---------------------------------------------------
|
|
--------------------------------------------------- |
|
1994 Police Mailing List Survey Results
Here are the results of the 2nd Annual Police Mailing List Survey.
There were 52 respondents to the poll, out of about 230 list subscribers
(according to majordomo). I have divided these into three different groups:
SP: People who like Sting more than the Police (gave a higher answer to
question III.1 than to I.1). There are 22 of them (42%).
E: People who like Sting and the Police equally well. There are 19 of them
(37%).
PS: People who like the Police more than Sting (including people who don't
like Sting solo at all). There are 11 of those (21%).
As you will see later, these populations show marked differences in
just about every category.
And now, on to the questions:
I. The Police
1) On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like The Police?
Answer All SP E PS
7 37% 32% 37% 45%
8 17 23 16 9
9 38 45 37 27
10 8 - 11 18
Average 8.2 8.1 8.2 8.2
An interesting thing to note here is that while the average is
about 8 (for all groups), few people actually answered with "8"
("They're my favorite band"). Most were either "7" ("They're one
of my favorite bands") or "9" ("Almost obsessed"). (One respondent
even picked both those answers). This probably means my scale
was not a very good one.
Another interesting point is that nearly half the PS people replied
with 7. And since they like Sting even less than that, one wonders
why they are on the Police mailing list at all.
2) What is your favorite Police album?
Answer All SP E PS
Synchronicity 35% 62% 16% 18%
Ghost in the Machine 18 10 21 27
Zenyatta Modatta 16 14 26 -
Regatta de Blanc 16 5 16 36
Outlandos d'Amour 14 10 16 18
Notable points: Synchronicity is the favorite album of SP people.
It may or may not be a "Sting solo" album (per recent thread), but
Sting fans really like it. On the other hand, E and PS people don't
like Synchronicity all that much. E's like Zenyatta (which no PS
likes), PS's like Regatta, and both like Ghost.
3) What are your three favorite Police songs / compositions.
There were 40 different songs mentioned, about half the Police songs
ever published. The most often mentioned were:
Answer All SP E PS
Every Little Thing She Does 42% 41% 37% 55%
Message in a Bottle 29 18 26 55
So Lonely 27 27 21 36
King of Pain 23 36 16 9
The Bed's Too Big Without You(*) 15 14 21 9
Every Breath You Take 15 18 21 -
Tea in the Sahara 12 18 5 9
Synchronicity II 10 23 - -
(*) Some people specifically mentioned the mono version.
The PS people are most uniform in their opinions here. Most of them
like "Every Little Thing", an equal number like "Message in a Bottle",
a third like "So Lonely", and that's about it.
Everybody else likes "Every Little Thing", too, but SP fans like
the _Synchronicity_ singles ("King of Pain", "Synchronicity II",
"Every Breath You Take" and "Tea in the Sahara") more than or as much as
"Message in a Bottle".
Also interesting to note (not in the above table) is that 14% of
SP's like "Don't Stand So Close To Me '86", which no E or PS do. On
the other hand, 16% of E's (and 5% of SP) like the original DSSCTM.
Finally, a few gender-related biases: women like "Bring on the Night",
"Don't Stand So Close To Me", "Synchronicity II" and "Tea in the Sahara"
more than men. Only men like "Does Everyone Stare", "Every Breath You Take",
and "Don't Stand So Close To Me '86".
4) What is your least favorite Police album?
Answer All SP E PS
Zenyatta Mondatta 27% 26% 17% 45%
Regatta de Blanc 19 16 17 27
Outlandos d'Amour 19 16 22 18
Ghost in the Machine 19 26 22 -
Synchronicity 10 5 22 -
We saw in question 2 that Zenyatta was not the favorite of any PS.
Now we see that it is in fact the least favorite of nearly half of them.
On the other hand, while 36% of them liked Regatta, 27% dislike it.
SP's also dislike Zenyatta, but they dislike Ghost just as much
(which no PS does). The E's disfavor is about evenly distributed.
5) What are your 3 least favorite Police songs / compositions?
Despite the fact that three people wouldn't answer this question, and
several others only sent in one or two songs, there were 50 songs
mentioned. Including many songs that were somebody else's favorites.
The top of the chart goes like this:
Answer All SP E PS
Mother 45% 62% 44% 10%
A Kind of Loving 18 10 28 20
Born in the 50's 16 19 11 20
Be My Girl - Sally 10 14 11 -
Flexible Strategies 10 5 17 10
Every Breath You Take 8 - 11 20
Behind My Camel 8 14 - 10
One World (not three) 8 10 11 -
Except for "Mother", hated by most SP's and almost half of E's,
no song really stands out here. Along with the number of different
songs mentioned, this signifies the uniform high quality of the
Police's music. They did not produce obvious duds, so it's hard to
pick a "least favorite".
