Saturday, January 8, 2011
Life and the poll
Unfortunately, due to life's irritating habit of Getting In The Way, I will not be able to spend a lot of time on the poll this year. The poll form itself is still up at SurveyMonkey, and people can still vote in it, and I can still do basic analysis to find the top 10 or so - but I won't spend extra time promoting it, or doing any extra analysis along the way. Sorry everyone, but hey, life happens.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Hottest 100 Women 2010 is ON! And I need your help
That's right, I'm doing it again - for all female artist songs released during 2010 - in Australia and the world. First up, I need to build a list of all these songs. And you can help by adding songs which should be on it, to the list - a file I have made publicly editable over at Google Docs.
Here's an easy way to find new songs to add:
- Visit Wikipedia
- Find an album with a female artist (start from half-way through February)
- If it isn't on the list, add it by copying & pasting the track listing.
Easy!
This file will close at the end of December, 2010, and voting will start in the first week of January, 2011, with results to be counted down somewhere early in February. If you'd like to help out in any other way with the countdown, please, let me know!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
My apologies to Lady Gaga
For thinking she didn't have any kind of 'point' with her performances. In fact, I'd call it performance art. I missed her live concerts here in Melbourne, but I've since spent a lot of time getting to know her through her video clips, and I'm at the point where I just cannot look away.
Standard disclaimer: I wish that to be truly At The Top Of Her Game, being Challenging and Artistic, a female artist would not automatically have to strip off, display a standardised body, and wear it as some kind of badge of pride.
But.
If they have to do it, I hope they do it like Gaga. Wearing her performances. Sneering at the camera. Demanding sex when she wants it. Rivaling the Cremaster Cycle in profusion of allegorical, symbolic and downright confusing imagery. Encasing body parts and concepts in materials weighed down by layers of meaning. Doing some damn fine music. Exploring colour, movement and texture. Toying with expectations and demands of others, and then throwing them off effortlessly.
When I grow up into a toned, bosomed and bleached body, I want to be Lady Gaga.
Standard disclaimer: I wish that to be truly At The Top Of Her Game, being Challenging and Artistic, a female artist would not automatically have to strip off, display a standardised body, and wear it as some kind of badge of pride.
But.
If they have to do it, I hope they do it like Gaga. Wearing her performances. Sneering at the camera. Demanding sex when she wants it. Rivaling the Cremaster Cycle in profusion of allegorical, symbolic and downright confusing imagery. Encasing body parts and concepts in materials weighed down by layers of meaning. Doing some damn fine music. Exploring colour, movement and texture. Toying with expectations and demands of others, and then throwing them off effortlessly.
When I grow up into a toned, bosomed and bleached body, I want to be Lady Gaga.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Hummingbird/Hottest100Women overall
So, how many songs did we have in common, and how many were different?
Well, 24 songs appeared in both lists. These songs were more likely to occur in the second 50 of the Hummingbird 100, and in the first 55 of the Hottest 100. That is to say - the songs we had in common were more likely to be the more popular alternative songs, which were less popular than the standard pop songs. So to speak.
Also, there were 64 artists appearing in the Hummingbird, compared to 69 in the Hottest 100 (which we should point out here, is actually 110). This equals a 64% uniqueness ratio (yes, that's the official term) for the Hummingbird, and 63% for H110 - ie, Hummingbird has a slightly higher ratio of individual artists.
Of those 64 artists, 22 were in the Hottest110 - meaning we had a much higher overlap of artists, than of songs. Which makes plenty of sense.
Hummingbird/Hottest100Women Top 10s
Okay, so, comparing the top 10s.
What can we read into this? Well, it looks like songs which were massively popular in the H110W countdown were more likely to be popular across the board - regardless of whether people prefer pop or alternative. Whereas songs that were massively popular in the Hummingbird100 countdown were more likely to be popular only within the pop fan base. Half of the Hummingbird100 top 10 songs which didn't make it into the H100W at all, were from the 2000s. IE Hummingbird is more likely to have more recent songs which are more likely to be popular only among people who are more likely to like more recent songs! A more specific top 10, I guess.
The top 10 for the two countdowns, and their corresponding rankings in the other countdown:
| Artist | Song | H100W position | Hummingbird position |
| Aretha Franklin | Respect | 1 | 1 |
| Kate Bush | Wuthering Heights | 2 | 47 |
| Tori Amos | Cornflake Girl | 3 | 71 |
| Portishead | Glory Box | 4 | 68 |
| Breeders | Cannonball | Equal 5 | -- |
| Janis Joplin | Another Piece Of My Heart | Equal 5 | -- |
| Sinead O'Connor | Nothing Compares 2 U | 7 | 48 |
| Dusty Springfield | Son Of A Preacher Man | 8 | 63 |
| Veruca Salt | Seether | 9 | -- |
| Bjork | Hyperballad | Equal 10 | -- |
| Mazzy Star | Fade Into You | Equal 10 | -- |
| Artist | Song | Hummingbird position | H100W position |
| Aretha Franklin | Respect | 1 | 1 |
| Pink | So What | 2 | -- |
| Gloria Gaynor | I Will Survive | 3 | Equal 96 |
| Abba | Dancing Queen | 4 | -- |
| Madonna | Like A Prayer | 5 | Equal 28 |
| Lady Gaga | PokerFace | 6 | -- |
| Bangles | Eternal Flame | 7 | -- |
| Fergie | Big Girls Don't Cry | 8 | -- |
| Blondie | Heart of Glass | 9 | Equal 16 |
| Madonna | Like A Virgin | 10 | -- |
What can we read into this? Well, it looks like songs which were massively popular in the H110W countdown were more likely to be popular across the board - regardless of whether people prefer pop or alternative. Whereas songs that were massively popular in the Hummingbird100 countdown were more likely to be popular only within the pop fan base. Half of the Hummingbird100 top 10 songs which didn't make it into the H100W at all, were from the 2000s. IE Hummingbird is more likely to have more recent songs which are more likely to be popular only among people who are more likely to like more recent songs! A more specific top 10, I guess.
What I like about the Hummingbird100 top 10 is the totally disco feel, in fact. Madonna, Abba, Gloria Gaynor, and Blondie. I could dance to those songs all night long! I can't really say the same for the H100W top 10 - they're more bottle-of-wine and good-cheese and rage-til-the-morning kinda songs. Songs that say "I used to rock really hard. Now, I reminisce." *grins* Sorry, but it's true!
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