The 11th Freaky Trigger Pop Music Focus Group: Raw Results

I promised the results would be up on Saturday, and here they are. Detailed scores, instant reviews, correlations and clusters, and implications all to follow.

This is from 39 votes - 32 present at Poptimism yesterday, 7 “postal”. The last of whose votes swapped the top two positions, so it was pretty tight, though it was clear early on that those were the only two tracks in with a chance of winning. A low-scoring Focus Group in general this, but it’s very good to be back: expect us to keep this fast format in the future.

And without further ado - the rankings:

1. AVRIL LAVIGNE - “Girlfriend”
2. Christina Aguilera - “Candyman”
3. Nelly Furtado - “Say It Right”
4. MIA - “Bird Flu”
5. Gwen Stefani ft Akon - “The Sweet Escape”
6. The Gossip - “Standing In The Way Of Control”
7. Take That - “Shine”
8. Ciara - “Like A Boy”
9. The Klaxons - “Golden Skans”
10. JoJo - “Too Little Too Late”
11. FHM High Street Honeyz - “I Touch Myself”
12. Good Charlotte - “Keep Your Hands Off My Girl”
13. Kaiser Chiefs - “Ruby”
14. Maximo Park - “Our Velocity”
15. Alex Gaudino ft Crystal Waters - “Destination Calabria”
16. Just Jack - “Starz In Their Eyes”
17. Mika - “Grace Kelly”
18. Fall Out Boy - “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race”
19. Girls Aloud and Sugababes - “Walk This Way”
20. The View - “Same Jeans”

1. FT's Matt D’Cruz on April 7th, 2007

   I may well be entirely to blame for the relatively high positioning of the FHM High Street Honeys but who on earth was voting for Gwen?

2. stevem on April 7th, 2007

   Fall Out Boy is the 9th best song here!

3. FT's Tom on April 7th, 2007

   I was surprised the Gossip didn’t make a stronger showing, and Fall Out Boy didn’t come higher (though I wasn’t expecting it to be in the top half).

4. FT's Alan on April 7th, 2007

   first time i’ve heard more than 5 seconds of the gossip track. perhaps i should hear it more ‘closely’ cos i thought it was rub after a good intro, and it suprises me how high it it here.

5. FT's Tom on April 7th, 2007

   I think it’s good but not great myself - but it did very well indeed on the weekly LJ polls so I was expecting its form to translate.

6. FT's CarsmileSteve on April 7th, 2007

   hahaha, as per usual my higher votes were for those at the bottom end…

   not the greatest set of 20 songs i must say. DO BETTER 2007!!

7. FT's Tom on April 7th, 2007

   Even my average was down. One “Triffid Farm” (ahem) was the Pop Tart. One “Marcello Carlin” was the Pop Nun.

8. DavidM on April 7th, 2007

   That poor girl-faced little boy in The View - he doesn’t deserve to be last!

9. Pete on April 8th, 2007

   How did Mystic Meg do?

   Be interesting to look at the stats of the voters, what with the top six songs being female fronted acts. I sthere a pop as feminine issue being developed here?

10. Andrew Farrell on April 8th, 2007

    I’m surprised to hear the top two were much clear of #3, which I though was by some distance the best song of the three.

11. Pop Princess on April 8th, 2007

    Avril???

    So glad I found this blog - you need my votes to get it right :o)

    Mika baby Mika!

12. FT's Alan on April 8th, 2007

    Hi there Pop Princess! We want pop luv, but you may find Mika luv thin on the ground here. Don’t let that put you off tho.

13. steve m on April 10th, 2007

    what i would’ve given them:

    ‘Girlfriend’ (8)
    ‘Candyman’ (5)
    ‘Say It Right’ (5)
    ‘Bird Flu’ (9)
    ‘The Sweet Escape’ (7)
    ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ (7)
    ‘Shine’ (9)
    ‘Like A Boy’ (7)
    ‘Golden Skans’ (7)
    ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Girl’ (3)
    ‘Ruby’ (5)
    ‘Our Velocity’ (6)
    ‘Destination Calabria’ (5)
    ‘Starz In Their Eyez’ (4)
    ‘Grace Kelly’ (5)
    ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race’ (8)
    ‘Walk This Way’ (4)

14. jel on April 10th, 2007

    I gave Fall Out Boy two zeros thanks to a joker. They are false metal.

    JoJo was my highest ranked.

15. Lex on April 10th, 2007

    I don’t remember much of the voting process (incidentally, DOUBTERS, I not only made it to the house party but indeed stayed up until 2pm the next day) except that there were only six songs which I didn’t give either 0 or 10.

16. edward o on April 10th, 2007

    I was going to participate in this but my god, there were some songs I just couldn’t listen to. I felt just like Lex must when he listens to the charts.

    The best song won. Nelly should have come second. Take That underrated. Tom, can we have a sad kitten with a caption that says “Poptimists, why do you hate Mark Owen?”.

17. FT's koganbot on April 11th, 2007

    I’d have given JoJo and Nelly F. 9 each; M.I.A. and Ciara and Good Charlotte and maybe Xtina 8’s. Pretty much everything else clusters between 5 and 7. “Walk This Way” and Same Jeans and maybe Take That (don’t remember how it sounds) would be my only under 5’s. I predict that Poptimist girls like JoJo less than Poptimist boys do but that in larger society this is reversed. High scores for The Gossip are wishful thinking. Not such a bad set of songs, though.

18. FT's Tom on April 11th, 2007

    I think you might be right on the Jojo - have no means of proving the reverse hypothesis tho.

    More (i.e. some) children/teens needed in the postal votes I think! The youngest individual taking part was the Lex, I think. (unless Cis is younger than Lex)

19. FT's Tom on April 11th, 2007

    Actually I think Abby Poptext is younger too, and she was there, and filled in a ballot, but I’m not sure it got to me :(

    (Two anonymous ballots were handed in, but I have ruled them out being hers, as neither of them gave a high mark to Avril.)