2000 Poll Results

By theajaysharma January 11, 2001

Well, we're still here. No Y2K catastrophies. No apocalypses. No second comings, unless you're talking about Travis. 2000 wasn't the last year of our lives, just as 2001 likely won't be the year we make contact. In fact, 2000 might only be known throughout the annals of time as "The Year Radiohead Made That One Album... You Know, The Weird One."

But... for all the hubbub (or lack thereof,) what we DID end up with was a pretty good year for music overall. Lots of new heroes, lots of returning champions, lots of great tunes from both sides of the Atlantic.

As we enter the REAL new millennium, we're proud to bring you our FIFTH ANNUAL member's poll. We set records this year for the number of entries we received, and it'll only grow as we continue to evolve the site and our members-only mailing list. Thanks to everyone who participated, and a big cheers to all the artists and musicians who made 2000 such an outstanding year.

Artist of the Year
Radiohead
It wasn't even a contest. They OWNED 2000. Not bad for a band that put out an album with NO singles, NO videos, and NO promotions, eh?
Top 50 Albums of 2000
Rank Artist Album
1 Radiohead Kid A
2 Primal Scream Xtrmntr
3 Travis The Man Who
4 Coldplay Parachutes
5 Doves Lost Souls
6 Badly Drawn Boy The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
7 Sigur Ros Agaetis Byrjun
8 Supergrass Supergrass
9 Belle And Sebastian Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
10 Richard Ashcroft Alone With Everybody
11 Dandy Warhols Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
12 Grandaddy The Sophtware Slump
13 Oasis Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants
14 Cure Bloodflowers
15 PJ Harvey Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
16 Saint Etienne The Sound Of Water
17 Super Furry Animals Mwng
18 Bluetones Science And Nature
19 Teenage Fanclub Howdy!
20 Elliott Smith Figure 8
21 Mojave 3 Excuses For Travellers
22 Yo La Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
23 Geneva Weather Underground
24 Idlewild 100 Broken Windows
25 U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind
26 JJ72 JJ72
27 Catherine Wheel Wishville
28 Broadcast Noise Made By People
29 Bjork Selmasongs
30 Modest Mouse The Moon And Antarctica
31 Kent Hagnesta Hill
32 Godspeed You Black Emperor! Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To
33 Apples In Stereo Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone
34 Placebo Black Market Music
35 Delgados Great Eastern
36 Mansun Little Kix
37 Elastica The Menace
38 Robbie Williams Sing When You're Winning
39 Black Box Recorder The Facts Of Life
40 Eels Daisies Of The Galaxy
41 Embrace Drawn From Memory
42 Cinerama Disco Volante
43 Brave Captain Go With Yourself: Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol. 2
44 Tahiti 80 Puzzle
45 David Holmes Bow Down To The Exit Sign
46 Madonna Music
47 BT Movement In Still Life
48 Sleater-Kinney All Hands On The Bad One
49 Lambchop Nixon
50 Six By Seven The Closer You Get

