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2001 Pazz & Jop genre correlation analysis
One of the things it's difficult to discern from either a complete poll tally or the individual ballots is exactly how much diversity of taste a diverse-looking overall result represents. The top nine albums in the 2001 Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll, for example, break down fairly easily into four obvious style-clusters: Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams and Lucinda Williams (old-fashioned folk/roots-rock, more or less), Björk and Radiohead (atmospheric, progressive), The Strokes and the White Stripes (low-fi guitar bands), Jay-Z and the Coup (hip-hop). In theory, this could mean that the six-hundred-plus critics who vote in the poll are all able to evaluate music across the whole spectrum of styles and bring you a definitive summary of the best music of the year. At the other extreme it could also be a product of individual critics voting entirely along narrow genre lines, so that the "overall" standings reflect voter demographics much more than any sort of cross-genre assessment.
But with some analysis it is possible to learn at least a little bit about where the P&J results really fall on this spectrum. Below I have taken each of the top thirteen albums in the overall poll results and filtered the whole poll to include only the people who voted for that album. The Radiohead-voters' top-ten, that is, represents all the votes of all the voters who cast at least one of their votes for Radiohead, and so on. The data demonstrate, pretty convincingly, that except for the wide support for Dylan, people do tend to vote along genre lines. Jay-Z, for example, received only 18 votes from the 235 Dylan voters, 10 from 119 Björk voters, 12 from 98 Radiohead voters, 7 from 80 Ryan Adams voters, 4 from 66 Lucinda Williams voters and 4 from 64 Rufus Wainwright voters. Conversely, Ryan Adams received only 7 votes from 64 Jay-Z voters, 5 from 64 The Coup voters and 2 from 54 Avalanches voters. Among 49 Basement Jaxx voters and 66 Lucinda Williams voters, only two people voted for both. Frankly, even the obvious congruences are less unanimous than I expected. 158 Strokes voters and 106 White Stripes voters overlap by only 48, 119 Björk and 98 Radiohead voters by only 33, 80 Ryan Adams and 66 Lucinda Williams voters by only 25, 64 Jay-Z and 64 Coup voters by only 9. If you start looking at the voting patterns of these overlaps, the schisms are even more glaring. Of the 33 people who voted for both Björk and Radiohead, only 3 also voted for Jay-Z, and only 2 for the Coup. Of the 25 who voted for both Ryan Adams and Lucinda Williams, only 2 voted for the Coup, and only 1 for Jay-Z. The 9 people who voted for both Jay-Z and the Coup are too small a sample to do much with, but none of them voted for Björk or Lucinda Williams, and only one each voted for Radiohead and Ryan Adams. All this makes it even more remarkable, though, that Bob Dylan came in second with eleven of these thirteen groups.
Dylan voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"2351
2The Strokes: Is This It922
3The White Stripes: White Blood Cells564
4Ryan Adams: Gold526
5Björk: Vespertine513
6Radiohead: Amnesiac445
7Lucinda Williams: Essence439
8The Coup: Party Music348
9Rufus Wainwright: Poses2810
10various: O Brother, Where Art Thou?2519
Strokes voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1The Strokes: Is This It1582
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"921
3The White Stripes: White Blood Cells484
4Björk: Vespertine393
5Ryan Adams: Gold376
6Radiohead: Amnesiac285
6Lucinda Williams: Essence289
8Weezer: Weezer2421
9Jay-Z: The Blueprint197
9Gorillaz: Gorillaz1920
Björk voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Björk: Vespertine1193
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"511
3The Strokes: Is This It392
4Radiohead: Amnesiac335
5Rufus Wainwright: Poses2010
6The White Stripes: White Blood Cells194
7Ryan Adams: Gold166
8Lucinda Williams: Essence149
9The Coup: Party Music128
9Basement Jaxx: Rooty1213
9Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor1218
9Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott: Miss E...So Addictive1223
White Stripes voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1The White Stripes: White Blood Cells1064
