Article Response: Focus Group VIII

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http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/focus8_1.html

It's back again.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 September 2003 20:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the background covers idea but it makes it really hard to read the corresponding text Tom.

― David. (Cozen), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm the covers should be to the side of the text, not background. I will get Alan to investigate - it may be a PC/Mac/Browser thing.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

(They are to the side when I look, anyway).

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm running Safari v. 1.0 if that's any help.

― David. (Cozen), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

It's all Greek v.1.0 to me David - Alan returns from Alanworld tomorrow though.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

It's fixed now. Hmm. Maybe I complained before the page had fully loaded up. Apologies.

― David. (Cozen), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, I was never invited. Then again I *have* been grouchy. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

did i miss this?!

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i used all my good lines to make the clams anyway...i feel like such a sell out.

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I sent you one I thought Jess!

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

:-(

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

actually you well might have. i've been a total flake lately on anything other than work. (this is including but not limited to: being a boyfriend, a son, a social drinker, and a music fan.)

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Possibly I got one as well and missed it. I actually do rely on the FG to get me to listen to things I might otherwise ignore.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I might have mistyped your email. :(

Ned I'm sorry but I didn't send one to you - I thought your pop holiday should be respected ;) But you'll be in the next one now you've said that!

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I have been so fucking busy (and am currently) I couldn't respond--many apologies.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 8 September 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Did 4 people actually come up with the same "Clocks" = cocks phrase independently? If so, brilliant.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Monday, 8 September 2003 22:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I got really excited when someone said that the Focus Group was finally up! Then I was sad because it was a different one and I hadn't been invited either. :(

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought your pop holiday should be respected ;)

Heh, no worries. :-) My answers would have been extremely crabby I'm sure. I'm not really back from the holiday so much as I am on a parallel plane but hey.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

surprised 'No Good Advice' came top

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Once a-godamned-gain I wish I said more this time! I was hoped to write somethign fairly epic about "Ignition," but...

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Had I not flaked out, I would've given "Ignition" a 10+10, easy.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:48 (twenty-two years ago)

So, this "Focus Group" thing is just a couple of people talking about pop songs, eh?

Not that I expect anybody to really give a crap, but here goes...

20. Madonna - "American Life": Quite possibly the worst song ever recorded. Forget the techno effects that sounded horribly dated five years ago (see "Believe" by Cher for proof). Forget the stupid kiss on the MTV Video Music Awards. Forget the production. Let's talk about how Madonna the multi-millionaire spends this entire fucking song whining about how unsatisfied she is. Whatever, Madge. Grow the fuck up. It's just like Mark Prindle said, "Well, it must be nice to have the luxury to be UNSATISFIED with billions of dollars in the bank and people waiting on you hand and foot." 0 and place a fucking Joker on this bitch!!!

19. Room 5 feat. Oliver Cheatham - "Make Luv": haven't heard

18. Coldplay - "Clocks": Fucking AWESOME!!! Why everybody hates this band is so ridiculously beyond me that it isn't even funny. Dear Lord does that singer have an amazing voice, and the piano melody is so catchy I had to learn it myself. Easily one of the best songs of the year. 9

17. Fast Food Rockers - "The Fast Food Song": Eh?

16. Pink - "Feel Good Time": Sure, it's a great song because it's Pink and all, but it's just "Fresh Garbage"!! 7

15. Dannii Minogue - "I Began to Wonder": I assume this is some relative of that "Can't Get You Out of My Head" chick.

14. Evanessence - "Bring Me to Life": It sounds just like Linkin fucking Park!! I hate Linkin Park!! But it's sung by a goth chick woman, so it's like, all deep and meaningful and shit. "Clocks" placed below this shit? Now that is just sad. 2

13. The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army": I just don't understand all these low scores. "Snore"?? What the fuck is that??? One of the best basslines you'll ever hear. 9

12. Electric Six - "Gay Bar": Filler. "Danger High Voltage" is their real masterpiece. Bet it sounds great live, though. 5

11. R.Kelly - "Ignition (Remix)": I hate this guy! He made somebody drink his piss! That's sick!! 4

10. Benny Benassi presents The Biz - "Satisfaction": Who?

9. 50 cent - "In the Club": My only real prob with 50 is that whole idea that, because he's been shot nine times or whatever, that SOMEHOW makes his music more interesting. It DOESN'T! 6

