Also let's not forget that some of these are more important than others. I could care less if
[Hybrid Theory] (my 10th pick) takes best rock album, compared to the possibility that "Just Like A Pill" is named Best Rock Song. I mean, the full scale incompetence it has taken to even get that damn song this far is inexplicable enough.
Good point.
All right, this is where we seem to stand right now. If any of y'all who haven't opined yet just don't want to hassle with all the categories and/or options, this status report can double as a whittled down list.
I'm just gonna type this up real quick, so sorry it's not formatted neatly or anything.
(On some of these numbers where rankings were absent in a certain column, I played around with worse case scenario, i.e., the theoretical ranking that gave least consensus. I didn't always remember to take them out, so if some of these numbers I'm giving don't match up with the actual spreadsheet, which I didn't touch except to add some more of my own rankings, that's why.)GENERAL FIELD:
Artist of the Decade: Coldplay (strong consensus)
Album of the Decade:
American Idiot is currently edging out
Speakerboxx/The Love Below in a very close race (average rank of 2 compared to 2 and a seventh).
Record of the Decade: "Hey Ya!" (1 and 5/7) currently leads "Crazy" (2 and 5/7) and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (3) and will probably be the official SMB choice.
Song of the Decade: "Viva La Vida" has pretty strong consensus.
Album track of the Decade: "St. Jimmy" and "Papercut" are the only two feasibly in the running. "St. Jimmy" is the less divisive of those two, with six of seven people ranking it (all in the top three), and is probably the choice, barring any strong objection in favor of LP.
Vocalist of the Decade: Matthew Bellamy (strong consensus)
Producer of the Decade: The Neptunes have the edge over Timbaland and are likely to win that race.
Songwriter of the Decade: Rob Thomas has an edge over The Neptunes. Ryan Tedder is also still in the fray in third. John Legend has an outside shot behind those three. Barring strong Thomas objection, he'd get this by the numbers.
POP FIELD:
Female Pop Vocal: "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis (strong consensus)
Male Pop Vocal: "Cry Me a River," "Heartless," and "Lonely No More" all have fairly good rankings. If we want to avoid forcing someone to vote for one of his X'ed choices, "Lonely No More" would take this; otherwise, if we pretend X means 10, "Cry Me a River" edges it out and "Heartless" ends behind those two.
Duo/Group vocal: "Mr Brightside" has a 6/7 lead over "Viva La Vida."
Pop Vocal collab: It's down to "Apologize" and "Feel Good, Inc." "Apologize" currently leads by 1/7.
Pop Song: "Hey Ya!" has a 4/7 lead on "Viva La Vida."
Pop Album:
FutureSex/LoveSounds (2) over
Back to Black (3)
Pop Artist: Justin Timberlake has a very slight edge over Nelly Furtado. Either could take it.
DANCE:
Best Dance Recording: "One More Time" by Daft Punk (strong consensus)
Best Dance Album:
Discovery by Daft Punk (strong consensus)
ROCK:
Best rock female: "A Sorta Fairytale" by Tori Amos (strong consensus)
Best rock male: "Rockin' the Suburbs" by Ben Folds (strong consensus)
Best duo/group performance: "Starlight" by Muse (strong consensus)
Best hard rock performance: "No One Knows" by QOTSA (reasonably strong consensus; "All My Life" is the next closest)
Best rock song: "Jesus of Suburbia" leads "The Middle" by 6/7
Best rock album:
Hot Fuss by The Killers (3) (moderate consensus) ...
American Idiot,
Fallen, and
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb are the other contenders close-ish
Best alternative album:
Black Holes & Revelations by Muse (strong consensus)
Best rock artist: ...yeah, there's no consensus here at all. I'm just gonna list the numbers (I pretended that everything Sunny didn't rank was his 4th choice, per my above worst case scenario description): The Killers (3 and 3/7), Green Day (3 and 6/7), Foo Fighters (4), Coldplay (4 and 1/7), The White Stripes (4 and 1/7), Red Hot Chili Peppers (4 and 5/7).
