Wiki Worldwide Sales Bracket POLL: GROUP TWO (of eight)

First round went Beatles over Who, Elvis Presley over Barry White, Michael Jackson/Jackson 5ive over Rod Stewart, and ABBA over Britney Spears. The other line-ups are at on the thread up top.

Kenny Rogers, Elton John, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys for me.

It's totally amazing that the Pet Shop Boys have sold 100 million albums.

Queen vs. Kenny Rogers
Elton John vs. Lionel Richie

don't care about either of these contests but otherwise A.R. Rahman (YES!) and the fucking Bee Gees by a country mile

Elton vs. Lionel Richie was really tough, and I was even taking Commodores work into consideration...but Elton had an album run in the early 70s that was unimpeachable. Likewise, I had big problems picking between Bee Gees and Pet Shop Boys. In the end, my intense love of "West End Girls" wasn't enough to beat out my love of '60s, '70s AND '80s Bee Gees.

I voted Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys

I don't much care for Queen apart from a few amazing songs, but this is one unfuckwithable series of interlocking canons.

went with Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, A.R. Rahman, Bee Gees

Queen's Sparks homage+gay fascist schtick has always creeped me out

ooooonly voted Lionel cuz of the Commodores, tbh

Queen, Lionel Richie, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys

Queen, Elton John, A.R. Rahman, Bee Gees

Unfortunately, I just realized I mixed up Rahman with R.D. Burman, not that I hate Rahman, but he's no R.D. Burman and I probably wouldn't have voted for him over Madonna.

Ha, I was just thinking that I wished Rahman had been replaced with Burman. R.D. is a Radical Dude.

I request controversial dual mod/wikipedia edit.

Right, because Madonna isn't going to be a landslide.

Bee Gees vs Pet Shop Boys is a tossup for me, but I guess I'll go with:

Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Bee Gees

Think I might have taken Lionel or the PSBs over Queen, though.

Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Bee Gees

lotsa gay icons here

For your consideration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAfizTQOPLE

Kenny Rogers, Elton John, Madonna, Bee Gees

Pretty easy. I'm not big on Kenny Rogers, but I am pretty sure at this point I like a few of his songs more than anything by Queen. (I don't detest Queen, but don't care about them either.)

Queen, Elton, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys. Feel bad about voting against A.R. Rahman, who I don't know anything about, but it sounds like he scores movies...? I can't bring myself to vote for that. Elton for the singing and piano on "Burn Down the Mission" which beats anything I know by L Richie.

Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Bee Gees

damn, missed out on group one.

Queen, Elton John, Rahman, Bee Gees

Queen, Lionel Richie, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys. I have no idea who A. R. Rahman is... A Bollywood composer?

kenny rogers, lionel richie, madonna, pet shop boys

no idea who kenny rogers is but i fucking hate queen so much

I always mix up Kenny Rogers with Kenny G, so I was kinda wondering why some people are actually voting for him. Don't think I've ever heard anything by this Rogers guy though.

Kenny Rogers (but only for Kenny Rogers And the First Edition), Elton John by a hair, Madonna, PSB

Christ, I know one song each by the Bee Gees and the Pet Shop Boys and they're both apparently huge multiplatinum recording artists. Went with Queen, Lionel Richie, Madonna, Bee Gees.

Has A R Rahman done anything good? I also initially thought "hey it's that guy who was married to Asha Bhosle".

Anyway: Queen, Lionel Richie, Madonna, PSB.

I know one song each by the Bee Gees and the Pet Shop Boys

Never heard the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack?

Is Bee Gees vs. Pet Shop Boys going to break down between English (and Anglophile American) and American (and Americanophile--what's the word?--English) posters?

Oh man, just did a Google image search on "Americanos" and it is brutal. NSFW. Was looking for a picture of a bus from the bus line with that name.

kenny rogers is the best thing here!

I'd have to go with Elton John, who doesn't get the appreciation he deserves around here (though maybe there's simply not a lot to say about him). He's another one of those 70s figures whose reputation is ill-served by his post-70s catalog.

Think I'm going to run these two at a time, simultaneously, for the first eight--does anyone object? (Groups 3 and 4 would go up after this one is finished.)

Queen, EJ, Madonna, PSB

two at a time is probably a good idea

no idea who kenny rogers is but i fucking hate queen so much

lol

PSBs really seem like the odd outlier to me - like, I wouldn't even have a clue what their biggest selling album is, which is not the case with the rest of these guys. Eurogays buy a lot of records, eh?

Don't care about the first two at all. Can I vote Pet Shop Boys four times?

PSBs really seem like the odd outlier to me - like, I wouldn't even have a clue what their biggest selling album is, which is not the case with the rest of these guys. Eurogays buy a lot of records, eh?

I'd assume Very

PSBs have about 9 different greatest hits albums. That probably counts for a lot of it.

Very must be the best-selling PSB album, it had like 5 or 6 hit singles.

According to RIAA.com, in the U.S. (and only in the U.S.), Actually, Introspective, Discography, and Very are all gold (500,000 copies sold). Please is platinum (1 million).

Wikipedia numbers has Very at 5M worldwide with Introspective at 4.5M and Please at 4M

i keep thinking i should acquire an actual PSB album beyond discography and pop art

You should at least get the first 2 and Alternative (pretty fond of Very and Nightlife as well; used to be a big proponent of Behavior but someone stole my copy of it decades ago and I never replaced it)

(oh and Disco 2 rules hardcore)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Queen, Elton John, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys (went with all the gay icons, I think). Is Kenny Rogers a gay icon?

in a couple of interviews Neil Tennant has claimed Introspective is their biggest worldwide seller, which I might believe since their only best-selling studio album after the eighties was Very.

voting the gay-ikon ticket: queen, elton, madge, PSB

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

PSB beating the Bee Gees is fucking WRONG

Well, they wrote better songs over a longer period. And recorded better albums.

no

I can name at least four great to near great PSB albums. The Bee Gees didn't make great albums, but there's great songs all over them.

