instruments create an eked-out beauty in the chord shifts, a beauty R.E.M. didn't quite get to. (Doubt I've found the words now, either.)
Farah "Losing My Religion"
Most Peoples Pop Polls start with around 300 songs plus or minus, occasionally up to the high 300s. The first round is the Qualifiers, which cuts the number in half; the second round is Round One, which cuts it in half again, etc., eventually knocking it down to 32 contestants like in a soccer World Cup (we call that round The Final Groups), and the tournament plays out from there - but more and more these days Tom will, back in Round One (which, remember, is actually the second round), break out a lower set of medium-performing tracks for a second-tier "B-sides" competition. And back in the Qualifiers he sets sharks against sharks (that is, popular tracks vs. popular tracks) and minnows against minnows, so as to give little-known tracks a better shot at our eardrums and so as not to bore us with lopsided heats. Even with these protections, most of my noms die in the Qualifiers, and the few that make it through rarely survive Round One. Kitty Pryde's "thanks kathryn obvious" was one of only 2 to get more votes in Round One than it got in the quallies, but still didn't get through to Round Two. The other, "Night In Tunisia," after almost getting wiped out in its qually, made it to the Final Groups; but that was a second-tier B-sides Final Group. Billie Holiday was a last-minute choice of mine when Bo Diddley noms were capped (in Title=Artist) before I could nominate an oddball live track of his, and my Billie nom went respectably far. (It was a respectable nom.) "Têtes Brulées" went all the way to Round Two, quite deservedly, though it was in an early tournament where Tom was still overprotecting overseas tracks through Round One by letting them only compete with each other. (That's standard in Qualifiers but no longer in Round One.) Iirc, Seo Taiji's "I Know" was my lowest-scoring track to get through to Round One. Ruff Ryders/Eve's "What Ya Want" was my highest scorer to lose out in the quallies. [EDIT: Actually, MC Teteu's "Dingo Bell Sou Seu Papai Noel," with only 40 votes (11 fewer than "I Know"), made it through in the Not In English poll.]
Kitty Pryde "thanks kathryn obvious"
But see the footnotes for what I consider my most successful nominee.
Early tournaments had fewer voters, hence those noms tend to be the low scorers on this list - though notice "5 Duce- 4 Tre" didn't do much better in a recent Second Chances poll, and Tina B actually lost votes. And relatively recent Wesley Gonzaga and Franz Waxman tracks are down there with the losers.
Frank's low scores peoples pop world cups
Click the song title if you want to hear it. Click "(qualifier)" if you want to see the heat, and when you get there scroll down if you want to see comments. In italics I've listed the name of the particular poll the track competed in.
Backbone "5 Duce- 4 Tre" 10 votes ( qualifier) 2001
Kidd Kenn "Slide (Remix)" 12 votes ( qualifier) covers [flashing lights in video]
Bali Baby "Designer" 15 votes ( qualifier) debuts
Fairies "Hey Hey Light Me Up" 16 votes ( qualifier) covers
SECOND CHANCES POLL: Backbone "5 Duce- 4 Tre" 16 votes ( qualifier)
Hurşid Yenigün "Şeker Oğlan" 17 votes ( qualifier) covers
Wa$$up "Jingle Bell" 20 votes ( qualifier) Christmas
DJ Wesley Gonzaga, MC Cyclope & MC Laureta "Sarra Nela Com Fuzil Na Bandolera" 22 votes ( qualifier) 2021
Rail Band "Mali Cebalenw" 23 votes ( qualifier) Black history 68-72
Franz Waxman "The Birth Of Andrei" 24 votes ( qualifier) soundtracks
Franz Waxman "The Birth Of Andrei"
He5 "Jingle Bell" 25 votes ( qualifier) Christmas
Cho Yong-pil "길잃은 철새" (A Stray Migratory Bird) 25 votes ( qualifier) 1980
SECOND CHANCES POLL: Tina B "I Always Wanted To Be Free" 26 votes ( qualifier)
