Ladies and gentlemen....the 1990s ILX SINGLES POLL RESULTS

if the Geto Boys had made #1, there would probably be accusations of an offensive irony flying around (altho many genuinely like their track there still seems to be a sense that they are the token 'joke'/cool entry) - please nobody tell me how much they genuinely do like 'mind playin tricks on me' now tho. i don't care, i never heard it until it was nominated but don't consider that to be that big a flaw (lots of other tracks could've ended up in the position, including many from the omgwtflol poll which had accusations of quasi-racism flying around too). you can never win really.

I don't seem to be the only one who has "misunderstood" you here either.

I'd be interested in knowing who ILXors in general think resorts to bullying more, you or me, blount.

Just sayin'.

I figured the Geto Boys vote pooling would maybe get it into the top 40, I never would've guessed it'd make the top five.

I want to point out that if there were 5 songs by two rap artists, I would still have a problem with list and I would still be complaining at how dull and (Blount pegged it) fanboyish voting for the same artist nearly half a dozen times. That said IMO the list wouldn't suck as much if there were 5 songs each by Biggie and Dre or Nas and Wu-Tang or something.

Very much so.

(Biggie placed 3 of his 4 nominated songs; Wu-Tang, 2 of 3; Blur placed 2 of 5 nominated songs; B&S placed 2 of 3, so they did do better than those other artist any way you look at it) BUT that's a small matter compared to making generalizations about the poll's two anomolies and this absolute fantasy that Saint Etienne is a rock band(?!) They've dabbled in pop, northern soul, yé-yé, exotica, acid house, techno, etc., but not rock...they've even arguably borrowed more from hip-hop than rock. Pulp, maybe, maybe is a rock band, although the songs of theirs that placed in this poll have more "popist" sensibilites than "rockist" ones -- even then these are hardly bands that create pop-structured songs that betray any sort of rockist tendencies, so I don't see how you can make that conclusion about those who listen to them.

The thing about the UK charts, and music scene in general, is that in the 90s dance music was [to] the UK what hip-hop was [to] the US.

it just would prove how good or how much of an impact that paticular artist had or has.

and these things never reflect what's 'best', only what's the 'most popular/preferred'

(i didn't vote for any st etienne albums)

Yeah, sure. My only problem with the five St. Etiennes is that only one, maybe two of them deserve to be there. I agree with all the Pulp inclusions except "Do You Remember the First Time?," though not necessarily with the placements.

the list will still have bands show up with multiple songs, but it wont be so annoying when it happens i think.

fuck strategic voting.

Yes, I saw that, but it's hard to take seriously when you undermine your supposed dropping of the accusation of racism by the parenthetical comment:

really, taking race out the equation (which is doing these people a favor they maybe don't deserve)

Anyway, I think comments like:

this is just rampant fanboyism, the sort of daftness that's not even bright enough to qualify as corny indie fuxxthought

are an insult to people like Martin (who apparently voted in ways you wouldn't approve of, but who likes quite a bit of 90s music you would approve of, and who you certainly aren't in a position to criticze as being less thoughtful than you, or whatever your wording means--I'm not even sure). But yes, that's a separate issue. But it's the sort of thing that makes me give in to the temptation to comment.

I don't know how you can seriously harp on my snarkishness when, in my view, you are one of the rudest old ILM (are you old ILM?--I don't even know) regulars, but I guess we all have our own slant on this thing. Maybe you are very charming in person.

BUT let this be remembered the next time anyone (eg. rockist scientist) snarks about ilm's "popist" tendencies

When have I "snarked" about ILM's popist tendencies? I can find one post of mine which does that, and I thought I was using "popist" in a pretty neutral way.

Todd, I'm not a strategic voter in the sense that I intentionally overrate songs so they'll get on the list, and I'm slightly mystified by people who do that, but I do like the idea of voting a diverse ballot and producing an overall diverse list. What rankles me about the St. Etienne or Pulp songs is less a matter of race or rockism and more a matter of, "Wow there were so many great singles that didn't make the list (or even the nominations ballot), it's a shame some artists had to take up so many slots." But I'm also a big fat hypocrite because I voted for three Stereolab albums, and I'm real curious to see what happens with that.

At a distance this poll appears to resemble Tom's 90s list (which was hugely formative for me) - which also had a strong Saint Etienne and Pulp presence.