Pop’s Biggest BRAIN
On Twitter yesterday, while writing the Pet Shop Boys entry, I asked “Who is the most intelligent person in pop?” – I got a lot of replies, so here is a list of all the crowdsourced nominations, from Lady Gaga to Clint Poppie.
The list is in the form of a poll – pick your five top pop brains by Friday teatime and we will know once and for all who has music’s mightiest mind!
THE MOST INTELLIGENT PERSON IN POP (You can pick FIVE)
- Brian ENO (52%, 71 Votes)
- Neil TENNANT (42%, 58 Votes)
- Jarvis COCKER (36%, 50 Votes)
- Bill DRUMMOND (34%, 46 Votes)
- Brian MAY (23%, 32 Votes)
- Paul MORLEY (18%, 25 Votes)
- Lady GAGA (17%, 23 Votes)
- Jay Z (17%, 23 Votes)
- SHAKIRA (16%, 22 Votes)
- Green GARTSIDE (15%, 20 Votes)
- Alex JAMES (11%, 15 Votes)
- Simon COWELL (11%, 15 Votes)
- The GZA (9%, 13 Votes)
- Roisin MURPHY (9%, 12 Votes)
- Kanye WEST (9%, 12 Votes)
- Beyonce KNOWLES (7%, 10 Votes)
- Nicky WIRE (6%, 8 Votes)
- Lily ALLEN (6%, 8 Votes)
- Clint MANSELL (5%, 7 Votes)
- Girl TALK (4%, 6 Votes)
- Lil WAYNE (4%, 6 Votes)
- NY (3%, 4 Votes)
- John MAYER (1%, 2 Votes)
- E-40 (1%, 1 Votes)
- Cliff RICHARD (1%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 137
Poll closes: 6 November 2009 @ 4:00 pm
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NB no nominations (except of people not involved in the making, production, distribution etc of pop music) were excluded. None were added. Such are the rules of the Twitter poll ;)
Tom you have missed out YOURSELF, I definitely remember someone nominating you!
Half the people in this list are perennial idiots – James, Cocker, Wire, Cowell, Allen, Gaga, West.
Gotta rep for my pick, Ny – she’s a London grime/r&b singer/songwriter, I interviewed her last year and she’s easily the smartest person in pop I’ve ever interviewed. Unabridged text here – and do check out her terrific Split Endz Vol 2 mixtape and “Falling Again”, her track with Wookie which was my single of the year last year…
Also if anyone could explain how and why sodding Girl Talk is intelligent…
Honestly. Being KNOWING is not the same thing as being SMART. People always confuse these in pop :(
I am not involved in the making, production, or distribution* of pop music!
*at least not in ways sanctioned by THE MAN
I should have said Kate Bush instead of Jarvis Cocker, the question was confusing.
Hahah I only said Nicky Wire because he bangs on about his politics degree every other interview.
I wish I’d nominated that guy who used to be in D:Ream who designed and built CERN with his bare hands.
No Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) nom.? I hate to sound like Lennon sneering at a fan’s suggestion that Ringo was the best drummer in the world with ‘He isn’t even the best drummer in the band’, but I do suspect that Tennant isn’t even the biggest brain in arch-/ex-journo-/gender-identity-pop.
No noms for Bjork, Gabriel, Kate Bush, Byrne, Dre also strikes me as a little odd…
Just because Alex James turns up on Radio 4 sometimes does not make him intelligent (It occurs to me that I’ve never been on R4, but I have been on the World Service, which is way cooler).
Thinking about it I suspect “cultured” is a better word for some of the “intelligence” being rewarded here.
I think all the members of Blur are reasonably smart guys – I suppose this is based on the ‘evidence’ of the things they’ve done outside of the band e.g. Rowntree getting into politics, Albarn’s omnivorous arty projects, James…making cheese (ok but he’s always been eloquent) and I understand Coxon has read a lot of books.
