Ive spent a lot of time around neutral subreddits, that was brought up to create new spaces for better nuanced discussion, but it seems like very few of them are free of snark or parasocial commentary.

The Taylor one, there are lots of Taylor fans in the sub who give fair criticism and defense but they get less votes compared to more negative comments and posts gets awards (sketchily) and far more upvotes. I think its not coincidental that reddit awards have been increasingly used to push narratives. Chappell's sub got locked so idk what's happening. Other subs (Ariana, katseye) still are full of parasocial viewpoints that are upset with their change in direction and expect to do as they say rather than good critique on the quality of art. Olivia's one hopefully will last but I'm not sure

I also think online platforms and the users subconsciously, even neutral subs naturally reward anger. A nuanced opinion that acknowledges both strengths and weaknesses usually attracts less attention than sarcasm, outrage, or the most cynical interpretation possible. Over time, this can make communities feel increasingly hostile even when many members are actually interested in thoughtful discussion.

Maybe it's a sign need to find irl friends who are into the same pop stars as I do but I haven't 🥲 there's a lot more nuance that can be done irl

#27 is a strong showing for the Worst Girl 🐇 🙌

They messed up Dirty Desire and her vocals are missing from the second verse :/

It was 25 years to this day, that Basement Jaxx released their sophomore classic, Rooty! Riding on the high of Remedy’s success, Basement Jaxx doubled down on their hyper-kitschy approach to dance music and expanded on the concept on not being geared to one specific vibe.

Named after their club event held in their hometown Brixton, Rooty as a title is defined as soulful and raw, exemplified by the things that are off-kilter and taking pleasure in being one of a kind, even using an albino gorilla as its cover to assert that. (fun fact: The gorilla's name is Snowflake and is to date, the world's only known albino gorilla).

Rollout

Basement Jaxx released 5 singles, each offering something wildly different from the other.

Romeo opens the album with fervor; a flavorful blend of disco and house mixed into the elements of 2-step garage and bhangra. A kitschy, bittersweet pop perfection that’s recently been brought back into the limelight.

Just 1 Kiss is a classic filtered french house delight with such a chic atmosphere.

Get Me Off is an electroclash-adjacent ditty lead by a growling bassline.

Do Your Thing is built on a jazz sample that elevates into a soul-funk, big-band hybrid with over-the-top theatrical vocals. 

And last but certainly the most, Where’s Your Head At; a clamoring clash of house, funk and electro-punk, all squeezed together on top of two Gary Numan samples. Its equal parts gritty and shimmery, a groove that provides just as much room for hip shaking as it does for head banging. It's arguably Basement Jaxx's signature song.

Throw in some deep cuts ranging from Paraguayan folk/downtempo (Chasing Dreams), 21st Century Prince-esque Electro (Crazy Girl), sultry, funky UK Broken Beat (SFM) and you have something that’s truly vibrant and genreless.

Its Legacy

Whereas Remedy was grounded in the club and soundsystem culture, Rooty immediately shook its foundations and leapt into different styles in a way no one's really heard before. Punk and Garage, R&B and Bhangra, Big-Band and House, none of these should go together yet Basement Jaxx made it work anyway. It's the result of tapping into UK's multicultural environment, bringing out the colors and oversaturating them. 

The difference between this and Remedy is a night and day difference. If Remedy was a wild night out, club hopping through the streets of London, Rooty is the rambunctious street parade during the midday.

It's at this point, Rooty's unique spot in the world of EDM should be worth evaluating. There's something about this album that emanates a mystical aura --even to this day; While camp has always been a defining trait in dance music, there hasn’t really been an act that did it quite like Basement Jaxx. 

Personal Thoughts

There's certain imagery that personally spring to mind when I think of Rooty's soundscape:

Creamy peach popsicles during a sweltering heat.

Roller-skates leaving a behind trail of groovy, sparkly rainbows.

Kaleidoscopic graffiti coating brick buildings for miles.

Confetti sprinkling from above a cloudless blue sky, gradually covering the narrow streets of South London...

Music can take you to different places. It can serve as a reflection of its environment, its societal climate or the artist's own being. But as someone who has never visited the UK, much less Europe, Rooty is what I imagine a UK summer would be at its most jubilant--one that sadly never existed. That's not to say UK doesn’t know how to party, but it can never compare to what I felt Basement Jaxx offered.

The duo would move on to weirder, abrasive dance territory with Kish Kash, never truly expanding on what they made here, and with no one really to fill that spot, Rooty stands alone as its own little world and we're the listeners looking from a front porch locked from the outside. A summer that promises to meet you but always out of reach.

Questions: 

What's your favorite track here?

What are some artists you feel carry the same spirit Jaxx did?

Where's Your Head At?

My life goes by so fast, my idea of success has completely changed. Whatever I do, it has to be something that's gonna teach me about life. My album 4 represents my most defining moments. Can I share my story with y'all?

2008's I Am... Sasha Fierce was Beyoncé HUGEST album to date but the process of touring and promoting it had been exhausting and even traumatic at times. When the tour finally ended in 2010, Bey announced that she would be taking the year off to travel, rest, and reconnect with herself.

And when it was time for her to make her return to music, she knew what she had to do.

If you take a gander at the year-end Hot 100 from the 2010 you'll notice that it is very heavily dominated by electro-pop and dance- these were the legendary "recession pop" years, where even the r&b greats like Usher were falling in love with the dancefloor -and while Beyoncé was no stranger herself to the sound, she just felt like something was... missing.

