[peel] Re: F50, WBWG, vote rigging etc.

[Dan Butt]

Just a few things. I take the WBWG point to a large
extent, although I don't really think that the B bit of it
is a problem, if by a "problem" we mean that the FF
doesn't reflect what Peel plays during the year - I've
always felt that female acts do *relatively* well in the
FF.  (The top 10 last year had 2 female solo artists
and two female fronted bands, as well as one male /
female duo - that's not bad at all.) Of course, there
isn't enough female produced music out there, but I
think Peel does a good job picking up what there is,
and the FF does a reasoanble job of reflecting it.
Period Pains, anyone?

I must say, though, that I really don't see the point of
not ordering the tracks. The concern, it seems to me,
is that the non WBWG tracks don't get into the 50 at
all, not particularly that they are concentrated in the
lower reaches of the chart. Again, if I look at last
year's chart, I can't see a pattern at all. That's
certainly true of dance records in general over the
years - they can end up pretty much anywhere in the
chart (look at Underworld, LSG, H Foundation, etc.)
Perhaps the black music that's got in has been more
towards the bottom, but even then there have been
exceptions (Public Enemy at 14, which is still too
low, but hey, and Dreadzone up at 5 - and 9 and
16...) The problem with the Bhundu Boys'
Festive Fifty history isn't that "My Foolish Heart" only
got to 30, but that they only ever had one entry

So I suppose the justification must be that not
ordering the tracks would lead to less tactical voting
and campaigns, but again, I don't see any reason
why that would be the case. My suspicion is that
most of the block voting that goes on is intended to
get records into the 50 in the first place. It's then a
question of how successful a campaign has been
that determines how high up it actually goes. It's at
least possible that not ordering it would lead to more
attempts to get records in there, as there would be a
sense that to be joint "song of the year" you just had
to get into the 50.

But my main objection is just the extent to which not
ordering the chart would take the fun and excitement
of the countdown out of it. Speaking as someone for
whom the FF is the highlight of the year (seriously,
bar none!), it wouldn't have the same feel at all if the
50 songs were just played at random. And you'd
completely lose the joy and excitement of some of
the great (non campaign assisted) triumphs bands
have had over the years. That would be a shame,
surely?

Anyway, if you all email in to suggest that it's
changed, I'll do the opposite, AND get the Saloon
mailing list to do the same :)

Having said all that, I do think that there's no point to
ordering the 3 individual votes - there'd be no harm
in changing that.

Dan





>From: "hammieweb" <gpwebster@...>
>Reply-To: peel@yahoogroups.com
>To: peel@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [peel] Re: F50, WBWG, vote rigging etc.
>Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 17:20:26 -0000
>
>I started this WBWG debate and I couldn't agree more with Graham
>Steel.  Also as I said previously, JP should determine the top 50
>tracks voted for and then play them randomly or alphabetically.  Andy
>Kershaw used to do something along these lines and it was a joy.
>
>--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "graham steel" <g.j.steel@e...> wrote:
> > My 2 (Euro) cents on this:
> >
> > Many of us on the list probably have a large proportion of WBWG
>music
> > in our record collections. However the great thing about listening
>to
> > JP is the *variety* of stuff you hear - that's why you listen for
>the
> > whole two hours, and why I could never listen to some indie guitar
> > music show. The problem with many festive fifties is not that I
>object
> > to any *particular* WBWG band being in there, they're often quite
>good
> > songs, just that I object to hearing 40+ WBWG songs - in fact, I'm
> > desperate for the normal shows to start again by the end of it.
> >
> > I suspect the problem is that the order of your choices is
> > over-weighted. A lot of people probably vote for their favourite
>WBWGs
> > as number 1, since they saw them at a gig last week and feel a
>certain
> > loyalty etc, and then maybe vote for something more unusual as 2 or
>3,
> > but this rarely weighs up to enough to get the unusual bands up
> > there. And it mean non-JP listeners who just log on to vote thanks
>to
> > some stupid fan club campaigns etc. have a big influence. I say,
>scrap
> > the ordering - make the three songs equal!
> >
> > gram
> >
> > --
> > http://www.radio.plus.com
>
>
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

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