The Great Music Tournament: Overall Event Overview

[mae]

The ninth set of Quarterfinals:

1. Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine (1987) 79.82%
2. Tom Petty - Free Fallin' (1989) 79.78%
3. Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer (1986) 78.90%
4. Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle (1987) 77.48%
5. Guns N' Roses - Paradise City (1987) 74.18%
6. A-Ha - Take On Me (1985) 73.44%
7. Aerosmith & Run DMC - Walk This Way (1986) 71.10%
8. REM - It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (1987) 68.75%

GNR with three tracks and Aerosmith gets a third entry in their third time period (after skipping one).

[mae]

The tenth set of Quarterfinals:

1. Metallica - Enter Sandman (1991) 79.46%
2. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991) 78.12%
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge (1991) 77.49%
4. Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You (1991) 72.31%
5. Nirvana - All Apologies (1993) 70.36%
6. Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun (1994) 64.94%
7. REM - Everybody Hurts (1993) 64.86%
8. Radiohead - Creep (1993) 60.63%

Nirvana with two entries here and REM gets their second entry in their second straight time period. And the top four tracks are from 1991 (cause as I've said because, that was a momentous year in music). Another interesting tidbit is that half of the songs are basically ballads.

[mae]

The eleventh set of Quarterfinals:

1. Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know (1995) 72.72%
2. No Doubt - Don't Speak (1995) 70.31%
3. Oasis - Wonderwall (1995) 69.00%
4. Seal - Kiss From a Rose (1995) 64.71%
5. Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (1998) 64.55%
6. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (1995) 63.08%
7. Oasis - Champagne Supernova (1995) 60.25%
8. Sublime - Santeria (1996) 59.79%

So Oasis gets two entries and Aerosmith gets their fourth one in their fourth time period (again after skipping one). And crazily, six songs out of eight are from 1995. Plus, we don't have very many female acts left standing, but the top two here are by female vocalists, so that's pretty cool.

[mae]

And thus the last four brackets of the second round of playoffs have just been posted! Thank you all who have been participating in the tournament thus far and are continuing your participation! We are now in the last stages of this incredible event, which wouldn't be possible without voters.

The Quarterfinals will begin on Monday, November 7, and the last brackets will go up on Tuesday, November 22, right before Thanksgiving. I will actually be away for the holiday from the 23rd till the 29th, but I will try to keep the polls updated on a daily basis.

Then the Semifinals will start and run the seven days of the week of December 5-11.

This gets us to the Finals for each time period, which will see seven polls start on December 19 and seven more on December 20, which will run for 12 days, until December 31 and January 1, respectively.

Tournament Finals then begin with polls each five Mondays of January 2017 until the final Final poll on January 30.

The last portion of the schedule will be updated in the first post soon.

[mae]

The twelfth set of Quarterfinals:

1. Coldplay - Clocks (2002) 71.73%
2. Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams (2004) 70.90%
3. Eminem feat. Dido - Stan (2000) 67.09%
4. Eminem - Lose Yourself (2002) 67.00%
5. Johnny Cash - Hurt (2002) 65.39%
6. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (2003) 61.51%
7. Michael Andrews feat. Gary Jules - Mad World (2002) 53.60%
8. Staind - It's Been Awhile (2001) 52.86%

Eminem with two entries here. And for only the third time we have a song from each year within the time period (half the songs are from '02).

[Merlin1958]

Just curious. Did this song make it into the tournament?

Spoiler:

I try to keep up but eventually fall short. lol

[mae]

That one did not, but another song off that album did.

[mae]

The remainder of the tournament schedule has been updated in the first post, taking us all the way to the final coronation

[mae]

The twelfth set of Quarterfinals:

1. Coldplay - Clocks (2002) 71.73%
2. Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams (2004) 70.90%
3. Eminem feat. Dido - Stan (2000) 67.09%
4. Eminem - Lose Yourself (2002) 67.00%
5. Johnny Cash - Hurt (2002) 65.39%
6. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (2003) 61.51%
7. Michael Andrews feat. Gary Jules - Mad World (2002) 53.60%
8. Staind - It's Been Awhile (2001) 52.86%

Eminem with two entries here. And for only the third time we have a song from each year within the time period (half the songs are from '02).

Oops, forgot to mention that, of course, this is Cash's second entry in the Quarterfinals in his second time period. He's also got "I Walk the Line" in 1955-1959, obviously the biggest gap between eras for an entry.