Even "Mother" is not, I think, a bad song as such. It is simply
not a Police song. Some people just don't like the style it represents.
"A Kind of Loving" would probably have gotten a lot more votes if
it were not obscure. The screaming gets on most people's nerves.
The people who don't like "Born in the 50's" are usually newer fans
(75% of them have been Police fans for 7 years or less) who don't like
the Police all that much (63% like them "7", another 25% said "8").
"Sally" is disliked mostly by women - 36% of them don't like it,
as opposed to 3% of the men. (In other words, 80% of "Sally"-haters
are women). On the other hand, "Flexible Strategies" is only disliked
by men, as are "Demolition Man", "One World", and "Synchronicity I".
83% of our women dislike "Mother", but only 34% of the men do.
"Every Breath You Take" is disliked not for itself, but for being
overplayed.
6) What is your favorite Police videoclip?
Some people took this question to mean a song video, others thought it
meant any piece of film. Of the song videos, the most liked were:
Answer All SP E PS
Wrapped Around Your Finger 19% 32% - 20%
Every Little Thing She Does 19 5 31 30
Every Breath You Take 17 26 15 -
Synchronicity II 12 5 15 20
Don't Stand So Close To Me 10 16 - -
The people who took this question to mean a film clip gave the following
choices (quotes are exact):
- Andy's Sumo Wrestling attempt in Police Around the World
- Synchronicity concert [isn't that cheating?]
- The live performance of Don't Stand off of Around the World
- Sting and Stew hamming it up for an interview during the Sync tour.
Stew claims he can "whip Sting's ass" which is quickly followed by
Sting emptying a glass of water on Stew. Chaos follows.
- The "I'm going back to Cairo" Copeland family sequence in Police
Around the World.
7) Have you ever seen the Police live?
17% of us have. The other 83% envy them.
(9% of SP, 16% of E, and 36% of PS).
One man says he's seen them 50 times. Yeah. And Sting 30 times.
Despite the fact he's not obsessed with either (to which I say,
"I can quit any time"). Now, either he's rich enough and bored enough
to follow them around, or he's somehow associated with their
management or crew... He describes his job as "Manager EDP", which
doesn't tell me much. Whoever you are, would you please come forward
and tell us how you've done it?
8) How long have you been a Police fan?
All: Average 8.9 years, median 10
SP: Average 6.6 years, median 5
E: Average 9.7 years, median 10
PS: Average 12.1 years, median 12
II. Stewart Copeland
1) On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like Stewart?
31% of us don't feel they know him enough to answer that.
The rest average 6.4 (a little better than "he's OK"), with a median
at 7 ("he's one of my favorites"). Breakdown by groups gives us:
SP: 32% don't know Stewart. The rest like him an average of 5.9,
median 6.
E: 32% don't know Stewart. The rest like him an average of 6.3,
median 6.
PS: 27% don't know Stewart. The rest like him an average of 7.2,
median 7.
Women: 27% don't know Stewart. The rest like him an average of 5.6,
median 6.
Men: 32% don't know Stewart. The rest like him an average of 6.6,
median 7.
2) What is your favorite Stewart album?
Answer All
Rhythmatist 42%
Equalizer 17
Klark Kent 17
Rumblefish 17
Animal Logic 8
3) What is your favorite Stewart song / composition?
There were 11 different songs mentioned, of which the following five
appeared more than once:
Answer All
On Any Other Day 23%
Darkness 14
Miss Gradenko 14
Don't Box Me In 9
Fallout 9
Note that most of them are Police songs. "Miss Gradenko" and
"Fallout" are the favorites only of SP's. "On Any Other Day" is only the
favorite of men.
4) What is your least favorite Stewart album?
Only 10 people answered this one, with seven different answers.
The repeated ones were Equalizer (30%) and Rhythmatist (20%),
which also top the favorites list. This is probably because they
are relatively more available than most of the others.
5) What is your least favorite Stewart song / composition?
Only 12 people answered this question, with 10 different answers.
The only repeats were "Bombs Away" and "Don't Box Me In".
6) What is your favorite Stewart videoclip?
9 people answered. 2 picked "Don't Box Me In", 2 picked "Rhythmatist".
Two people answered with:
- "He's more humble than I am, I'm an arrogant twat" - Police Around
the World
- A shot of him explaining the simplicity of drums to Jools Holland
7) Have you ever seen Stewart live?
