The 2006 Macaca Music Poll

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Sacrificing to a year-end ritual, I’ve been compiling my “best of 2006” music lists for various outlets. It’s a cool exercise as long as you don’t take it too seriously; when you’re in the arts writing business, you have the chance to check out oodles of new releases, and you need to employ filters like genre, or label, or simply your own whimsy, just to sort through the pile let alone pick your favorites. Despite this, I get value from learning what other critics enjoyed, and I do my best to make my own picks useful and interesting, in particular by looking for sounds that folks might have missed, yet are not so obscure as to be un-findable in stores or online.

Still, they say everyone’s a critic, and (to endorse what Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd stated in the comments I quoted here) these days technology and the emergence of online communities makes everyone even more of a critic than before. It’s easy to set up your soapbox, and there’s even a chance someone will hear, maybe even respond. So since we’re all critics, and I know there’s some serious, multi-faceted, all-over-the-place music listening that goes on out there in Sepia-land, I am proud to bring you the MACACA MUSIC POLL.

Here’s how it works. I can’t be bothered to figure out how to code a poll, and besides, I have something much simpler in mind. I would like everyone to tell us five pieces of music that they would recommend to the community. Each piece can be an album or an individual song. All genres are included, and there is no desi criterion. Just as long as it came out in 2006 (or late 2005), if it moved you, grooved you, or soothed you in ’06, tell the world about it.

Email your list of 5 picks to this address. I will stop taking entries in one week, Wednesday, December 20, and I will compile the results and present them in some fun manner in the following days.

To preserve the spirit of the exercise, please don’t enter your list in the comments to this post; email it to me instead. (I will keep all addresses in confidence, of course.) More general conversation is welcome, however, about the directions music went in ’06, the value or otherwise of year-end lists, criticism and its pitfalls, or anything else that comes to mind. C’mon, let’s play!

45 thoughts on “The 2006 Macaca Music Poll”

  2. Since you’re not putting a desi criterion, I predict Beyonce or Nelly Furtado will come in #1.

    I’ve been subscribing to MTV Desi this fall, and one of the surprising things on their top ten “user request” countdowns is, the top spots are always current mainstream American pop. The rest of the list is Hindi film songs Indi-Pop and second gen music like Jahcoozi.

  3. It may make the poll more difficult to respond to, however I would like to suggest adding the constraint that the music recommendations be listenable online free. This would then make the experience completely enjoyable by all the sepoys toiling away in our isolated little cubicles with headphones on. It will also provide more incentive for musicians to “open source” their music since music is – well free isnt it? At least it was for me sitting in some small square in Rome listening to some guitar notes on a balmy weekday evening at the risk of sounding sophisticated – which I am:) Oh yes, if it makes my suggestion any less valuable, I dont have anything that comes to mind, but if something does I will be sure to mail it to you.

  4. one of the surprising things on their top ten “user request” countdowns is, the top spots are always current mainstream American pop.

    That’s because dance-pop has been awesome this year. It’s been the only “mainstream” music style that’s really had a good year, IMHO.

  5. International music from Africa & the Middle East has been mindblowing this year. Great idea Siddhartha, can’t wait to see the results.

  9. 🙂 I echo Amardeep. Just a matter of people’s individualities being too cute to cut across party lines. the five limit may yet be the master stroke tho’ – so! yea, folks will be plugging bands like – 1. Death star Bazookas 2. Monkey Skitter 3. Black Blac Bloc 4. Beastie Boys 5. Dire Straits… and the first three will be garage bands without reach beyond a garage in a zip code + 4.

    problem with voting is that none but the common denominator gets enough votes and the common denominator is not often the most creative option. This is a deeper discussion on the logic of voting and can lead into a debate on different types of voting (condorcet, winner take all) etc. that being said, i was quite impressed with the voting process at the Liberal party convention a couple of weeks back – a truly democratic process – in which the delegates backed or pulled horses in support of the party objective, rather than an individual. the Libs ended up choosing the blandest and the best option imo. in the current context, it woudl be the equivalent of a representative mix of bloggers coming together and listening to each others selections to come up with a top 5 recommendation.

  10. Didn’t one of the online magazines (Salon maybe?) do this a while ago and find out that, mysteriously enough, all of the year’s best bands were sallow emo-pop kids?

