As promised, our quest to find 2008’s official summer jam in a reader-determined tournament starts today; over the next few days we’ll roll out the rest of the nominees, which come from all over the radio map, including even those areas we aren’t very excited to be traveling through. (Hey, we have to acknowledge the inevitable, although you should know that the Katy Perry song has been disqualified on principle–especially since its “controversial even though it wasn’t all that controversial in 1995” subject matter is now garnering attention from the overly gullible media.) After the jump, our first two contenders–Brooks & Dunn’s “Put A Girl In It” and Alphabeat’s “Fascination”–duke it out, with accompanying commentary courtesy Dan Gibson and Kate Richardson, respectively.
The Guardian‘s profile of the Wonky Pop tour begins with an appeal to beleaguered music fans: “Tired of chart pop that’s all manufactured groups and reality TV shows? Just as fed up of bland indie? Then Wonky Pop might just be the thing for you.” It’s almost crass in its resemblance to infomercial rhetoric (“Are you tired of your old, hard-to-operate pasta strainer?”), but it contains such a fundamental element of truth that it’s hard not to read on. In many ways pop music is broken, and it’s about time for a new regime. But is Wonky Pop the answer?