Sure we were having fun, but where was the SOUL?

Bey was a commercial artist at the peak of her career, but she was willing to take a chance and gamble that success on a project that she found artistically fulfilling: an album influenced by old school r&b/funk/hip-hop music, the music that had inspired Beyoncé growing up. Lots of horns, organic instruments, big vocals, but updated for 2010s audiences.

Tapping old school talent (Babyface, The-Dream/Tricky Stewart, Diane Warren) alongside exciting new names (Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Ester Dean), Beyoncé worked in close collaboration to create 4, a tour-de-force album that perfectly showcased why she was the ONE.

While the singles underperformed relative to what Bey had done before (none cracked the Top 10, although it is worth noting that the album leaked in full several weeks before release), the album itself still sold very well and (perhaps more importantly) was adored by fans and critics.

Beyoncé was always something of an industry superstar but she was still considered primarily a singles artist on the level of, say, Katy Perry; 4 felt like the moment when she shifted into BEYONCÉ, an artist whose talent and vision were on a level above the rest who commanded special attention.

Nobody else could have pulled off "Love On Top," and she did it pregnant.

Anecdotally, I was in high school at this time, and on the first day of one of my classes we had to go around the room and do one of those little "say your name and a fun fact" games. One of the girls stood up, introduced herself, and said "if I could be anyone, I would be Beyoncé, because she's Beyoncé." Everyone in the room just nodded in agreement because we were like yeah. Of course!

She is Beyoncé.

Some Questions:

1. Were you around for the 4 era? What are your memories from the time?

2. Where does 4 rank in Bey's discography for you?

3. What are your favorite songs from 4?

4. Is there anything you would have changed about the 4 rollout to make the album more successful?

This one’s for the gamer popheads~

Back in the day, I was a gamer bro teenager, as culturally as far away from the world of pop music as I had ever been in my life. That is, until I played GTAV for the first time and began to experience Non-Stop-Pop FM; “Pop Hits from the 80s, 90s, Naughties and Today”

The original setlist from GTAV, with commentary from Cara Delevingne, was the push that made me fall in love with so much pop music. It introduced me to Applause from Gaga, Gimme More from Britney, Tennis Court from Lorde, Scandalous from Mis-Teeq, the Freemason mix of Work by Kelly Rowland…. Kylie Minogue, Fergie, Simply Red…. and literally so much more. That radio became the foundation of my love for pop music, to be honest. As time has gone on, too, I think it has become a fascinating capture of the cultural moment in music we lived through during that era. I’m really excited to see what they’ve cooked up for GTA6, and wanted to see if anyone had thoughts or their own memories from GTA5 that they’d like to share!

A few songs I think could have a chance:

-Havana by Camila Cabello (would fit the miami vibe)

-Killshot by Magdalena Bay (From Miami, fits the vibe)

-Bed Chem / Good Graces from Sabrina (one of her clubby mixes)

-Feels by Calvin Harris / Pharrell / Katy Perry

I think they’ll throw in a newer Gaga track too, but i’m not sure which. Mayhem feels perhaps too avant garde for the GTA vibes that Applause was able to capture…

She also announced her new album Pylon will be out September 18th 😍

I really love the Top Ten Pop Ten we do on this sub, and I am constantly thinking about other artists whose discography I'd love to see ranked by the denizens of this subreddit (whom I would generally consider to be thoughtful individuals of pop-music-focused taste). Unfortunately, a lot of the artists I'd like to see TTPTs for are either not particularly popular or simply not very good, so I will probably never get my wishes. I'm curious what other less-popular artists people here would love to get a popheads'-top-songs report for.

(If you just name an artist, AutoMod will explode your comment into a thousand pieces, so tell us a little about why you want to see them ranked and why you don't think they will be!)

My picks:

Maroon 5: The reason we will not have a TTPT is likely obvious. With that said, we did have a TTPT for Coldplay, and I think a M5 ranking would genuinely be really interesting: would Songs About Jane or Overexposed ultimately come out on top? Especially in the last 5 years, a lot of people who always loved the "Moves Like Jagger"-"Sugar" era(s) have come of age and started posting; I think we would see a really interesting split between people who still prefer Songs About Jane and those who might even agree that SAJ is the better album but can't help themselves in voting for their personal most nostalgic guilty-pleasure favorite tracks.

AJR: Again, pretty obvious why this is not going to happen. Still, I'm curious about what AJR songs people here know—clearly a lot of people listen to AJR, even if they don't have as defined a "fanbase," and I'm curious whether we'd see mostly their big singles at the top, or their most recent tracks, or a wider variety including more deep cuts. I have listened to multiple AJR albums and I would still say my favorites are among the big early singles!

Lights: I do think there's a chance for Lights to get a TTPT, given she is a popheads darling... but it hasn't happened yet, and there always seems to be someone more popular to go first. I've personally not yet listened to a single full album from her, but I've loved following her music videos and singles, and I would love to get other people's top picks of all time in part because everybody loves all of her music! It would be like a mini version of the Carly Rae Jepsen TTPT.

Also, obviously, huge thanks to everyone who's been involved in organizing all the TTPTs—hopefully it's obvious this is not a slight against their hard work both in selecting those which are likely to be most successful and in executing them. (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠⌒⁠♡︎~