8. Justin Timberlake - "Rock Your Body": Love the "Another One Bites the Dust"-esque bassline. But it's Justin fucking Tiberlake! 4

7. Dizzee Rascal - "I Luv U": I can't understand a word this guy says. Don't worry Mike Skinner, you have nothing to worry about. 4

6. Sean Paul - "Get Busy": Yeah the song pretty much kicks ass, but how awesome would this song be if it had some friggin' drums in it? Somebody should remix this with - oh I don't know - the drums in "Discoteca" by the Pet Shop Boys or something. As it is, how the hell are you supposed to dance to this? 8

5. Panjabi MC - "Mundian To Bach Ke": Where do you guys find this stuff?

4. tATu - "Not Gonna Get Us": Eh... it's okay. 6

3. Junior Senior - "Move Your Feet": Insanely awesome dance song. What Michael Jackson wishes he could do. Single of the year so far (with the possible exception of that !!! song). 10

2. Beyonce feat. Jay-Z - "Crazy in Love": Gonna have to agree with the general consensus that this song needs a better chorus. 6

1. Girls Aloud - "No Good Advice": haven't heard

Who's with me???

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 00:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry Sean - you'll be invited next time, your comments are always good. Next time will be sooner than before, too - fewer songs plus fewer people = faster turnaround = more focus groups = rotation of participants. (And the previous focus group will appear at some point)

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 07:10 (twenty-two years ago)

aww...ppl feel left out. look at what you've done tom!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 07:20 (twenty-two years ago)

The Igntion Remix so low!?!?? Poor show!

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 08:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah Robin - my passionate (aka drunken) advocacy at the live group did little to sway the assembled :( - a travis-ty of justice though to be fair I do like all 10 of the records that finished higher too.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 08:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I wasn't invited! :(

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 08:57 (twenty-two years ago)

get to the back of the queue

― zebedee (zebedee), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 09:23 (twenty-two years ago)

(all this madonna hate is baffling b.t.w.)

― zebedee (zebedee), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 09:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha er ulp one or two tolerable one-liners look pretty moronic in the cold light of no context.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 09:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooops, Tom -- there's a picture of R. Kelly where Sean Paul should be!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I know! (Though it wasn't intentional) It's on my list of edits - thanks!

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Had I been in this focus group, Justin might have scored higher (largely because I'm not having any of that Junior Senior nonsense).

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

7 was robbed. It's almost like "Hot in Herre" never existed.

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought the focus group was good, the Esence were robbed though.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

tom, don't listen to the haters; stick to invite only.

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 21:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry I didn't contribute Tom! I really meant to and then didn't have time. It's a pretty solid result though.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 00:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Having finally heard the sub-Knack of "No Good Advice", I can confirm that all the rest were robbed. Especially #4. And especially #2. And especially #4.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 15 September 2003 09:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Come over here and say that.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 15 September 2003 10:19 (twenty-two years ago)

the sub-Knack of "No Good Advice",
Back of the class, Farrell. I was very glad to see GA nudge ahead of Beyonce in the final reckoning.

Here's a thing, I heard that the video for that Beyonce single won an MTV best video award in some category. Was is the category for "most generic and cheap-looking"? I'm being lead to believe there is something hypnotic hidden inside the (admittedly) catchy hook which makes other people believe that somehow the rest of the package is worth any time at all.

― Alan (Alan), Monday, 15 September 2003 10:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"Stare deep into my thighs..."

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 15 September 2003 10:51 (twenty-two years ago)

No Good Advice is about a 100th as good as Get Busy. And the spoken word part at the end tries desperately to ruin the song. It sounds like a bad tampon ad.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 15 September 2003 11:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there some kind of special "Dublin Mix" we don't know about?

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 15 September 2003 11:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I hope so cos the original one isn't going to get any better ; )

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 15 September 2003 12:07 (twenty-two years ago)

i didn't really enjoy reading this. i found alot of the comments to be overly snarky and geekishly condescending - like most ilm threads. like the comment about dizzee rascal trying to show americans that british people can rap for example, how does this differ from the bbc comments pasted on the mercury threads? though i haven't read one of these before so i don't know what its purpose is. there was lots of good stuff, i'm not deliberately trying to merk it for no reason but the general feel of it was a bit pitchfork.