Mani Bella ft. Tenor "Déranger" 28 votes ( qualifier) duets
Winam Jazz Band "Elly Opil" 29 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
MC Thammy, MC Jhenny (DJ Malícia) "Vulgo Malvadão" 29 votes ( qualifier) 2021
SECOND CHANCES POLL: Teddy Yo "Gurage Tone" 29 votes ( qualifier)
Lee Sun-hee "왜 나만" (Why Me) 29 votes ( qualifier) 1990
Trick Daddy ft. Trina "Nann Nigga" 30 votes ( qualifier) duets
Luke "Cool (Some Cool Sh*t)" 30 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Luke "Cool (Some Cool Sh*t)"
DJ Guuga & MC Pierre "Cabaré" 30 votes ( qualifier) 2020 [flashing lights in the video]
Teddy Yo "Gurage Tone" ~32 votes*** ( qualifier) placenames
Max Steiner "Long Distance Call" (Theme from A Summer Place) 35 votes ( qualifier) soundtracks
Bikoko Jean Aladin "Cameroun Airlines" 35 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
FBG Duck "Slide" 36 votes ( qualifier) death
Bonnie Guitar "Grey Rain Years" 37 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Pipokinha, MT7 "Fala Fala" 38 votes ( qualifier) 2022
Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Drew Seeley "Breaking Free" 39 votes ( qualifier) soundtracks
Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Drew Seeley "Breaking Free"
MC Teteu "Dingo Bell Sou Seu Papai Noel" 40 votes** ( qualifier) not in English
Jvcki Wai "SPIKA" 41 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Yoñlu "Polyalphabetic Cipher" 42 votes ( qualifier) 2008
Makhendlas "Emenwe (Menwana Mix)" 42 votes ( qualifier) 1998
Lil Pump "Nu Uh" 42 votes ( qualifier) short songs
Stoney Edwards "She's My Rock" 42 votes ( qualifier) Black history 68-72
Anderson Neiff, MC Terror, Laryssa Real, MC Magrinho "O Neiff Me Ligou" 42 votes ( qualifier) 2021
Anderson Neiff, MC Terror, Laryssa Real, MC Magrinho "O Neiff Me Ligou"
Руся (Russya) "Русалонько" (Mermaid) 43 votes ( qualifier) not in English
Vanessa Carlton "Blue Pool" 43 votes ( qualifier) Refuge
SHeDAISY "Lucky 4 You (Tonight I'm Just Me)" 44 votes ( qualifier) 1999
Lee Konitz "I'll Remember April" 44 votes ( qualifier) album closers
Tina B "I Always Wanted To Be Free" 45 votes ( qualifier) Refuge
Niniola "Saro" 45 votes ( qualifier) 4 letters
Judy Torres "Come Into My Arms (South Mix)" 47 votes ( qualifier) 1987
Farah "Losing My Religion" 49 votes ( qualifier) 2022
Bali Baby "Futurama" 50 votes ( qualifier) album closers
Seo Taiji & Boys "I Know" 51 votes ( qualifier) debuts
Moon Joo-ran "Don't Tempt Me" 51 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Moon Joo-ran "Don't Tempt Me"
Stanley Holloway "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" 52 votes ( qualifier) death
Les Têtes Brulées "Têtes Brulées" 53 votes ( qualifier) 1990
Deante' Hitchcock ft. JID "I Got Money Now" 53 votes ( qualifier) 2020
Sequal "It's Not Too Late" 54 votes ( qualifier) 1985
Kim Wan-sun "The Dance In The Rhythm" 54 votes ( qualifier) 1987
Anderson André Bodjongo et les Rayons X "Bwa Mba" 54 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Kim Hye Yeon "Southbound Train" 55 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Wonder Girls "So Hot" 56 votes ( qualifier) 2008
Playboi Carti "Magnolia" 57 votes ( qualifier) placenames
The Pack "Vans" 57 votes ( qualifier) 4 letters
Arling & Cameron "We Love To Rock" 58 votes ( qualifier) 1999
Moussa Doumbia "Nambara" 60 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
Mighty Sparrow "Tobago Gals" ~60 votes*** ( qualifier) placenames
Mighty Sparrow "Tobago Gals"
Spoonie Gee "Spoonin' Rap" 61 votes ( qualifier) artist=title
Hugh Masekela "A Night In Tunisia" 62 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
Louis Armstrong "Laughin' Louie" 64 votes ( qualifier) artist=title
Sékouba Bambino "A Nyara N'na" 65 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Dyke And The Blazers "Funky Broadway" 65 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Brown Eyed Girls "Smile Chock Chock" 66 votes ( qualifier) short songs