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"561
3The Strokes: Is This It482
4Radiohead: Amnesiac215
5The Coup: Party Music208
6Björk: Vespertine193
7Lucinda Williams: Essence169
8Rufus Wainwright: Poses1410
9Ryan Adams: Gold136
9Old 97's: Satellite Rides1332
Radiohead voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Radiohead: Amnesiac985
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"441
3Björk: Vespertine333
4The Strokes: Is This It282
5The White Stripes: White Blood Cells214
6Ryan Adams: Gold176
6Gorillaz: Gorillaz1720
8Lucinda Williams: Essence159
9Basement Jaxx: Rooty1313
10Jay-Z: The Blueprint128
10Stephen Malkmus: Stephen Malkmus1228
Ryan Adams voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Ryan Adams: Gold806
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"521
3The Strokes: Is This It372
4Lucinda Williams: Essence259
5Radiohead: Amnesiac175
6Björk: Vespertine163
7The White Stripes: White Blood Cells134
8Rufus Wainwright: Poses1210
9Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor1018
9Gorillaz: Gorillaz1020
9Weezer: Weezer1021
9Old 97's: Satellite Rides1032
9Pete Yorn: musicforthemorningafter1046
Jay-Z voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Jay-Z: The Blueprint647
2The Strokes: Is This It192
3Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"181
4Radiohead: Amnesiac125
4Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein1215
6Aaliyah: Aaliyah1170
7Björk: Vespertine103
7The White Stripes: White Blood Cells104
9The Coup: Party Music98
9Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott: Miss E...So Addictive923
9De La Soul: AOI: Bionix954
9Bilal: 1st Born Second960
9Res: How I Do968
Coup voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1The Coup: Party Music648
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"341
3The White Stripes: White Blood Cells204
4The Strokes: Is This It142
5Basement Jaxx: Rooty1313
6Björk: Vespertine123
7Manu Chao: Proxima Estacion: Esperanza1112
8Atmosphere: Lucy Ford10101
9Jay-Z: The Blueprint97
10Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor818
Lucinda Williams voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Lucinda Williams: Essence669
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"431
3The Strokes: Is This It282
4Ryan Adams: Gold256
5The White Stripes: White Blood Cells164
6Radiohead: Amnesiac155
7Björk: Vespertine143
8Gillian Welch: Time (The Revelator)1314
9Rufus Wainwright: Poses1110
9Weezer: Weezer1121
Rufus Wainwright voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Rufus Wainwright: Poses6410
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"281
3Björk: Vespertine203
4The Strokes: Is This It172
5The White Stripes: White Blood Cells144
6Ryan Adams: Gold126
7Lucinda Williams: Essence119
8Radiohead: Amnesiac95
9Weezer: Weezer821
10The Coup: Party Music77
10The Avalanches: Since I Left You711
10Basement Jaxx: Rooty713
10Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor718
10Stephen Malkmus: Stephen Malkmus728
Avalanches voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1The Avalanches: Since I Left You5111
2Basement Jaxx: Rooty1613
3Daft Punk: Discovery1125
4Björk: Vespertine103
5Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"91
5The Strokes: Is This It92
7The White Stripes: White Blood Cells84
7Nortec Collective: The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1852
7Pulp: We Love Life856
10Rufus Wainwright: Poses710
10Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott: Miss E...So Addictive723
Manu Chao voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Manu Chao: Proxima Estacion: Esperanza4312
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"211
3The Strokes: Is This It152
4The Coup: Party Music118
5Björk: Vespertine93
5The White Stripes: White Blood Cells94
5Radiohead: Amnesiac95
8Ryan Adams: Gold86
9Basement Jaxx: Rooty713
9Gorillaz: Gorillaz720
Basement Jaxx voters
 albumvotesoverall rank
1Basement Jaxx: Rooty4913
2Bob Dylan: "Love and Theft"191
3The Avalanches: Since I Left You1611
4Radiohead: Amnesiac135
4The Coup: Party Music138
6Björk: Vespertine123
7The Strokes: Is This It112
7The White Stripes: White Blood Cells114
9Daft Punk: Discovery1025
10Jay-Z: The Blueprint87
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