Bee Gees have like three decades of high quality work under their belts, at least four full-stop classic albums and every one of the Bee Gees is a damn sight better vocalist than Neil Tennant, whose range and tone are for shit. PSBs are better lyricists, I'll give them that. The production on the best Bee Gees stuff, which are very richly textured - beautiful, big budget arrangements - absolutely slays the tinny pre-set synths that dominate most PSB albums.

Shakes, haven't you admitted you haven't listened to the PSB besides "West End Girls"? How can you then say the Bee Gees are superior?

Neil Tennant, whose range and tone are for shit.

Demonstrably untrue on every level, if you've heard PSB albums.

and you think PSB fans love'em solely for their lyrics? Come on.

There is, however, a nice essay/post waiting to get written about the Gibb bros and Tennant-Lowe's writing/producing jobs for divas in need. Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield's careers intersect in interesting ways.

nah I've heard the PSBs hits, and I think I had Very at some point in the last few years. they are by and large a band I grew up hearing on the radio, whereas the Bee Gees I discovered retroactively

I've heard little by the PSB but that's largely because what I've heard has left me wondering what the big deal is. But we'll get them in the next round, even if it means voting for a banda superstar.

Queen 57
Kenny Rogers 17

Elton John 49
Lionel Richie 25

Madonna 63
A.R. Rahman 11

Pet Shop Boys 47
Bee Gees 27

Wiki Worldwide Sales Bracket POLL: GROUP THREE (of eight)
Wiki Worldwide Sales Bracket POLL: GROUP FOUR (of eight)

Go vote! And thanks again to everyone who's been part of this so far.

Elton John over Lionel Richie people are the likely to be the most baffling group of this whole poll cycle.

elton's early 70s career is solid, I'd vote for him over anyone in this group

Elton John over Lionel Richie people are the likely to be the most baffling group of this whole poll cycle.

Okay, really? Did you like magically forget the demographic/taste center of this board when you wrote that?

I forget it every time.

I dunno I wouldn't really call elton john an artist who caters to the demographic/taste center of this board anymore than lionel richie

Elton John 49
Lionel Richie 25

seems like the board itself disagrees with you

well I meant like, in the sense of 'what would the average demographic be at an elton john concert?' - miles away from the ilx demographic, maybe not so different from the average demographic at a lionel richie concert.

Yeah I expected it to be close with Richie maybe taking it, but I guess I was letting Spencer Chow's first and only thread go to my head a bit there.

(forgot to vote and would've made it 26, fwiw, which is not a lot as 26 < 49, obv)

This is ILM; sexually-ambiguous British verging-on-glam rock will likely always be more popular than funk/R&B.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/02_04/EltonJohn5_468x230.jpg

'ambiguous'

I don't think 'sexually-ambiguous british verging-on-glam rock' describes him outside of the word 'british'. his 'verging-on-glam rock' period is maybe half of one album and probably least appealing to those who actually like glam rock. I voted for him cause he has some A++ classic albums (before the donald duck years) and lionel richie only has a handful of songs I like. it is possible that ilm likes him for reasons beyond him being british and gay, I dunno, I can't speak for other peoples' votes. ej would have been crushed by, say, stevie wonder.

my gf works (hopefully not much longer) at a fancy bookstore and their business seems to be elton john-centered, like he comes in a few times a year and buys 10k worth of books...two of everything, one for each house.

ej would have been crushed by, say, stevie wonder

I don't believe this for a second

elton's early 70s career is solid, I'd vote for him over anyone in this group

Me too (Madonna would finish second), and my tastes aren't usually either British or gay-identified, I don't think; they're probably more soul or funk, at least if you're talking older-school versions of those genres. (Bottom line is, Richie's career is just a whole lot spottier. One really good solo album, a good Greatest Hits album as part of his band before he went solo, and maybe a handful of other worthy singles, if that. Would maybe have picked him over Queen -- he's underrated as a singer, I think, especially in "Stuck On You"/"Sail On" mode where he verges on Kenny Rogers-type countripolitan -- but against Elton, given Elton's early '70s run, it's not even close. And Elton's probably underrated as a singer too, come to think of it.)

stevie wonder made it to the top 8 in the other tournament! no way elton john's fanbase here is anything as hardcore as stevie's.

Yeah, it's not even close. Elton has at least twenty songs I care about, while Richie's got Can't Slow Down (don't care for the Commodores at all).

ILX 70s album poll - results

3 stevie wonder albums, 0 ej

And actually, Elton's '70s stuff has plenty of soul influence (and some country) in it, too fwiw. ("Bennie And The Jets," "Philadelphia Freedom," and "Mama Can't Buy You Love" all charted r&b.)

bennie and the jets? I always considered that his glammiest moment. (would take it over anything on ziggy stardust)

"Bennie and the Jets" topped the R&B chart, I think.

then there was Mary J. Blige's version.

I guess there's actually considerable soul-influence on elton's vocals

(not nec w/r/t that song, but in lots of others)

I agree with that.

All I'm really saying is that Elton John's popularity doesn't surprise me.

okay I can get that

also any chance to big up tumbleweed connection I'm gonna take:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKXDYMrIqTI

Dig the live vocals and the eventually abandoned pianomime on Bennie and the Jets. Philadelphia Freedom sounds like a total lip synch job though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSobF74JxYg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqnDqrL5Y58&feature=related