― sean g, Monday, 15 September 2003 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

obviously i'm aware that it consists of different people's different opinions, but not really sure what its purpose is?

― sean g, Monday, 15 September 2003 12:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually the Dublin Mix is sort of possible - is the version on http://www.mp3sfinder.com the right one? Less mud in the mix might make a difference.

The video for Crazy in Love just underlines the rest of the song: that Beyonce is a) crazy and b) in love. There isn't much more to it, but more is not always necessary (see also #4).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 15 September 2003 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

"Crack in the Water of Dublin! Writers Insane!"

― David. (Cozen), Monday, 15 September 2003 13:01 (twenty-two years ago)

''obviously i'm aware that it consists of different people's different opinions, but not really sure what its purpose is?''

a musicological (sp?) analysis of each track will be written for next time so don't worry abt it.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 15 September 2003 13:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Sean the idea is that we get a bunch of people in a room, play them records and they write down what they think. (We then email a few more people). If what they think is funny or insightful, great; if what they think is rubbish, oh well. We mostly do it because it's a lot of fun to do. The overall tone is my fault probably - I select the comments and try to include as much of the range of opinion I received as I can (including stuff I strongly disagree with). If you want a ballot for next time drop me an email and I'll send you one.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 15 September 2003 13:18 (twenty-two years ago)

In like a bullet at 14, gerrinthey-ah! Hail to thee joker!

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 15 September 2003 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Fuck, I was invited but dragged my ass on submitting my votes and therefore got passed by Fat Lip style. If I'd remembered to vote, I'd give the White Stripes the 9 they deserved, and fuck the haters, they like the goddamned Fast Food Rockers so they can take their "where's the bass" and cram it with walnuts, ugly.

Sorry, I had a rough day at work.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Monday, 15 September 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

OK, the next one of these is up next Monday with the FT update BUT cos of the wedding etc I haven't mailed out the ballots. So if you fancy voting/commenting and can turn around some comments by the end of this week please say here and I'll send you a ballot. And I'll send one to some other people anyway and just cross my fingers. Cheers!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Send one along and we'll see what I can ponder...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Me!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Eh... I'd consider it an honour, but also unlikely that you'd send one. Go on.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Go on.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Yo! (and what Dom said)

― edward o (edwardo), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd really like to do one of these someday but fear I won't have time this week. :(

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd like to participate.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd love to do one tom.

― Chris B. Sure (Chris V), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

RoXoR! OK I'll send out the ballots before I go home (in a couple of hours time) and anyone else I'll try to include next time (the January group).

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 24 November 2003 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Me too, eh!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 24 November 2003 18:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Gimme one, ~~dammit~~ please

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Monday, 24 November 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

May I?

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Monday, 24 November 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

DUDE! You didn't ask me?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 24 November 2003 18:28 (twenty-two years ago)

me me tom

― cinniblount (James Blount), Monday, 24 November 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Bah. I know that my contributions to ILX have been far from memorable, but I have just become a PUBLISHED WRITAH and as such am drunk with power and madness. So I want in too, take a chance on a punter w/ no name recognition, it's the wise thing to do!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 24 November 2003 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I would love to do another one. So pick me please!

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Monday, 24 November 2003 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, sent them out. Thanks everyone!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 24 November 2003 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

FIE ON YOU AND YOUR SENDING-OUT-BALLOTS-WHILE-I'M-DOING-WORK WAYS

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 24 November 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd hit it!

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 24 November 2003 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha, I remember giving one of these songs a write-in 10 for the aborted Focus-Group-That-Never-Was. (WARNING: contains opinions that are questionable in retrospect.)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Monday, 24 November 2003 19:45 (twenty-two years ago)

:-( I was asleep!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 25 November 2003 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Me! Edge! Seat!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 14:32 (twenty-two years ago)

"next Monday" :(

It might well be delayed until NEXT Monday, which is the day of the Christmas party anyway - a colleague got ill and I have been given the bulk of his work to do.

The good news is though that if you got a ballot and didnt have time then there is still time to get yours sent in!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

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