The Popjustice 2010 20 Quid Music Prize shortlist POLL

what are these songs

I like Kickstarts and Wonderful Life, but I gotta go with my girl Marina.

I'm gonna go with (the largely ignored pretty much everywhere except Popjustice) "One Touch"

No idea who's going to win the prize this year as Girls Aloud aren't nominated.

I voted for Groove Armada, just ahead of Marina.

It's a pretty poor list, none of the Mini Viva songs really clicked with me. I haven't heard the Nerina Pallot or Example singles maybe I'm missing some great songs.

I hadn't payed much attention to the Groove Armada one but I just listened to it again and loved it! I really like about 3 or 4 songs on the list. I don't think is that bad.

*it's

robot song soz

Sophie Elix-Bestor has new stuff out?

it sounds like all other ellis-bextor ever, you can pretty much imagine it

"bad boys" is the only vaguely acceptable thing on this dreadful list

it's been even worse than the mercury for years now

OMG I don't think I've actually heard any of the songs on this list. o_0

Wait, scratch that, I heard that mini-Viva Tokyo song.

Actually, seeing this, I'm starting to understand the reactions on that thread about "if you only like pop that breaks the rules, you're not actually a pop fan" - this is like a catalogued list of pop with everything I love about pop taken out.

i hate "left my heart in tokyo" so much, it's such a hack job - why the fuck is tokyo in the lyrics or title bar a vague wave towards "hey we all love japan right???!!!" i liked what pete b said about it on the jukebox - mini viva don't convince us that they've been to yo sushi, let alone tokyo.

THREE mini viva songs on this list is the most o_0 thing i have seen in time

and who fucking let diana "i came FIFTH on x factor, like not even close to winning" vickers have a pop career?! and why can't they do the same for some of the forgotten x factor rejects who were actually talented and not annoying, like rachel hylton?

Yeah, that Mini Viva song was really the moment I thought "Xenomania really have jumped the shark, haven't they?" ;_;

this music prize is so phonomenally pointless. nominating and giving an award to some woefully bad music just because it is british "pop" (in terms of the ridiculously narrow confines of what PopJustice considers "pop": now generally outdated electropop from failing female pop singers) seems absolutely no better than the "indie" music awards it was set up to take a stand against (and at least the Mercury Prize has some variety). not quite as bad as the MOBOs, but it's getting there.

maybe uk pop really is in such a bad place right now, but it seems also that PopJustice is increasingly irrelevant/misguided in 2010. or maybe it's always been, and i just hadn't noticed it so much when the stuff they were championing was girls aloud and the sugababes when they were brilliant.

I thought Example was that embarrassing emo-rapper guy who surely no one likes. I was right!

I haven't been paying much attention, but what is the good side of straight-up UK pop these days? Being actually popular a bonus.

given that uk funky basically doesn't sell, tinie tempah's "pass out" is probably the best (only?) intersection of british pop that's actually popular this year. i think katy b's "katy on a mission" is meant to do well when it's released.

prolego otm x a milli.

I've been, and am still reading Popjustice because of the writing and because Peter's almost always funny. I haven't necessarily liked a 'song of the day' in a year and none of these songs tickle my fancy, but then that's not why I enjoy PJ.

I love Popjustice, and my hit rating for songs of the day is about 1 in 4 (many, many good ones over the last year), but then I probably don't like real pop as defined by ilxors who define that kind of thing for the rest of us.

I honestly don't know what the issue with the "dated electropop" is. I mean, yes, this sort of thing peaked (creatively) around 2005 but it's an evolving style; there's 2005 electropop and there's 2010 electropop (which is in a lot of ways different). And a good electropop song is still a good song. Why is, for insance, no one complaining about the lack of sonic innovation of, say, Taylor Swift's music? Or even Lady Gaga's, which IMO sounds a LOT more dated than most things on this list.