R&B:
Female vocal: "Bag Lady" got high ranks but too many blanks, so I'd throw it out for SMB approval. That leaves "Be Without You" and "Try Again" dead even.
Male vocal: "Ordinary People" got generally high ranks, but also got an X. Even pretending X is just a tenth pick, that moves it out of first, which leaves "Black Sweat" slightly ahead of "Pretty Wings." "Pretty Wings" has an n/a, so "Black Sweat" is probably the choice most agreeable to all parties.
Duo or group performance: I'm not sure what to make of this, but I
think "Maria, Maria" gets it by default of being well-recognized and not particularly hated.
Traditional R&B performance: Again, spotty results, but I think "By Your Side" by Sade takes this one.
Urban/Alternative: three songs are neck and neck and neck: "She Wants to Move" (2 and 1/3), "Crazy" (2 and 2/3), and "The Seed 2.0" (3).
R&B song: "Love Lockdown" has moderate consensus over "Ordinary People."
R&B album: I think Prince's
Musicology gets this? Spotty results again.
Contemporary R&B album:
In Search Of... by N*E*R*D (strong consensus)
R&B artist: John Legend (2) leads over Mary J. Blige (2.5) and Usher (2 and 5/6)
RAP/HIP-HOP:
Solo performance: Three horses still in this race - "What You Know" (2), "Lose Yourself" (2 and 1/6), "99 Problems" (2 and 1/3)
Duo/group performance: "Grindin'" (2 and 1/6) has a slight edge over "Ms. Jackson" (2.5)
Rap/sung collab: "American Boy" (2 and 5/6) and "My Love" (3 and 1/6) are fighting it out. "The Way I Are" also had high rankings, but got X'ed, and since these two seem generally agreeable to all, I feel safe letting it fall away.
Song: "Lose Yourself" has moderate consensus over "What You Know."
Album:
Hell Hath No Fury (strong consensus)
Artist: Kanye West (2 and 1/3) has a slight edge over OutKast (2 and 2/3)
COUNTRY:
Female vocal: Probably "Gunpowder and Lead" by Miranda Lambert, because even if we don't care about the song, we think she's hot and has a good personality
Male vocal: "Hurt" by Johnny Cash (strong consensus)
Duo/group vocal: It's between the two Dixie Chicks songs. My vote is currently skewing it toward "Not Ready to Make Nice," but that's gonna get our song vote and I don't actually care much, so I'm fine with withdrawing that preference and saying SMB chooses "Cowboy Take Me Away."
Vocal collab: "Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss (strong consensus)
Song: "Not Ready to Make Nice" (strong consensus)
Album:
Taking the Long Way by Dixie Chicks
Artist: Dixie Chicks
LATIN: We're generally apathetic, but Matt likes Shakira's "No" for song and female vocal.
MULTIMEDIA:
Short form music vid: "Helena" (2) has a slight edge over "Hey Ya!" (2.2) with "Here It Goes Again" (3.4) the only other contender
Long form music vid:
Bullet in a Bible by Green Day (strong consensus)
Music vid artist: OutKast and Coldplay both have high rankings from all of us; Coldplay was Matt's one and only choice, so I'd be fine with deferring to that; otherwise, OutKast also has high enough numbers to be our choice. Kanye West is in a close-ish third.
Song for soundtrack: "Lose Yourself" by Eminem (strong consensus)
Best score: Sunny's preference for
Wall-E seems reasonably strong; Nick gave
The Dark Knight a default vote; no one else cares. I'm thinking that gives us
Wall-E as our choice at the moment?
Compilation soundtrack:
8 Mile (reasonably strong consensus)
Live performance: "Stan" by Eminem and Elton John (strong consensus)
American Idol performance: "Mad World" by Adam Lambert, I think?
American Idol contestant: Daughtry has a slight edge on Clarkson; could be either.
Best remixed recording: "Mr. Brightside" (Jacques Lucont's Think White Duke remix) by The Killers (strong consensus)
Best mash-up:
The Grey Album by Danger Mouse (strong consensus)
And the other fields haven't generated much feedback in any given category, so I think we can just defer to the picks that are there, barring further input.