U-Roy "Honey Come Back" 68 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Quruli "Princess Mononoke" 68 votes ( qualifier) 1998
Quruli "Princess Mononoke"
Métal Urbain "Panik" 69 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Kitty Pryde "thanks kathryn obvious" 69 votes ( qualifier) album closers
Sister Verna "Nah Broke No Fight" 70 votes ( qualifier) 1980
M'du & Mandoza "50/50" 70 votes ( qualifier) 2001
Ashley Monroe "Siren" 73 votes ( qualifier) 2021
Rosemary Clooney "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" 75 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Rosemary Clooney "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"
Deborah Allen "Telepathy" 80 votes ( qualifier) 1987
LeAnn Rimes "Blue" 83 votes ( qualifier) 4 letters
Mo-Do "Eins Zwei Polizei" 101 votes* ( qualifier) 1994
Augustus Pablo "Chant To King Selassie I" 101 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Billie Holiday "Billie's Blues" 103 votes ( qualifier) artist=title
Youssou N'dour et le Super Etoile de Dakar "Ndobine" 104 votes ( qualifier) 1985
Ennio Morricone "Watch Chimes" 116 votes ( qualifier) short songs
Ruff Ryders ft. Eve & Nokio "What Ya Want" 117 votes ( qualifier) 1999
Median score = 45 votes
As for what follows, these weren't my nominees but I'm owning them anyway: they're tracks I put in the Suggestions Box that I don't think anyone nominated but that Tom chose (though he might well have chosen "Love Rap" even if I hadn't posted it); he's doing that less - taking unnominated songs from the Suggestions Box - now that we've gone from two to four nominations each (one main and three bonuses; the latter might or might not get chosen by Tom for the competition); if you're wondering how "8th Wonder" only got 58 votes, it was up against "The Breaks," "That's The Joint," and "New Rap Language" (the Suggestions Box is a collaborative playlist, usually on Spotify though for a couple of polls it was on YouTube):
Playboi Carti "Location" 18 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Stacey Q "Good Girl" 27 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Gillette "You're A Dog" 43 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Sugarhill Gang "8th Wonder" 58 votes ( qualifier) 1980
Sugarhill Gang "8th Wonder"
Orange Caramel "Bubble Bath" 64 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Spoonie Gee "Love Rap" 66 votes ( qualifier) 1980
Ata Kak "Yemmpa Aba" 119 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Tito Puente, Celia Cruz "No Hay Amigos" 123 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Danity Kane ft. Missy Elliott "Bad Girl" 129 votes ( qualifier) 2008
*"Eins Zwei Polizei" was a bonus nom I shared with someone else.
**Tom used a vid with the wrong mix of "Dingo Bell" on his YouTube playlist (Spotify playlist had the right mix); don't know if that made any difference in the vote total [got 40, which is low but managed to be enough to get to Round One, where Tom put in the correct mix]; I notice that when the YT list has a vid that won't play in North America (Tom and most voters are in Britain), often it'll go for a day before someone intervenes and posts one that does, which implies the YT playlist isn't getting that much extra attention. A significant number of my nominations aren't on Spotify, though, probably far more than the average participant's, and obviously those get some YouTube listens. Not being on Spotify is likely a handicap and those tracks tend to be on the bottom of this list, but they're more obscure anyway. Some of my noms that did well while not on Spotify are "Telepathy," "Nah Broke No Fight," "Honey Come Back," "Smile Chock Chock," "A Nyara N'na," "Southbound Train," "Bwa Mba."