[mae]

The thirteenth set of Quarterfinals:

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California (2006) 66.17%
2. System of a Down - B.Y.O.B. (2005) 65.03%
3. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (2006) 63.99%
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh) (2006) 61.68%
5. Foo Fighters - Best of You (2005) 60.45%
6. Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. (2005) 57.95%
7. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance (2009) 55.05%
8. Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man (2009) 54.03%

The Peppers get two more entries here in their second time period after "Under the Bridge", skipping two eras, for a total of three entries.

[mae]

So the last polls of our second round of the playoffs just closed and thus here is the fourteenth and final set of Quarterfinals:

1. Imagine Dragons - Radioactive (2012) 72.62%
2. Adele - Rolling in the Deep (2010) 66.36%
3. Adele - Skyfall (2012) 65.91%
4. Lorde - Royals (2013) 65.76%
5. Adele - Set Fire to the Rain (2011) 64.90%
6. Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk (2014) 63.95%
7. Hozier - Take Me to Church (2013) 57.96%
8. Psy - Gangnam Style (2012) 57.85%

Adele with a whopping three entries here (each from a different, successive year), and we have a song from each year of the era for only the fourth time (out of 14 total). Also, half the entries are by ladies, and Psy represents our second non-English track left standing (after "La Bamba", but we didn't have many to begin with). Interestingly enough, none of entries is particularly pure rock, which our previous eras seem to favor. Could be just the sign of the times, I guess.

And as stated earlier, the schedule has been updated in the first post, so after a very short break, the Quarterfinals will begin on Monday the 7th!

[Jon]

Hmmm.. no Rock.

[mae]

Of course, a much more important vote is just upon us tomorrow, so please go out and vote! But our music tournament is also pretty important... And the Quarterfinals are now underway!

[Jean]

guys, I've missed a lot of the tournament (alas) - but where is Hey Jude? Do I keep missing its brackets, or did it drop out, or was it never nominated???

[mae]

guys, I've missed a lot of the tournament (alas) - but where is Hey Jude? Do I keep missing its brackets, or did it drop out, or was it never nominated???

It was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs: http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...cket-5-of-8%29

[Jean]

oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh noooooooooooooooooooooo

and I wasn't there to even try to save it...

don't you know, guys, that the universe hinges on that piece?... the Dark Tower is a tuning fork that vibrates along with the sound of Hey Jude, sending around the concentric circles of worlds... and we up and - oops...

[Jon]

But does it also vibrate All Along the Watchtower?

[Merlin1958]

But does it also vibrate All Along the Watchtower?

[mae]

The last four brackets of the Quarterfinals just went up. That means that once this round is done, we will be left with just 56 tracks in all, four per time period. For the record, we started out with 1,456 tracks. I know it took a long time to get here (the tournament announcement thread was started exactly a year ago tomorrow and the first nomination threads went up last December 5, which is when the Semifinals will begin). As this is Thanksgiving week here in the US, I would like to say how thankful I am for our membership and those of you who have been tirelessly participating in this crazy undertaking. It's lots and lots of nearly daily work for a year now for me, but it's also been a pleasure and I hope it has been fun for everybody involved (and sorry for inconveniencing anyone that isn't as poll-inclined). We are very nearly done now, and the voting will only get more difficult as we collectively have picked the very best 56 tracks of the last 70 years of popular music. By the end of the year we will have a finalist from each of the 14 five-year periods from 1945 to 2014, and from that bunch we'll get to pick one ultimate best song as deemed by the esteemed membership of this finest forum.

[Jon]

I must say that I am grateful for all your work, pablo, on this tournament as well as other tournaments. I am also grateful for so many other members on this site!

[Merlin1958]

I must say that I am grateful for all your work, pablo, on this tournament as well as other tournaments. I am also grateful for so many other members on this site!

You're absolutely right of course. Thank you, Pablo!!!!

[Tommy]

Pablo is the man! This tournament has reinvigorated my love for music and exposed me to some great songs. You cannot put a price tag on something like that so all I can say is THANK YOU!

[ladysai]

Well said, Tommy.

Thanks a bunch, pablo!

[mae]

[mae]

And the Quarterfinals are over! We are so close to the end now Semifinals (last four in each era) begin this Monday, December 5.