Richard Jobson once pointed out a quite large and full bookcase to an NME journalist, and proudly told him he had read the FIRST PAGE OF EVERY BOOK IN IT. You start laughing when you hear this story, except then you think, hang on! Who is the laugh actually on?
also, where is the “none of the above” option pls!
#12 Now you’ve done it, Jobbo’ll be back round again shouting the odds in no time.
“Tash! Tash! Inexorable Tash!”
I guess this list should be taken with a grain of salt, coz I see the list and I can only see 3-4 that are actually brainy. OK, in the spirit of fun and nothing to do, I voted for Cocker (dude has Hon.d), West, Lil Wayne, Beyonce, Brian May (dude has PhD). No sarcasm, they are really intelligent.
@ #2 Lex, those are less than half of the list. Just because Jarvis is all over the tabloids and make a fool of himself, saying wanky things and sucked in QT doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. He’s annoying but let’s be real, he’s wittier than you think. Same goes for Kanye. His douchebagerry overshadows his genius just like Lily Allen. Alex James was like involve in a documentary about Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty’s favorite white stuff and is earning critical praise. I would love to be on your perennial idiot list, Lex.
If he was here, I’d vote for Paul Simon.
to be fair, “s/he is intelligent” and “s/he is an idiot” are hardly mutually exclusive
Pleased that a related article to ‘Pop’s Biggest BRAIN’ is ‘When ILX – or rather Steve M on ILX’.
you are our elephant in the room
Re 16: surely we’re all on Lex’s perennial idiot list.
what no dylan? i vote cowell. you all know it’s true.
#9 – Blessed are the Cheesemakers!
Cowell strikes me as fairly clever, shrewd blah blah – a scientist’s approach to the entertainment biz (and perhaps to music appreciation too? hard to get a sense of his passion compared to actual producers like Waterman), and I can’t help admiring him for his success. Git.
What no Donald Fagen or Walter Becker?!
Did people nominate for musical intelligence (or music-related intelligence, anyway) or for “S/he seems really intelligent in interviews and in other things (other than the inexplicable decision to pursue a musical career)”? Nominees seem to meet conventional attributes of intelligence rather than “apply their intellect better than others at what actually matters most here, i.e., making music.”
In any event, had I been on Twitter I’d have made my criteria (1) made almost-always-interesting and generally very good music over a significant period of time, and (2) is still doing so now. (Without criterion #2 I’d have nominated James Brown and Elvis Presley.) And I come up with one name. And I balk at saying it, since I’ve got conventional ideas about intelligence and this guy has never written inspired lyrics, for instance. But all right: Max Martin!
(Ignoring my own criteria, I ticked Kanye, Bouncy, Jay-Z, and Lily.)
I’d venture that Lily Allen is about as intelligent as I am – neither of us can write very good lyrics though :(
I would like to vote DAVID BOWIE!
By the way, who or what is E-40?
Wot no Kele Orekeke? Also where is Lady Stush? I am surprised the Lex didn’t nom her.
I’m going to put my case forward for Shakira. She’s fluent in four languages, can play guitar, drums and harmonica and always comes across as very intelligent in interviews.
Also, love this from her Wikipedia:
“Shakira is intensely interested in world history. She frequently studies the history and languages of the countries she visits. After her Oral Fixation tour ended in summer 2007, Shakira audited a class in Los Angeles at UCLA, on the History of Western Civilization. She used her middle and last names, Isabel Mebarak, and told the professor she was visiting from Colombia so as to avoid being recognized as a celebrity”.
After experiencing a Road to Damascus moment over Lady Gaga in the past 48 hours, I wish I could vote again, even though I picked the hivemind’s top five. Chemistry @32 makes a good case for Shakira, too.
@Rory. I saw the Bad Romance vid. for the first time today, and may finally have been won over by Gaga too. The level of inventiveness and commitment to performance there (around a song that’s on one level just OK, but *does* zig where it should zag a few times, so manages to sound fresh) is remarkable, and just isn’t dismissible (as I’ve previously tended to) as Madonna- and Roisin Murphy-imitation/theft.
Tom, please to have a poll on Pop’s Biggest BRIAN