Peoples Pop Poll

24
Oct 20

World Cup of 1980 Preview

• FT • • 3 comments • 495 views

This is the third time I’ve run a poll event based on a single year – 1980 follows 1990 and 2001, and they’ve all presented different challenges in terms of building out brackets that are fun, fair (well, fair-ish) and tell a story about what happened that year.

Go to a site like Rate Your Music and they make sense of 1980 in a familiar way. Their “Top 20 Singles” are entirely white and 95% male: Joy Division, Talking Heads, The Clash, Bowie, and so on.

All these people are represented in our version of 1980 – it’s entirely possible one of them will win the tournament – but to claim they tell the story of the year is nonsense.

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1
Sep 20

2001: A Poll Odyssey

• New York London Paris Munich • / • 1 comment • 322 views
As you probably know, I’ve been entertaining myself – and others, it seems – by running themed music polls on Twitter. The next one is based on the year 2001 – participants have picked 256 tracks which I’ve divided into 16 roughly genre-based brackets.
 
The last year poll we did was on 1990. This one will be very different. 1990 was the year I turned 17, I was paying close and voracious teenage attention to music and had a strong sense of what mattered and why the year was important. In fact one of the most interesting things about the poll was talking to people who thought 1990 pretty much sucked. What I heard as thrilling cross-fertilisation as pop came to terms with house and hip-hop played to them as embarrassing bandwagon-jumping or a lack of focus.

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29
Aug 20

The Pollards Of Lop Episode 3: Debut Singles

• FT • • 1 comment • 333 views

It’s the latest instalment of our audio extravaganza (aka podcast) looking at this month’s @peoples_pop Twitter poll, which has been about DEBUT SINGLES.

For this instalment, I’m joined by Kat Stevens, Kerry Lambeth and Pete Baran, talking about what makes a good debut, why indie bands try hard to get it right first time and metal bands don’t, the meaning of wax cylinders, Bruce Springsteen’s rhyming dictionary, what Jive Bunny could have taught The Stone Roses, and the problem of George Michael. And more! more »

11
Aug 20

The Pollards Of Lop Episode 2: 1990

• FT • • 5 comments • 407 views

Here’s the second episode of our monthly discussion around the Twitter People’s Pop Polls – in this instalment, I’m joined by Maura Johnston, Sarah Clarke and Steve Mannion to talk about 1990.

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30
Jul 20

The World Cup Of Debut Singles (ADMIN)

• FT • • Post a comment • 463 views

August’s Twitter poll at @peoples_pop is about DEBUT SINGLES. Day by day Spotify playlists linked to in this thread.

This is the traditional ADMIN post, especially for fans of POLL ADMIN. Do not read if you are not one of these.

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1
Jul 20

The Pollards Of Lop Episode 1: Cover Versions

• FT • • Post a comment • 339 views

Last month’s Twitter poll was about Cover Versions, and to accompany it, I was joined virtually by Cis, Mark and Pete to CAST THE PODS and talk about cover versions in general. And here it is.

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30
Jun 20

The World Cup Of 1990 (Admin)

• FT • • 6 comments • 859 views

This month’s poll at @peoples_pop on Twitter is about the year 1990.

This is the nerdy procedural post about how I’ve put it together and how I’m going to run it. DO NOT READ IF YOU HATE ADMIN. more »

12
May 20

The People’s Pop Poll: Day 8

• FT • • 2 comments • 630 views

These are the groups for Day 8 of the People’s Pop Poll! Obviously it contains SPOILERS for the day’s matches so if you’d prefer to be surprised read no further! As usual, these are in order from the group with the most-streamed tracks to the one with the least.

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11
May 20

The People’s Pop Poll: Day 7

• FT • • 1 comment • 355 views

These are the groups for Day 7 of the People’s Pop Poll! Obviously it contains SPOILERS for the day’s matches so if you’d prefer to be surprised read no further! As usual, these are in order from the group with the most-streamed tracks to the one with the least.

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10
May 20

The People’s Pop Poll: Day 6

• FT • • 3 comments • 312 views

These are the groups for Day 6 of the People’s Pop Poll! Obviously it contains SPOILERS for the day’s matches so if you’d prefer to be surprised read no further! As usual, these are in order from the group with the most-streamed tracks to the one with the least (except today Division 6 is a bit special).

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