Brown Eyed Girls "Smile Chock Chock"
***Twitter had tech problems on the 3rd day (the final day) that "Gurage Tone" and "Tobago Gals" were up in their placenames qualifiers, though that probably cost those tracks no more than a handful of votes since by Day 3 most votes have been cast. But the tech screwup may have redounded to "Gurage Tone"'s benefit ("Tobago Gals" was in a different heat and wasn't running against "Gurage Tone"): "Gurage Tone" had finished fourth - last - in its qualifier, but there had only been one vote separating 2nd place (qualifies for Round One) from 3rd (doesn't qualify) when Twitter stopped recording votes; Tom decided this was unfair and close enough for a runoff so he staged one, and for some reason he included 4th place "Gurage Tone" in the runoff as well, maybe 'cause he liked it - but he liked 3rd place Helen's "Zanzibar (Afro Mix)" more, which won the playoff decisively [for a while this became his frequent but not universal practice, to include the 4th-place track in a runoff when there was a tie for 2nd, but I think this was the first time he'd done it, and he seems to have now stopped] - "Gurage Tone" finished last again but this may have given it more listeners: when it came time for the Golden Beat nominations (for Best Song One Hasn't Heard Before The Poll), it got six, more than anything else I've ever brought to these polls. So I'd say that, oddly enough, "Gurage Tone" has been my most successful song. So it ran again, this time for the Golden Beat in the Placenames World division! - where it finished last again, of course, and once again was behind "Zanzibar (Afro Mix)" which finished second (and got my vote because, since I knew "Gurage Tone" before the poll, I wasn't allowed to vote for "Gurage Tone"). So more people heard "Gurage Tone" than if Twitter hadn't messed up, it garnered an historic, never-to-be-repeated three last places in a single Pop World Cup, and though not that many people voted for it, everyone who did started their own band! Anyway, great track; not high impact when you first hear it, but it sticks with you.
("Gurage Tone" got into the second Second Chances poll in Dec. '22 and this time scored only 29 against slightly worse competition, but this resulted in 3rd place by one vote so it failed to extend its last-place streak.)
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/388257.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.
For what the polls are, you can read Tom's explanation at the aforementioned Freaky Trigger page. My own explanation is this:
Tom's invented a game where he gets a bunch of us to listen to music that other participants choose, and gets at least some of them to listen to music that *I* choose. It's quite brilliant, actually, this strategy, since it allows me to force my enthusiasms on others while getting me in turn to listen to and take account of other people's enthusiasms, and in the process keeps a lot of us hooked. This goes along with many of Tom's other projects, which often are about confronting himself with other people's tastes and choices and cajoling us to confront his own opinions and tastes, meanwhile we discover and/or rethink a lot of good music, and find new worlds and new ideas. The Peoples Pop Polls are in the category of what he and friends call "orgafun," which means he finds a way to turn the adventure into a game or competition. In these Pop World Cups, Tom's practice of pitting sharks against sharks and minnows against minnows in the qualifying round, as well as creating "B-side" subtourneys, ensures that a lot of tracks that are new and surprising to many of us stay in the conversation for more than one round.
Bali Baby "Designer"
Click to viewMy nominees, though, rarely stick beyond the qualifiers. This is not because my taste is so singular, necessarily, but because I just fell naturally into the role of, let's give 'em something new, let's give 'em something they don't know, let's give 'em something *I* don't know.
My first nominees were for a charity poll in May 2020 for Refuge, a women's shelter, and so I chose tracks I loved by two artists who'd courageously participated in the New York Times's Me-Too series back in 2017, Tina B and Vanessa Carlton. You shouldn't get the impression from this that my nominees going forward were a punch bowl of worthiness, however: I quickly decided that the electorate was veering too easily to postpunk and Britpop and fairly well-known Anglo-American pop, rock, and soul - music that was okay, usually, but surprisingly unsurprising given Tom's own exploratory nature. I shouldn't have been so surprised, given that it's probably an ironclad psychological law - the mice effect - that people prefer the music they're most familiar with. But I decided I was going to nominate what there wasn't enough of and, for that reason, what people ought to and maybe wanted to hear, but I particularly wanted to include stuff that challenged the middlebrow massive that kept giving victories to artists like David Bowie and Talking Heads. So I sought out old Korean ballads and new fucked-up Soundtrack rap, and stuff on the border of gratingly great and gratingly unlistenable. And of course reaching out beyond myself means, you know, reaching out beyond myself, and reaching to the world's music means reaching to a world that's often awash in chauvinisms and sexism - though almost certainly a lot of the c's & s, being in languages other than English, I didn't pick up on even as I was nominating it. Anyway, not to be simplistic about artists I've often made little effort to understand in context, but my nominees have included guns, butts, and guns and butts together.
But also, crucially, I'll only nominate something for which I feel enough of an emotional commitment that when people inevitably vote it down I'll think, "What's wrong with these people?" So even with all the variety, and even though I was mostly eschewing rock, nonetheless you get a footprint from this music that pretty clearly says "Frank Kogan" and that sounds not so surprising from someone whose official favorite album is still Raw Power by the Stooges (but definitely the Bowie mix; hey there, middlebrow massive!).
