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

TV on the Radio's 2006 song "I Was a Lover". I always thought it was one of the strongest first tracks of any album of the past decade -- with that cool beat sampled from Massive Attack's "Teardrop" and then chopped up, twisted and layered with those other-worldly horns until it's nearly unrecognizable. "Teardrop" is a lovely little song -- used as the theme on "House" -- and featuring vocals by the Cocteau Twins Elizabeth Fraser (who was selected to record vocals over runner-up choice Madonna.)

The Queen is Dead - Long Live the Queen

Funny, this topic was heavily under debate after last night's Grammy awards. The battle pits the reigning female of pop royalty, Madonna against the challenger, Lady Gaga. Gaga's new song, Born This Way appears to be a sound alike to Madonna's Express Yourself. It was only a matter of time before these two would start to spar. I'll let you be the judge:

Truthfully, does this battle really matter anyway?

When thinking off of the top of my head, the two most obvious ones are the ones that went to court: The Chiffons, She's So Fine & George Harrison's My Sweet Lord, and Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters & Huey Lewis' I Want a New Drug. Both lost, so I offer these three. You be the judge.


Imagine by John Lennon vs. Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis (Listen to the Intros!)

Lust for Life by Iggy Pop vs. Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet

American Girl by Tom Petty vs. Last Night by The Strokes.