  11. Awesome, awesome, awesome!

    And Neal, it’s like elections- you can’t complain if you don’t vote. If enough non-sallow non-emo-pop kids vote, the balance is restored easily.

  12. Actually I think it’s like elections more in the way that hairy_d explained — voting demands consensus.

    Honestly I don’t think that sallow emo-pop is all that bad. It’s just a funny snapshot of the effect hairy_d was talking about — the magazine in question (I’m PRETTY sure it was Salon) had eclectic musical taste, so I’m sure there was a wide range of options. But sallow emo-pop was the one common denominator, so there you go.

  13. Okay, fair enough Neal. 🙂

    However, it looks like Siddhartha is not going to go for straight numbers/common denominators- he just said he’d compile them. So, it seems like a fun exercise. I’m always interested in what other folks have been ardently listening to.

  15. i love this!!! but how to narrow the choices??!?

    it’s also hard because i too am on a 60s-70s kick…hmm…

    well this top 5 albums of the year idea rocks so be prepared for my lil’ list.

  20. I didn’t realize it until making my top five list, but this has been a very good year in music. I used to be a 60s-70s classic rock macaca. But the bad thing about classic rock is that there is no new stuff. 😉

  21. D’oh. I got sidetracked by that joke. There was a lot of stuff by classic rock artists. Eric Clapton and JJ Cale’s Road to Escondido. It sounds like old Clapton. David Gilmour’s On an Island was pretty good too.

    Bob Dylan also has a great album out this year, Modern Times, and this one made my list.

    Also, to remedy your ‘oh no, I can’t find any new music,’ I would recommend getting into The Clash and Bruce Springsteen. It will change your life. After being high on these two, you will learn to appreciate Joe Strummer’s solo work and new Springsteen derivative bands like The Hold Steady and The Killers.

  24. Springsteen has a new album out this year as well 🙂

    And hey, you classic rockers have nothing to complain about. Aside from Dylan and the Boss, The Who, Johnny Cash, and Tom Waits all have new albums out this year.

  26. I didn’t mention Springsteen and Tom Waits because they both made my list and I didn’t want to post my top five because then everyone would post here instead of email and then it would get messy.

  27. The Macaca Music Poll awaits your vote. I’m looking for several hundred contributions, and so far we have fewer than 50. It’s a start, but not enough. Send me the names of 5 new albums or songs, any genre, that you enjoyed in 2006. C’mon, do it now!

  29. I didn’t mention Springsteen and Tom Waits because they both made my list and I didn’t want to post my top five because then everyone would post here instead of email and then it would get messy.

    Sorry! I just wanted the people complaining that they only listened to classic rock to know this new stuff was out there.

  31. Hey, Sriram! I still plan to submit my dad’s picture to the Desi Dad project… someday. 🙂

    On the other hand, I just finished my entry to the music poll. I think this is much easier than tracking down a photo of my father (who lives 3000 miles away) from the 1970s, scanning it (this is probably the part where it all falls apart for me) and sending it in.

    I hope more people submit!

  33. Hey, Sriram! I still plan to submit my dad’s picture to the Desi Dad project… someday. 🙂

    Hmmpf! Walk the walk girl.

  36. Scanning the early results there is one album that crops up again and again – it might not be in the majority of posts, but it definitely has a solid lead over all other picks. I won’t tell you what it is other than it’s not desi. WON’T YOU SEND YOUR ENTRY NOW, PRETTY PLEASE?

  37. siddhartha: “Scanning the early results there is one album that crops up again and again”

    Aargh. Please let it be someone who isn’t called Justin. Yes, I’m a hater. Deal.

  41. Thanks! Be like drac, people. Yo – where my Brits at? C’mon Jai Singh, Snapper, Midwestern, Bongsie, all the UK regs and lurkers…

  43. Let me guess, is it Bob Dylan? Also, I emailed you a TV ad. Do you get that in the US too or is it a Canada only ad?

  45. OK my peoples, even SpoorLam has sent in his noteworthy music of 2006. So what about you? Email me five albums or songs that got stuck inside your head this year. It’s the weekend – a great time to spin some tunes and share them with the mutiny. Results will be written up after Wednesday.