So here are my nominees. The file hence this post got its name 'cause about a year into the polls I wanted to see how my new low scores compared to my old low scores so searched out the early qualifiers. Then several months after that I decided "might as well include everybody no matter how they scored" but kept the file title as being evocative and usually correct anyway.
The polls are of two types, year polls and theme polls. A year poll consists of tracks that were first released during a particular year (e.g., 1990), each theme poll uses tracks that fit a particular theme chosen from a pool that voters had suggested, those who nominated previous poll winners often getting a leg up in the suggestion process - though the final choice is usually by vote. Themes lurch all over the place, e.g., Death And The Afterlife, Placenames, Album Closers. For the theme polls I'll tend to veer older or newer than the '80s-'90s preferences of the voters, often seeking low-status modern hip-hop or little-known overseas songs, sometimes also hip-hop. Ditto hip-hop and overseas for the year polls, though I also keep an eye out for country music. For me, the nominations search is as big an adventure as the poll itself. One of my great moments was the 1980 poll, when I chose two performers I hadn't even heard of 24 hours before nominating them - but nonetheless those were tracks that I could absolutely get behind emotionally. Occasionally I'll nominate a track like "Funky Broadway" that I normally would consider too high-profile but that I think absolutely needs to be in the poll and I don't trust that someone else will nominate it. For 1999 I wanted to make sure the Eve track that got in was the one that best represented the year's daring spirit. For 1980 I made sure someone had already nominated "That's The Joint" before happily picking Cho Yong-pil. My reggae nominations have consistently done so well that I've pulled back on nominating reggae.
Cho Yong-pil "길잃은 철새" (A Stray Migratory Bird)
But despite my nomination strategy, I almost always manage to be shocked, once again, each time, at how poorly my nominations do - I mean, what's wrong with these people! - except, after Cho Yong-pil's ballad predictably crashed out in 1980 (it's a bravura performance, by the way) I was shocked by how well Moon Joo-ran's ballad did in '66 and how well Kim Hye Yeon's flighty trot did in '94.
Normally, once a track does badly, I'll at least have a theory, however specious, as to why: Wesley Gonzaga is too piercing, "Déranger" is too deranged, Wa$$up are too teen, "Theme From A Summer Place" is too cheesy (and ran up against unusually strong competition; so did Bonnie Guitar; so did Kidd Kenn). But for number-one-loser Backbone's "5 Duce- 4 Tre," I don't have a clue. It's a vintage Dungeon Family track, one of the greats of 2001, with beauty unspooling around the rap and the sound effects. The only insight I have is that Juvenile's great "Back That Azz Up" (not my nom) didn't poll nearly as well as it should have, and it also has long beauty unspooling beneath the track. So at least the voters' blind spot is consistent.
Backbone "5 Duce- 4 Tre"
Farah's "Losing My Religion" got varied comments, from aghast to I'm Voting For This, So What! And So There! But I couldn't find words to tweet out any of my own reasons, which'd've included how the mannered talking vocals and the empty space of the instruments create an eked-out beauty in the chord shifts, a beauty R.E.M. didn't quite get to. (Doubt I've found the words now, either.)
Farah "Losing My Religion"
Most Peoples Pop Polls start with around 300 songs plus or minus, occasionally up to the high 300s. The first round is the Qualifiers, which cuts the number in half; the second round is Round One, which cuts it in half again, etc., eventually knocking it down to 32 contestants like in a soccer World Cup (we call that round The Final Groups), and the tournament plays out from there - but more and more these days Tom will, back in Round One (which, remember, is actually the second round), break out a lower set of medium-performing tracks for a second-tier "B-sides" competition. And back in the Qualifiers he sets sharks against sharks (that is, popular tracks vs. popular tracks) and minnows against minnows, so as to give little-known tracks a better shot at our eardrums and so as not to bore us with lopsided heats. Even with these protections, most of my noms die in the Qualifiers, and the few that make it through rarely survive Round One. Kitty Pryde's "thanks kathryn obvious" was one of only 2 to get more votes in Round One than it got in the quallies, but still didn't get through to Round Two. The other, "Night In Tunisia," after almost getting wiped out in its qually, made it to the Final Groups; but that was a second-tier B-sides Final Group. Billie Holiday was a last-minute choice of mine when Bo Diddley noms were capped (in Title=Artist) before I could nominate an oddball live track of his, and my Billie nom went respectably far. (It was a respectable nom.) "Têtes Brulées" went all the way to Round Two, quite deservedly, though it was in an early tournament where Tom was still overprotecting overseas tracks through Round One by letting them only compete with each other. (That's standard in Qualifiers but no longer in Round One.) Iirc, Seo Taiji's "I Know" was my lowest-scoring track to get through to Round One. Ruff Ryders/Eve's "What Ya Want" was my highest scorer to lose out in the quallies. [EDIT: Actually, MC Teteu's "Dingo Bell Sou Seu Papai Noel," with only 40 votes (11 fewer than "I Know"), made it through in the Not In English poll.]