343 different albums were nominated this year, showcasing a year of diversity and attempts to find new genres and sounds to get attached to. The big winners this year: Travis and Supergrass, who both also placed the same albums in our 1999 poll (a belated U.S. release for each caused them to be considered in BOTH years.) The losers: Bjork and Air, whose soundtrack releases caused split votes between this category and our Reissues/Live/Soundtracks/Compilations/Etc. category, causing both records to come in lower than we think people had intended. But the BIGGEST winner? Madonna, who managed to sneak into both our Album and Song of the Year categories (bet ya never saw THAT one coming a year or two ago!)
Top 10 Other Releases of 2000
(Reissues, Soundtracks, Compilations, etc.)
Rank Artist Album
1 Blur Best Of
2 Beatles 1
3 Air Virgin Suicides
4 Oasis Familiar To Millions
5 Underworld Live: Everything, Everything
6 Belle And Sebastian Lazy Line Painter Jane
7 Soundtrack High Fidelity
8 Gene Rising For Sunset
9 Jeff Buckley Mystery White Boy
10 David Bowie Bowie At The Beeb
11 Various Creation Records: International Guardians Of Rock'n'roll 1983-1999
12 Bjork Selmasongs
13 Various Artists It's A Cool, Cool Christmas
14 Olivia Tremor Control Presents: Singles And Beyond
15 Stone Roses Remixes
16 Morrissey HMV Singles 88-91
17 Clash London Calling
18 Joy Division Complete BBC Recordings
19 Soundtrack Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains
20 Hefner Boxing Hefner
21 Cocteau Twins Stars And Topsoil
22 Gomez Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline
23 Of Montreal Horse And Elephant Eatery: No Elephants Allowed
24 John Lennon Imagine
25 Soundtrack Almost Famous
Top 30 Songs of 2000
Rank Artist Song
1 Coldplay Yellow
2 Dandy Warhols Bohemian Like You
3 Radiohead Idioteque
4 Primal Scream Kill All Hippies
5 Blur Music Is My Radar
6 Radiohead How To Disappear Completely
7 Sigur Ros Svefn-g-englar
8 Belle And Sebastian Legal Man
9 Radiohead Optimistic
10 Doves Catch The Sun
11 Primal Scream Accelerator
12 U2 Beautiful Day
13 Travis Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
14 Koala Feels Like You're Falling In Love Again
15 Radiohead National Anthem
16 Doves The Cedar Room
17 Primal Scream Swastika Eyes
18 Madonna Music
19 Richard Ashcroft A Song For The Lovers
20 Eels Mr. E's Beautiful Blues
21 Supergrass Moving
22 David Gray Babylon
23 Supergrass Pumping On Your Stereo
24 Coldplay Shiver
25 Grandaddy He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot
26 Teenage Fanclub I Need Direction
27 Travis Driftwood
28 Badly Drawn Boy The Shining
29 Broadcast Come On Let's Go
30 Travis Coming Around
31 Badly Drawn Boy Disillusion
32 Dandy Warhols Godless
33 Placebo Slave To The Wage
34 Super Furry Animals Ysbeidiau Heulog
35 Cure Out Of This World
36 Oasis Gas Panic!
37 Bluetones Autophilia
38 Mansun I Can Only Disappoint U
39 Placebo Taste In Men
40 Black Box Recorder The Facts Of Life
41 Geneva If You Have To Go
42 Idlewild Little Discourage
43 Radiohead Everything In Its Right Place
44 Travis Blue Flashing Light
45 Bluetones Keep The Homefires Burning
46 Coldplay Everything's Not Lost
47 Primal Scream Shoot Speed Kill Light
48 Saint Etienne How We Used To Live
49 Primal Scream Exterminator
50 Manic Street Preachers Masses Against The Classes