10% of us have. No SP, 5% of E, and a whopping 36% of PS.
No women have. (Lana? You didn't answer the poll?)
8) How long have you been a Stewart fan?
All: 8.7 years
SP: 5.4 years
E: 7.3 years
PS: 11.7 years
III. Sting
1) On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like Sting?
29% of us are obsessed with the man. Another 27% are nearly obsessed,
but retain some sense of proportion (or at least think they do).
The averages and medians are:
All: 8.2 (9)
SP: 9.5 (10)
E: 8.2 (8)
PS: 5.6 (5)
Women: 9.4 (10) (64% of our women are mad about him...)
Men: 7.9 (8)
Among the PS's is one guy who "can't stand" Sting (1), one who "doesn't
like" him (4), and another 4 who "don't care one way or the other"
about him (5).
2) What is your favorite Sting album?
Answer All SP E PS
Soul Cages 35% 43% 22% 27%
Dream of the Blue Turtles 31 24 21 64
Nothing Like the Sun 18 14 32 -
Ten Summoner's Tales 12 19 11 -
Each group has a different favorite. The SP's like Soul Cages,
the PS's like Dream of the Blue Turtles, and the E's like
Nothing Like the Sun. It's interesting to note that, despite the
fact that most of our women are SP, their overwhelming favorite
(50%) is Dream, and only 10% of them prefer Soul Cages.
3) What are your 3 favorite Sting songs / compositions?
There were 45 different songs mentioned, including several Police
songs and one Phil Collins song (which Sting did backing vocals on).
The top of the chart looks like this:
Answer All SP E PS
Fortress Around Your Heart 31% 32% 21% 45%
Mad About You 29 32 37 9
Fragile 25 27 21 27
Why Should I Cry For You? 19 32 16 -
Englishman in New York 17 14 26 9
We Work the Black Seam 12 5 11 27
I Burn For You 10 14 11 -
Moon Over Bourbon Street 10 9 5 18
Wild Wild Sea 10 18 - 9
If You Love Somebody ... 8 5 - 27
Once again, the different groups show different tastes. Everybody
likes "Fortress", but PS like it a lot while E prefer "Mad About You"
and "Englishman in NY", and SP like "Mad About You" and "Why Should I Cry"
just as much.
The other Dream songs, "We Work the Black Seam", "Moon Over Bourbon St."
and "If You Love Somebody", are liked primarily by PS's, whose favorite
album it is.
SP's, on the other hand, whose favorite album is Soul Cages, like
"Why Should I Cry" and "Wild Wild Sea".
Just as with Police songs, we see some gender bias here, too:
More women than men like "Englishman in New York" (26% of women, vs.
15% of men), "Fortress" (50% vs. 25%), "I Burn for You" (26% vs. 5%),
"Mad About You" (43% vs. 25%), and "Russians" (18% vs. 0%).
Only men like "We Work the Black Seam" (15% of them do), "Wild Wild
Sea" (13%), "Lazarus Heart" (10%), and "They Dance Alone" (10%).
More men than women like "Fragile" (28% vs. 18%) and "Why Should I Cry"
(23% vs. 10%).
4) What is your least favorite Sting album?
Answer All SP E PS
Ten Summoner's Tales 43% 42% 31% 67%
Soul Cages 25 21 31 22
Dream of the Blue Turtles 14 16 19 -
Nothing Like the Sun 11 16 13 -
Not too surprisingly, Ten Summoner's Tales is the least liked
album, especially among PS's who truly despise it. E's dislike
Soul Cages just as much.
TST is not particularly disliked by women - only 18% of them picked it.
On the other hand, 36% of them dislike Soul Cages.
5) What are your 3 least favorite Sting songs / compositions?
There were 43 songs mentioned, including many that were other
people's favorites. Even "Fortress" and "Mad About You" (the top
favorites) are somebody's least favorites.
The most repeated were:
Answer All SP E PS
Munificent 7 (Love is stronger..) 22% 26% 18% 20%
Rock Steady 17 16 6 40
We'll Be Together 15 21 18 -
If I Ever Lose My Faith In You 15 5 24 20
Heavy Cloud, No Rain 11 5 6 30
It's Probably Me 11 11 6 20
Nothin' 'Bout Me 11 11 18 -
All for Love 9 5 18 -
St. Agnes and the Burning Train 9 16 6 -
Judging from the mailing list, I'd have expected "All for Love" to
place much higher. Apparently, many people don't even consider it a
Sting song.