Kitty Pryde "thanks kathryn obvious"
But see the footnotes for what I consider my most successful nominee.
Early tournaments had fewer voters, hence those noms tend to be the low scorers on this list - though notice "5 Duce- 4 Tre" didn't do much better in a recent Second Chances poll, and Tina B actually lost votes. And relatively recent Wesley Gonzaga and Franz Waxman tracks are down there with the losers.
Frank's low scores peoples pop world cups
Click the song title if you want to hear it. Click "(qualifier)" if you want to see the heat, and when you get there scroll down if you want to see comments. In italics I've listed the name of the particular poll the track competed in.
Backbone "5 Duce- 4 Tre" 10 votes ( qualifier) 2001
Kidd Kenn "Slide (Remix)" 12 votes ( qualifier) covers [flashing lights in video]
Bali Baby "Designer" 15 votes ( qualifier) debuts
Fairies "Hey Hey Light Me Up" 16 votes ( qualifier) covers
SECOND CHANCES POLL: Backbone "5 Duce- 4 Tre" 16 votes ( qualifier)
Hurşid Yenigün "Şeker Oğlan" 17 votes ( qualifier) covers
Wa$$up "Jingle Bell" 20 votes ( qualifier) Christmas
DJ Wesley Gonzaga, MC Cyclope & MC Laureta "Sarra Nela Com Fuzil Na Bandolera" 22 votes ( qualifier) 2021
Rail Band "Mali Cebalenw" 23 votes ( qualifier) Black history 68-72
Franz Waxman "The Birth Of Andrei" 24 votes ( qualifier) soundtracks
Franz Waxman "The Birth Of Andrei"
He5 "Jingle Bell" 25 votes ( qualifier) Christmas
Cho Yong-pil "길잃은 철새" (A Stray Migratory Bird) 25 votes ( qualifier) 1980
SECOND CHANCES POLL: Tina B "I Always Wanted To Be Free" 26 votes ( qualifier)
Mani Bella ft. Tenor "Déranger" 28 votes ( qualifier) duets
Winam Jazz Band "Elly Opil" 29 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
MC Thammy, MC Jhenny (DJ Malícia) "Vulgo Malvadão" 29 votes ( qualifier) 2021
SECOND CHANCES POLL: Teddy Yo "Gurage Tone" 29 votes ( qualifier)
Lee Sun-hee "왜 나만" (Why Me) 29 votes ( qualifier) 1990
Trick Daddy ft. Trina "Nann Nigga" 30 votes ( qualifier) duets
Luke "Cool (Some Cool Sh*t)" 30 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Luke "Cool (Some Cool Sh*t)"
DJ Guuga & MC Pierre "Cabaré" 30 votes ( qualifier) 2020 [flashing lights in the video]
Teddy Yo "Gurage Tone" ~32 votes*** ( qualifier) placenames
Max Steiner "Long Distance Call" (Theme from A Summer Place) 35 votes ( qualifier) soundtracks
Bikoko Jean Aladin "Cameroun Airlines" 35 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
FBG Duck "Slide" 36 votes ( qualifier) death
Bonnie Guitar "Grey Rain Years" 37 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Pipokinha, MT7 "Fala Fala" 38 votes ( qualifier) 2022
Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Drew Seeley "Breaking Free" 39 votes ( qualifier) soundtracks
Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Drew Seeley "Breaking Free"
MC Teteu "Dingo Bell Sou Seu Papai Noel" 40 votes** ( qualifier) not in English
Jvcki Wai "SPIKA" 41 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Yoñlu "Polyalphabetic Cipher" 42 votes ( qualifier) 2008
Makhendlas "Emenwe (Menwana Mix)" 42 votes ( qualifier) 1998
Lil Pump "Nu Uh" 42 votes ( qualifier) short songs
Stoney Edwards "She's My Rock" 42 votes ( qualifier) Black history 68-72
Anderson Neiff, MC Terror, Laryssa Real, MC Magrinho "O Neiff Me Ligou" 42 votes ( qualifier) 2021
Anderson Neiff, MC Terror, Laryssa Real, MC Magrinho "O Neiff Me Ligou"
Руся (Russya) "Русалонько" (Mermaid) 43 votes ( qualifier) not in English
Vanessa Carlton "Blue Pool" 43 votes ( qualifier) Refuge
SHeDAISY "Lucky 4 You (Tonight I'm Just Me)" 44 votes ( qualifier) 1999
Lee Konitz "I'll Remember April" 44 votes ( qualifier) album closers
Tina B "I Always Wanted To Be Free" 45 votes ( qualifier) Refuge
Niniola "Saro" 45 votes ( qualifier) 4 letters
Judy Torres "Come Into My Arms (South Mix)" 47 votes ( qualifier) 1987