^ agreed.

in any case i think this is a pretty underwhelming list. i voted for one touch, the only one of the mini viva songs that i really like, but none of these songs are that noteworthy for me

taylor swift and lady gaga have actual character and charisma and quite formidable talent. if any of the songs on this list were reworked as country-pop or pounding redone productions, but performed by the same people, they'd still be completely dull.

i guess "bad boys" basically IS a pounding redone production (idk whether he actually did it). it's ok in a route-one blarey obvious kind of way.

taylor swift and lady gaga have actual character and charisma and quite formidable talent. if any of the songs on this list were reworked as country-pop or pounding redone productions, but performed by the same people, they'd still be completely dull.

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Saturday, July 31, 2010 6:46 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

I guess this is where our appreciation of things differ. I tend to care very little about the performer's "talent" as long as I like the song and the production (and as long as there isn't some kind of quirk in the performer's style that annoys me, which is increasingly common these days). You could almost put any random x factor contestant to perform "One Touch" and I would probably still like it.

well, 99% of the time it's better when you have a performer who can do something more with a song than just, like, hit the notes, right? i mean you have your exceptions, when the songs are particularly strong or demand a certain style (like half of that rachel stevens album and a good portion of kylie's career) - when the song has innate character of its own - which is, uh, not the case for this lot. i don't think ANY performer could make those mini viva songs adequate tbh.

I guess you're not gonna be very pleased to see that one of those is getting at least one 1st place vote on the ilx end of the year tracks poll. :)

...unless something pretty incredible comes along in the next 5 months.

"I thought Example was that embarrassing emo-rapper guy who surely no one likes. I was right!"

wah - i heart Example! he looks so goofy. i'd go for that marginally over the Tinchy (I'm guessing number one was in last years list?). the burke is ok, the rest i could care less

also, yeah, where is Pass Out?

aw I'm sorry Alan. If it makes you feel any better I'm sure I like lots of stuff that makes some people feel embarrassed on the behalf of the performer!

also, yeah, where is Pass Out?

OTM, surely Pass Out is the best, biggest and most unifying British pop song of the year, hands down? When Snoop plays the main stage at Glastonbury and one of the highlights of his set is bringing on a 22 year-old British kid to one of his own songs you know there's something special going on.

Whereas most of this list doesn't actually have very much connection to the actual charts. Tinchy obviously, Alexandra/Marina/Diana yeah, but otherwise this list smacks of a website desparately trying to prop up an aesthetic that's way past its last legs now. Surely the point of a pop website is to move with the times?

this music prize is so phonomenally pointless. nominating and giving an award to

it's £20!!!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

A pretty poor list. Agree that Pass Out is the only deserving record. Fuck Hurts.

why don't you like hurts, dorian? just curious

They remind me of incredibly pompous mid-80s pop - the PR optimistically compares them to Pet Shop Boys but they're not even Tears for Fears or Ultravox.

They remind me of Propaganda.

They're pompous and pretentious but without the intellect or risk-taking that can turn those from bad qualities into fascinating ones. I'm all for a bit of pretentious, po-faced pop if it's got something to say, but this just seems every bit as hollow and retro as Editors.

Hurts was more fun when they were Daggers, and they were just a band doing big '80s music. Now they're all solemn and boring and instantly buzzy. What? Buzz is weird.

(I -do- still think Wonderful Life is a nice song, but NOTHING else I've heard with the Hurts name on it is worth a damn.)

this is a horrific list. i hate britain.

Not particularly representative of Britain though.

ive heard some of these songs on the radio a lot.

I'd like Wonderful Life a lot more if I hadn't heard the rest of the rotten album. Their other stuff has contaminated it for me.

"hollow" is exactly the word for hurts - they're so caught up in faithfully recreating, down to the last ploddingly arch mannerism, this ideal of "Pop", and it's like they're hoping that if they make enough of a period piece that no one will notice that they have nothing to offer themselves - no heart or content or frisson of anything interesting.

I'm finally in agreement with Lex on something. *High five*

with whiney on this one

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Such fun pretending to work for snarky Smash Hits back in the 80s except everything is entirely unrecognisable, shit and a complete waste of time

I know you've all ben dying to know. The winner is: "Kickstarts"

"Oh No!" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "I Am Not A Robot"