Badly Drawn Boy ended up setting a new EO record with 11 nominated songs, while most of the tracks on the Radiohead, Belle & Sebastian, Doves, and Bluetones albums were also nominated as individual songs. As opposed to last year, when our editorial decision to drop votes for the Backstreet Boys caused a mini-coup on our mailing list, we didn't adjust ANY votes this year (we're just happy that Britney missed the Top 50, but you probably don't want to know how close it actually came...)
Top 15 Bands
Rank Artist Last Years Spot
1 Radiohead 1
2 Blur 2
3 Oasis 6
4 Suede 4
5 Belle And Sebastian 3
6 Charlatans 9
7 Pulp 7
8 Primal Scream 15
9 Travis 10
10 Spiritualized 11
11 Saint Etienne new
12 Super Furry Animals 5
13 Supergrass new
14 Catherine Wheel new
15 Dandy Warhols new
Radiohead continue global (and Excellentian) domination, coming in as our favorite band for the third year running. Also somewhat interesting that Oasis actually gained 3 spots this year, despite the negative feedback surrounding the band of late. Also interesting is that five of our bands (Suede, Pulp, Spiritualized, and to a degree, Blur and the Charlatans, had relatively quiet years, yet still managed to secure a spot at the top.
Top 5 North American Bands
Rank Artist
1 Dandy Warhols
2 Weezer
3 Elliott Smith
4 Yo La Tengo
5 Mercury Rev
6 R.E.M.
7 Grandaddy
8 Flaming Lips
9 Apples In Stereo
10 Modest Mouse
Three of the bands on this list (Mercury Rev, Grandaddy, and the Flaming Lips) share the same producer in Dave Fridmann. Last year's favorite, Beck, didn't even place in the Top Ten this year...
Indie Boy of the Year
Damon Gough
He may wear The World's Ugliest Hat TM and have a rather unhealthy Bruce Springsteen fetish, but he IS one dead sexy Badly Drawn Indieboy... and he took it by a mile over #2 Robbie Williams. And our personal favorite, of course, He-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless who voted for "me." You're a stud, dude.
Indie Girl of the Year
Sarah Cracknell
Last year, she shared the spotlight with Shirley Manson; this year, the Saint Etienne chanteuse takes it all. Also in the running: Bjork, PJ Harvey, Justine Elastica, Daphne & Celeste, and (honest!) multiple votes for "Shane Brown's Mum." [note from Shane: "This IS in all actuality a lady who used to aerobicize to the Pet Shop Boys and Front 242... My mom would like to thank the Academy, all her fans, and Jesus."] And we're also sorry to report that, despite receiving votes, Damon Albarn isn't a girl.
Film of the Year
High Fidelity
Just barely beating out a tie for 2nd and 3rd place with Almost Famous & Dancer in the Dark... proving once again, if you wanna make the grade in our book as a filmmaker, either (1) make your movie about music, or (2) put a musician in the starring role...
Best TV Show
The Simpsons
Next year, we should change this to "Favorite TV Show Other Than The Simpsons," as they tend to sweep every time we offer this category. Other strong contenders were That 70's Show, Sex & the City, and Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Dance Artist of the Year
TIE: Moby / Fatboy Slim
Indie Universe Event of 200
Napster
Though we may all come from different backgrounds and different nations, there's one thing that unites us together... a universal love for free music. Also scoring major points in this category was: the hubbub (or non-hubbub) surrounding the release of "Kid A," yet it still somehow managed to reach #1 on the Billboard chart; the final issues of Select and Melody Maker; a certain guy named Kevin Shields emerging from high atop the Tibetan mountain he's called home for the last decade, in order to 'gaze it up with Primal Scream on tour; and the death of Creation Records (which also placed pretty high on our 1999 chart.) Shockingly, it appears Al Gore and George W. are also pretty indie-minded, as the U.S. election also ranked pretty high...
Live Act of the Year
Primal Scream
...by a mile or two over #2 Travis. Musta been that long-haired weirdo the Scream had playing guitar with 'em... what was his name again...?
Most Disappointing Album
Richard Ashcroft, "Alone With Everybody."
Not too many people folks at all were pleased with ol' Richie's debut record, but still enough to also place it in the Top 10 Albums of the Year. As per usual, you can look at the rest of the Top 10 Albums to find the other major "disappointments." *sigh*
Biggest Loss
Kirsty MacColl
Not a surprising one here since she tragically died while the poll was going on. Also lamented by several were Creation Records, Pavement, Select & Melody Maker, Dubstar, and "Richard Ashcroft's Talent."
Best Lyric

"Do you keep receipts for the friends that you buy?"
Oasis -- Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Also quite a few varied interpretations from Primal Scream's "Kill All Hippies" were entered.
2nd Favorite Website of the Year
Hey, at least we came in FIRST...
Brightest Hope
The Doves
We were kinda hoping for answers a little more original, but it seems most hope with our members lies with Coldplay, Sigur Ros, the pending albums from Radiohead and Pulp, and a considerable number of votes cast for our own Koala, who should be set to storm the world about, oh, let's say... now.
Favorite Personal Discovery
Sigur Ros
We all love the album... never mind the fact that we can't understand a word of it. For all we know, the lead single could go a little like, "I suck feet/You suck feet/Suck my feet/I'll suck your feet/Pass me the mayo." It's all Icelandic to me...
Indie Git of the Year
Liam Gallagher
Like there was any competition... though Robbie, Richie, and the Damons all received a fair number of votes... and, no, "git" does NOT stand for guitar player (sigh...)
Excellent List Hall of Fame Inductees
The Jam, Cocteau Twins, and Slowdive
Holy moly, what a close race this year. Despite some incredible pushes from fans of Adorable, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Lush, and others, it was SUCH a close race this year, we ended up with a three-way horse race at the end - and it came out a tie for the second spot.
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