Farah "Losing My Religion" 49 votes ( qualifier) 2022
Bali Baby "Futurama" 50 votes ( qualifier) album closers
Seo Taiji & Boys "I Know" 51 votes ( qualifier) debuts
Moon Joo-ran "Don't Tempt Me" 51 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Moon Joo-ran "Don't Tempt Me"
Stanley Holloway "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" 52 votes ( qualifier) death
Les Têtes Brulées "Têtes Brulées" 53 votes ( qualifier) 1990
Deante' Hitchcock ft. JID "I Got Money Now" 53 votes ( qualifier) 2020
Sequal "It's Not Too Late" 54 votes ( qualifier) 1985
Kim Wan-sun "The Dance In The Rhythm" 54 votes ( qualifier) 1987
Anderson André Bodjongo et les Rayons X "Bwa Mba" 54 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Kim Hye Yeon "Southbound Train" 55 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Wonder Girls "So Hot" 56 votes ( qualifier) 2008
Playboi Carti "Magnolia" 57 votes ( qualifier) placenames
The Pack "Vans" 57 votes ( qualifier) 4 letters
Arling & Cameron "We Love To Rock" 58 votes ( qualifier) 1999
Moussa Doumbia "Nambara" 60 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
Mighty Sparrow "Tobago Gals" ~60 votes*** ( qualifier) placenames
Mighty Sparrow "Tobago Gals"
Spoonie Gee "Spoonin' Rap" 61 votes ( qualifier) artist=title
Hugh Masekela "A Night In Tunisia" 62 votes ( qualifier) Black history 73-77
Louis Armstrong "Laughin' Louie" 64 votes ( qualifier) artist=title
Sékouba Bambino "A Nyara N'na" 65 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Dyke And The Blazers "Funky Broadway" 65 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Brown Eyed Girls "Smile Chock Chock" 66 votes ( qualifier) short songs
U-Roy "Honey Come Back" 68 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Quruli "Princess Mononoke" 68 votes ( qualifier) 1998
Quruli "Princess Mononoke"
Métal Urbain "Panik" 69 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Kitty Pryde "thanks kathryn obvious" 69 votes ( qualifier) album closers
Sister Verna "Nah Broke No Fight" 70 votes ( qualifier) 1980
M'du & Mandoza "50/50" 70 votes ( qualifier) 2001
Ashley Monroe "Siren" 73 votes ( qualifier) 2021
Rosemary Clooney "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" 75 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Rosemary Clooney "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"
Deborah Allen "Telepathy" 80 votes ( qualifier) 1987
LeAnn Rimes "Blue" 83 votes ( qualifier) 4 letters
Mo-Do "Eins Zwei Polizei" 101 votes* ( qualifier) 1994
Augustus Pablo "Chant To King Selassie I" 101 votes ( qualifier) 1977
Billie Holiday "Billie's Blues" 103 votes ( qualifier) artist=title
Youssou N'dour et le Super Etoile de Dakar "Ndobine" 104 votes ( qualifier) 1985
Ennio Morricone "Watch Chimes" 116 votes ( qualifier) short songs
Ruff Ryders ft. Eve & Nokio "What Ya Want" 117 votes ( qualifier) 1999
Median score = 45 votes
As for what follows, these weren't my nominees but I'm owning them anyway: they're tracks I put in the Suggestions Box that I don't think anyone nominated but that Tom chose (though he might well have chosen "Love Rap" even if I hadn't posted it); he's doing that less - taking unnominated songs from the Suggestions Box - now that we've gone from two to four nominations each (one main and three bonuses; the latter might or might not get chosen by Tom for the competition); if you're wondering how "8th Wonder" only got 58 votes, it was up against "The Breaks," "That's The Joint," and "New Rap Language" (the Suggestions Box is a collaborative playlist, usually on Spotify though for a couple of polls it was on YouTube):
Playboi Carti "Location" 18 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Stacey Q "Good Girl" 27 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Gillette "You're A Dog" 43 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Sugarhill Gang "8th Wonder" 58 votes ( qualifier) 1980
