The People Speak

In my day job, I cover politics and frequently report on public opinion polls. Today, I got an email from Public Policy Polling, a pollster we often cite, with results of a poll they conducted on music.

Some highlights:
Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and the Beach Boys are overall very popular: All three have favorability ratings in the 70s and unfavorability in the teens. Not so for Michael Jackson, who's 48 favorable, 44 unfavorable. And Madonna and Kurt Cobain are under water in terms of favorability -- more people have unfavorable views of them than favorable views. They even polled on Morrissey, who scored a 17 percent favorable rating versus 31 percent unfavorable (with 52 percent not sure).

Now, when you break things down by political persuasion, things get interesting. Democrats overwhelmingly have a favorable view of Michael Jackson, while Republicans do not. And when you ask people who their favorite Beatle is, Democrats say John Lennon while Republicans say Paul McCartney.

Finally, Republicans say the 1950s were the best decade for music. Democrats say it's the 60s. No surprise, there. But overall, three quarters say the best musical decade was either the 50s, 60s or 70s. My favorite musical decade -- the 80s -- only got 15 percent. But at least that beat the rock-and-rap 90s, which had a paltry 6 percent! Sorry, Limp Bizkit.

Song in My Head

Yes, another song.  I have been shuffling the ol' ipod a lot lately.  Today's song comes form one of the forgotten about artists of the 90's, Matthew Sweet.  Sweet is best known for the hit "Girlfriend," and more obscurely, for being the guitarist in Austin Powers' band, Ming Tea.  I personally feel his 1995 release 100% Fun (taken from a line in Kurt Cobain's suicide note) is a more complete record.  The record is proably best known for the song "Sick of Myself", but I'm more partial to the follow-up, "We're the Same."  It's just great power pop.  Great chorus, nice guitar fills, and simple message.  A great, forgotten artist.

Matthew Sweet - "We're the Same."