Thursday, January 24, 2019

What Generation Z likes in 1960-1980 rock/pop music


In a very professional music survey that only relies on songs I like, about 100 undergraduates at the University of Michigan voted on their favorite tunes that were played at the opening of each class in Earth Interactions (E119).  The class started with "We Will Rock You" (which we did) and ended with "Hello, Goodbye".  Voting on 39 songs was in 3 thematic sets; no crossover options. You may notice that all songs have an Earth theme (though requiring a little thinking for some, like Ben Folds). 


Clearly, there is a lot of Queen love in Fall 2018, while much less for icons like REM, Springsteen and Stones. The full list of songs and their scores (1 vote per set of 13 songs):

Under pressure – Queen/Bowie 30
We will rock you – Queen 24
Mr Blue Sky - ELO 22
Time – Pink Floyd 19
Ring of fire - Johnny Cash 18
Hello, Goodbye – Beatles 17
It's my Life - Bon Jovi 15
Good vibrations - Beach Boys 14
Ice ice baby – Vanilla Ice 13
I am a rock – Simon & Garfunkel 12
The times they are a-changin’ – Bob Dylan 9
Have you ever seen the rain – CCR 9
Changes – David Bowie 8
Waiting on the world to change – John Mayer 8
Every breath you take – Police 8
Rock the casbah – The Clash 8
Starman – David Bowie 7
It’s the end of the world as we know it – REM 6
Wild World – Cat Stevens 5
Army - Ben Folds Five 5
Down by the river - Neil Young 5
Always look on the bright side of life - MP 4
Surfin' USA – Beach Boys 4
Badlands - Bruce Springsteen 3
Village ghetto land - Stevie Wonder 3
Rock of ages - Def Leppard 3
Little red Corvette – Prince 2
Rain - Beatles 2
Fire and Ice – Pat Benatar 2
Kokomo Beach- Beach Boys 2
Shiny happy people – REM 2
Great balls of fire - Jerry Lee Lewis 2
Land of confusion – Genesis 1
River deep, mountain high – Ike & Tina Turner 1
Rockaria – ELO 1
Rock this town – Stray Cats 1
Rockville – REM 0
Rock and a hard place – Rolling Stones 0
Who'll stop the rain – CCR 0


1 comment:

Ed said...

Interesting survey, I found it funny that Vanilla Ice got half the votes of Under Pressure. I expected Shiny Happy People to be as popular as Mr. Blue Sky. May I suggest Let's Active and dB's as an addition to your super survey? Have fun!