damn, I was waiting for this album, bummed I missed the first round. Probably went as I’d have voted anyway though. Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Easy matchup for me, don’t get the love for letter. Holiday. Pretty burnt out on this song but it’s just better. American Idiot Jesus of Suburbia I agreed with all of this til the end, heh Bachna knows how annoyed I get at singles often doing well lolz but yea they’re just better here imo
Popular singles beat far better songs all the time in every bracket I've participated in on here lol. Which, to be honest, is part of where the frustration comes from.
At least in the one's I've participated in, the super popular songs haven't done well. Just to quote some recent ones, the final of the AAR bracket was Dance Inside vs Another Heart Calls and Devotion and Desire was literally eliminated from the Bayside bracket in the first round. I can't remember the results of all the old brackets, but I also specifically remember that Fields and Fences (rather than OA) won the yellowcard bracket. These may just be a few isolated examples, but I've always been surprised at how poorly a band's most popular songs have usually done
It’s not just about overall winners, though. Like sure, a single might not always win the whole bracket, but the amount of times that popular singles knock out better songs to win individual albums is incredibly high and happens constantly. Popular singles always do well in these brackets.
Maybe, just maybe, there are times when the singles are actually really good songs. I mean, look at blink. Pretty sure many people would agree that feeling this is one of, if not the best, blink song. Surprise surprise, it’s a single. Didn’t it win the last blink bracket?
Sure sometimes that’s the case. But it happens way too often in too many brackets for that to always be true ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I guess at the end of the day, people are just going to have their preferences. I mean, I think Move Along is one of the top All American Rejects songs, but it got voted out right away in that bracket.
It just goes back to what is even the purpose of these brackets? Is it to find the "best" song, or is it to find the "favorite" song? I tend to view it as the former but I guess most people that participate view it as the latter.
I suppose it's a bit of a paradox. People might view their favorite song as the best song (which is why it's their favorite). But again, like you said, not always the case.
Well, how would you even objectify the idea of a band's "best" song. Ultimately the idea of "best" comes down to people's preferences which are completely subjective. Most who participate in these brackets are legit fans of the band, so it makes sense that singles don't always win, but they're still going to be the more popular as a whole
There isn't a set criteria for what people think is objectively better, that's up to the individual to separate it for themselves. Like, Masterpiece for example is a classic song and it was the first Bayside song I ever heard. There's a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in it. I love that song. But when we did Sirens & Condolences in the Bayside bracket it was on me to separate those feelings and evaluate the songs as songs. And when I did that I came to the conclusion that Masterpiece was not the best song on that record. But it won anyway. So idk. People can vote how they want ultimately but it's just really, really boring that the final four are going to be all very popular singles for this album.
I agree that in this case it's fairly boring, but even trying to ignore the nostalgia factor in this (although to be honest, the whole album is nostalgic), I would say that of those 4 songs, three are my favorites on the album. And I would swap out American Idiot with another single (Wake Me Up When September Ends) to round out my top 4. Now, I'll be super disappointed if the final 4 of 21CB are all singles, but I really do feel as though the singles on AI (with the exceptions of Letterbomb and Homecoming) are pretty easily the strongest songs
When I’m feeling bummed about too many singles winning brackets I like to tell myself it’s because all the other songs are so much better that our vote-splitting makes it easy for the inoffensive single God I can’t believe fields and fences won yellowcard. Not a single but my god did we mess that one up.
Final scores: Boulevard of Broken Dreams - 10 Letterbomb- 12 She's a Rebel - 4 Holiday - 18 Are We the Waiting - 4 American Idiot - 18 Give Me Novacaine - 3 Jesus of Suburbia - 19 Next Round: Letterbomb Vs. Holiday American Idiot Vs. Jesus of Suburbia