People don't like "The Munificent Seven" ("Love is Stronger Than Justice"),
Sting's attempt at musical and lyrical humor which apparently fails with
us.
I'm not sure what's so aweful about "Rock Steady", hated especially
by PS's. Maybe the same as "We'll Be Together" and IIELMFIY: it's
a banal pop song, and we don't appreciate them.
Gender bias:
Only women dislike "History Will Teach Us Nothing" (30% of them do)
and "Wild Wild Sea" (30%).
More women than men dislike "All This Time" (20% vs. 3%), "Nothin'
'Bout Me" (20% vs. 8%) and "When the Angels Fall" (20% vs. 3%).
Only men dislike "Heavy Cloud, No Rain" (14% of them), "It's Probably
Me" (14%), "St. Agnes and the Burning Train" (11%), "Jeremiah Blues part 1"
(8%) and "Secret Marriage" (8%).
More men than women dislike "The Munificent Seven" (25% vs. 10%).
6) What is your favorite Sting videoclip?
Answer All SP E PS
Fields of Gold 16% 20% 21% -
Fortress Around Your Heart 13 15 7 18
We'll Be Together 11 20 7 -
If I Ever Lose My Faith In You 9 5 21 -
Englishman in New York 7 - 14 9
More women than men like "Fortress" (30% vs. 8%), and one of them
explained it's because "he seemingly stares into your soul". More men
than women like "Fields of Gold" (17% vs. 10%), but none of them explained
why.
A surprise here is "We'll Be Together", which starred in the "least
favorite song" category. But, apparently, the video is rated separately
from the song - in fact, one person said he liked the video "even though
I can't stand the song".
The people who named video clips other than song videos said:
- His explaining to Jools Holland the recording process.
- The short excerpt when Sting band plays Flinstones tune on
Bring on the night.
- 40th birthday concert
- A concert encore with Sting on acoustic guitar, playing "Message
in a Bottle." - Awesome.
- The movie (Bring On The Night)
- I like him in the Police stuff when they used to do the silly
wild abandoned leaping (which he still knows how).
- Toss-up b/n Sting and the little boys in the fountain at the Poupadiu
(SP!) Center in Bring on the Night and the Marilu Henner fiasco on
the Tonight Show
7) Have you ever seen Sting live?
73% of us have. 82% of SP, 58% of E, and 82% of PS. One man, who
doesn't particularly care for Sting's recordings (gave him a 5) still
goes to his concerts because "He is hot live".
The guy who saw the Police 50 times says he saw Sting live "over 30
times".
8) How long have you been a Sting fan?
All: 8.9 years
SP: 7.2 years
E: 9.9 years
PS: 10.8 years
For the SP, this is longer than they've been Police fans. Which means
they discovered the Police through Sting. For the E's, this is only a
little longer than how long they've liked the Police. For PS's, it's
less - which means they liked the Police first.
IV. Andy Summers
1) On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like Andy?
46% of us don't know him enough to answer that. 55% of SP, 42%
of E, and 36% of PS.
Of those that did answer, the average is 6.2 (little better than
"he's OK"). (5.6 for SP, 6.6 for E, and 6.4 for PS).
Unlike Sting and Stewart, Andy doesn't have any obsessed fans
among us. He only has one almost-obsessed fan.
2) What is your favorite Andy album?
Only 16 people answered this question.
Answer All
XYZ 27%
Golden Wire 20
Charming Snakes 13
I Advance Masked 13
Bewitched 13
World Gone Strange 13
XYZ is the favorite of SP, Charming Snakes is preferred by E,
and Golden Wire is what PS's choose.
3) What is your favorite Andy song?
Answer All SP E PS
Someone to Talk To 31% 60% 33% -
Friends 19 - 50 -
Mother 13 - - 40
Love is the Strangest Way 13 20 - 20
As with Stewart, most of these are Police songs.
4) What is your least favorite Andy album?
XYZ got 45% of the votes, and Mysterious Barricades another 36%.
5) What is your least favorite Andy song?
12 people answered. 6 of them said "Mother".
6) What is your favorite Andy videoclip?
Only one person gave a "proper" video: "I Advance Masked". Another
gave the Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger". The rest said these
things:
- In Every Little thing Video where Andy crosses his eyes on the
Wooahhh! :-)
- His guitar solo on the Don't Stand So Close To Me video
- 2010 theme video? heh.
- Him explaining his recording techniques to Jools Holland. In the
middle of his explaining his sound on Message In A Bottle, he makes
a mistake but manages to save face by saying that he records the
song "mistakes and all".
