pointless yet amusing surveys

Kylie Gets Pop Poll Nod; They Like Us, They Really Like Us!

9:25AM Clem Bastow | It’s hard to stifle the inevitable groans that rumble deep inside whenever a) an Australian is nominated for (and thus, doesn’t win) an award overseas, or b) in this case, gets a dubious honour in some sort of top fifty things since the beginning of stuff, usually organised by a telco or a bread company. In this case, congratulations to Kylie Minogue for “scraping in” the top ten of a poll of best pop singles ever, organised by… onepoll.com! You know, onepoll.com! Those guys! Kylie Minogue’s hit – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head – has been named in the top 10 pop songs of all time. In a survey of 10,000 people, Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody – which twice made number one in the UK singles chart – beat tracks from Bryan Adams, Robbie Williams and John Lennon to take the prestigious top spot. Kylie’s hit scraped in the list, coming in tenth place. Commenting on the results, survey organiser John Sewell from onepoll.com said: “We got a worthy winner.” Hahaha, this is entertainment news? (And before you lot up the back say something snide, it’s our “thing” to make news out of non-news, via the meta-ness of commenting on its inherent non-newsworthiness, so ner.) Let’s start an online poll at one of those “make a poll 4 ur MySpace!!” sites, and see if we can get it in the news.com.au entertainment section, shall we? Anyone got any ideas? More »

It’s True: Coldplay Do Put People To Sleep

12:15PM Clem Bastow | File this one under the ‘unscientific yet mightily entertaining and wholly vindicating’ header: a UK survey has found that of all the sounds that put them to sleep, most reach for Coldplay when they feel the need for soporific songs. We’re not sure they really needed to conduct a survey to find this out, but it’s still nice to have it confirmed in some way. Britons like a dose of rock band Coldplay to help them fall asleep, a survey from hotel chain Travelodge found today. The band, whose frontman Chris Martin says he avoids caffeine and alcohol and is known for a lifestyle that is anything but rock ‘n’ roll, came top in a poll of music choices to help you nod off. Other artists chosen for their slumber-inducing qualities were James Blunt, Snow Patrol, Take That and Norah Jones. We agree with Norah Jones, but James Blunt? He’s more likely to induce insomnia due to indiscriminate violent urges and blinding rage! More »