Sugarhill Gang "8th Wonder"
Orange Caramel "Bubble Bath" 64 votes ( qualifier) album openers
Spoonie Gee "Love Rap" 66 votes ( qualifier) 1980
Ata Kak "Yemmpa Aba" 119 votes ( qualifier) 1994
Tito Puente, Celia Cruz "No Hay Amigos" 123 votes ( qualifier) 1966
Danity Kane ft. Missy Elliott "Bad Girl" 129 votes ( qualifier) 2008
*"Eins Zwei Polizei" was a bonus nom I shared with someone else.
**Tom used a vid with the wrong mix of "Dingo Bell" on his YouTube playlist (Spotify playlist had the right mix); don't know if that made any difference in the vote total [got 40, which is low but managed to be enough to get to Round One, where Tom put in the correct mix]; I notice that when the YT list has a vid that won't play in North America (Tom and most voters are in Britain), often it'll go for a day before someone intervenes and posts one that does, which implies the YT playlist isn't getting that much extra attention. A significant number of my nominations aren't on Spotify, though, probably far more than the average participant's, and obviously those get some YouTube listens. Not being on Spotify is likely a handicap and those tracks tend to be on the bottom of this list, but they're more obscure anyway. Some of my noms that did well while not on Spotify are "Telepathy," "Nah Broke No Fight," "Honey Come Back," "Smile Chock Chock," "A Nyara N'na," "Southbound Train," "Bwa Mba."
Brown Eyed Girls "Smile Chock Chock"
***Twitter had tech problems on the 3rd day (the final day) that "Gurage Tone" and "Tobago Gals" were up in their placenames qualifiers, though that probably cost those tracks no more than a handful of votes since by Day 3 most votes have been cast. But the tech screwup may have redounded to "Gurage Tone"'s benefit ("Tobago Gals" was in a different heat and wasn't running against "Gurage Tone"): "Gurage Tone" had finished fourth - last - in its qualifier, but there had only been one vote separating 2nd place (qualifies for Round One) from 3rd (doesn't qualify) when Twitter stopped recording votes; Tom decided this was unfair and close enough for a runoff so he staged one, and for some reason he included 4th place "Gurage Tone" in the runoff as well, maybe 'cause he liked it - but he liked 3rd place Helen's "Zanzibar (Afro Mix)" more, which won the playoff decisively [for a while this became his frequent but not universal practice, to include the 4th-place track in a runoff when there was a tie for 2nd, but I think this was the first time he'd done it, and he seems to have now stopped] - "Gurage Tone" finished last again but this may have given it more listeners: when it came time for the Golden Beat nominations (for Best Song One Hasn't Heard Before The Poll), it got six, more than anything else I've ever brought to these polls. So I'd say that, oddly enough, "Gurage Tone" has been my most successful song. So it ran again, this time for the Golden Beat in the Placenames World division! - where it finished last again, of course, and once again was behind "Zanzibar (Afro Mix)" which finished second (and got my vote because, since I knew "Gurage Tone" before the poll, I wasn't allowed to vote for "Gurage Tone"). So more people heard "Gurage Tone" than if Twitter hadn't messed up, it garnered an historic, never-to-be-repeated three last places in a single Pop World Cup, and though not that many people voted for it, everyone who did started their own band! Anyway, great track; not high impact when you first hear it, but it sticks with you.
("Gurage Tone" got into the second Second Chances poll in Dec. '22 and this time scored only 29 against slightly worse competition, but this resulted in 3rd place by one vote so it failed to extend its last-place streak.)
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/388257.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.