Bottom of the Pops
Created | Updated Jun 20, 2003
I sometimes get paid for writing about music. An enviable position, I know - but occasionally
it entails some fairly gruesome tasks. This week, for instance, I was forced to spend 20
minutes or so searching through Steps' official web site - an experience I found so harrowing
that I had to go for a virtual pint in the 'Forum and Firkin' afterwards to recover. What made
it worse was that I was working on a retrospective article about the UK live music scene in
1999, and I found the results of my research pretty depressing.
I had to search Steps' site because the five insanely grinning plastic puppets were the most
successful live act in Britain last year. Runners-up were Boyzone, whose ticket sales towered
above those of any of the indie/alternative rock acts I like.
It was these sad facts that inspired the Bottom Of The Pops poll now running on my homepage.
The idea is simple. It's an unpopularity poll. I'm inviting you all to name the pop act you
consider to be the most unbearably irritating in the world. I have set up a voting form where
you can vote for any one of 10 nominated contenders by clicking on a button. If your personal
pet hate isn't among my 10 nominees, then you can still vote for them by leaving a post in the
forum I've set up specially for that purpose at the bottom of the page.
So why am I doing this? Well, with hindsight, I think that my initial motivation in setting up
the poll was to seek reassurance. In the light of the alarming statistics mentioned earlier,
about whom my compatriots have been paying to see, I needed to know that some of you out there
agreed with me. I hoped that I wasn't the only one who felt that the ticket sales statistics
were a depressing sign of appalling public taste. Thankfully, that reassurance has been forthcoming. After I mentioned the poll in posts to a few carefully-chosen
forums, word about it seems to have spread. I've been impressed and heartened by the turnout,
and intrigued by the voting pattern, which has reflected a pretty wide range of opinion.
There is still room for further diversity, though. My 10 nominees are all from the teeny-pop
field - Backstreet Boys, Vengaboys, Westlife and so forth. But, if you love that sort of music
and hate 'serious' pop, then by all means go ahead and vote for that critically-acclaimed,
award-winning act whom you've always regarded as a pretentious bunch of poseurs!
Now, I realise that the whole exercise might appear to be somewhat negative and spiteful. If
so, as Exhibit A for my defence, I would point to
The Music Website Jukebox, the page
I built to showcase the music I love. It's a massive directory of over 200 links to web sites
for artists and bands I really respect and admire. I am, in general, massively pro-music - but
I just don't believe that it's possible to be moved and thrilled by the best in popular music
without also being annoyed and offended by the worst in it.
If you agree, then please make your feelings known via my poll.