7) Have you ever seen Andy live?
Only two of us have, plus another who saw him guest on Sting's
40th birthday gig.
8) How long have you been an Andy fan?
The average here is 8.7 years. 5 for SP's, 8.7 for E's, and 11.2 for
PS's.
V. Reunion
1) Do you think The Police will reunite?
43% of us said no. Some emphasized it ("No way no how!").
47% think they'll do it for some special occasion
10% think there will be another song, album, and/or tour.
2) When do you think this reunion will happen?
Obviously, the same 43% said "never". The rest said:
Answer All
Within next 3 years 15%
5-10 years hence 40
More than 10 years away 2
3) Do you think the Police SHOULD reunite? Why?
45% think they should. 50% of SP and 56% of PS. Only 31% of E's
think it would be a good idea, however.
66% of the women don't think a reunion should happen.
The reasons given for a reunion varied from selfish ("I want to
see them") to musical ("They can make better music together than
each apart").
The reasons given against a reunion also included musical reasons
("They've each grown in a different direction and are happy that way"),
personal ("There would be bloodshed"), and concerns with image ("Leave
the legend alone").
Quite a number of people wouldn't answer this question in a yes/no
manner. They said, basically, that a reunion would be great if it worked
out but aweful if it didn't.
VI. Music in general.
1) What are your 10 favorite musical acts (no need to rank them)?
There were 200 different acts mentioned. They cover popular music,
from Frank Sinatra to Black Sabbath, and just about everything in between.
There's also jazz, musical theatre, and classical music. The top twenty
are as follows:
Act All SP E PS
Police 98% 95% 100% 100%
Sting 86 100 89 55
Peter Gabriel 30 38 28 18
REM 26 33 22 18
U2 24 29 28 9
Beatles 24 10 39 27
Crowded House 16 19 17 9
Eric Clapton 16 14 17 18
Genesis 16 29 11 -
Pink Floyd 16 10 22 18
Rolling Stones 14 10 28 -
Elton John 12 24 6 -
Billy Joel 10 19 6 -
Phil Collins 10 19 6 -
Eagles 10 19 - 9
They Might Be Giants 10 19 - 9
Paul Simon 10 10 11 9
Weird Al Yankovic 10 10 11 9
Led Zeppelin 10 - 11 27
Stone Temple Pilots 8 19 - -
Neither Stewart nor Andy made it to this list. Stewart only got 3 votes,
one from an SP and two from PS's. Andy got just two votes, both from PS's.
2) Does your interest in The Police prompt you to seek out works by people
who worked with them (musicians, producers, etc.)?
46% seek out such works. 48% of SP's, 53% of E's, but only 30% of PS's
do. Women do it more than men: 68% of the women seek out Police-related
people, but only 39% of the men do.
3) Do you belong to any music-related mailing list besides the Police list?
44% of us do not. 52% of SP, 37% of E, and 40% of PS.
Those that do, belong to an average of 2.4 other lists.
4) How many hours a day, on average, do you listen to music?
The average here is 4.4. SP's lead, with 5 hours, E's listen for
4.2 hours per day, and PS's make do with 3.8 hours of music each day.
5) Are lyrics important to you?
83% of us find lyrics important. 95% of SP, 89% of E, but only
45% of PS. Lyrics are more important to women than to men: 92% of
women said they're important, vs. 80% of men.
VII. General & Personal
1) Is English your native language?
It is, for 83% of us.
2) How well do you understand English?
79% of us said "perfectly". On the other hand, one English major
said "Very well", contending that nobody's English is "perfect".
SP's are the most arrogant, 86% of them understand English perfectly,
as do 79% of E and 64% of PS's.
3) What is your gender?
79% of us are male. 64% of SP, 84% of E, and 100% of PS's.
4) What is your age?
We average 22.75 years old. SP's are the youngest, averaging
21.95 (with a median of 20. Three of our 6 oldest members are Sting
fanatics. Women, too.) E's average 22.5, and PS's average 24.7.
5) What is your profession / major?
It may be a sign of our complex world that no two people described
their jobs or majors in the same way. I've tried to make some groupings,
but don't flame me if you see yourself lumped with people who're "nothing
at all like what I'm doing".
31% of us are computer people (students, programmers, or managers).
12% are in the natural or engineering sciences (physics, biology,
environment, chemical and electrical engineering)
10% are in business (marketing, advertising)
8% are in communication or the performing arts
8% are in political science, government, and international relations
8% are in English and related fields
8% are in psychology or education
And that's who we are this year.
Until next year,
Orit
|
