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Post by Bingo on Mar 14, 2009 20:05:34 GMT -8
This is a 70+ page demographic and opinion survey (in PDF format). That sounds a lot - but most of it is in visual pie chart or block digram form, so it's easy to skim through. It's purely focused on the Mainstream (presumably because they commissioned the research), so says nothing about the more "Americana" sub-genres. But there are interesting sections on things like political views, age profiles, how people obtain their music , etc. www.edisonresearch.com/Edison_CRB_Country_Study_2009.pdfTucked away near the end is a question on the Dixie Chicks. For those who don't want to download the whole document, here are the attitude reactions of the listeners' sample: Strongly like...............18% Somewhat like...........16 Neither like nor dislike..21 Somewhat dislike........15 Strongly dislike............30 That is a much higher negative reaction than any other artist included in the survey (who were typically getting low single figures for 'strongly dislike') - so that aspect is definitely bad news (though I think 'bad news' would be exactly what the Chicks were expecting in this format) But I also think the reaction is not decisive - and that does present something of a dilemma for the Chicks. Although some fans do dispute this, I personally am convinced that the Chicks decisively rejected this sector in 2006, and in that respect, may have expected a more pronounced negative reaction. I also think they also hoped for a more positive reception in other terrestrial radio formats in the USA. In fact, though, that aspect didn't really happen on a big scale - so the dilemma is whether next time they make a more positive play for the not negligible section of the commercial Country audience that's still open to them. My guess is still that they probably won't - but these figures (with a third strongly or somewhat liking them) must give some pause for thought.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2009 16:33:09 GMT -8
I see that almost a quarter are totally indifferent, which is probably the worst figure to have! At least the likers and dislikers know who the Chicks are and will mention them to others when they do try to promote a new album.
Without ploughing through the 70 pages, does it perchance include reasons why people like / hate the Chicks in particular?
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Post by Bingo on Mar 15, 2009 18:30:10 GMT -8
No, Bob, no questions were asked on "why". The reactions to individual artists were only a minor part of the survey.
The survey was based on 13,463 people aged 12-64, who were listeners to 18 Mainstream Country stations. These were 55% female, and 89% White. The largest single age band was 35-44.
I guess the section that might have a bearing on attitudes to the "incident" is the political one. Asked what best described them, they opted for: Very Conservative...........14% Somewhat Conservative..23 Moderate.........................46 Somewhat Liberal.............12 Very Liberal.......................5
(This partially bears out the format's image - twice as many choosing Con as Lib - but still suggests that not as many were prepared to identify as Con as the more stereotyped assumptions might suggest)
Recent voting also leant more Conservative than the nation (as expected), but was still fairly close: McCain......56% Obama......44%
Moving beyond the survey, my interpretation of that (which is obviously conjectural) would be that most of these listeners are unlikely to have been obsessed with "Bush" (as some fan discussion tends to assume) - but probably did lean to a broadly Conservative view of patriotism, with the expectation that American citizens wouldn't "break ranks" in public at a time of national mobilization. (In a way though - that is bad news for the Chicks, since it implies that feelings about the 2003 incident are unlikely to fade away just because Bush has gone and support for the War has slumped. For many Conservatives and "Moderates", the point probably still is "the when and the where" of the Chicks not appearing to back what was seen as the nation's foreign policy stand at a time of crisis. Right or wrong - that still probably has considerable symbolic impact for many who don't identify as Liberal)
For the large chunk identifying as "moderate", especially, I think that dislike and resentment of the Chicks apparent attitude towards the "Heartland" in 2006 added to the existing political image - and made it harder to say they liked them.
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Post by alikat on Mar 16, 2009 0:31:06 GMT -8
Thanks for that, Bingo. As you say, the percentage "dislike" answers for the Chicks is probably not greatly surprising, although, if a similar survey was done soon after the Incident, it would have been interesting to compare the results! Bob's comment about the "neither like nor dislike" percentage is interesting. If you look at the various artists that those polled were asked about, only 19 out of the 54 have a lower percentage for this category of answer, so perhaps 21% isn't so bad after all. A couple of other points that may be of interest: 1) George Strait easily won in the "Please name ONE country singer/group who is your all-time favourite" section. In fourth place was Koby Teeth, and, way back in 13th was Carrie Underwood. For others in the top 14, please refer to page 75 in Bingo's link above. There must be a mistake in there, though, as the Chicks don't appear in the list. 2) More than three-quarters of those polled said that they are listening "more" to country music on the radio than 1 year ago, which follows on from the trend shown in 2005, 2006 and 2007. I find this a little surprising since, with the music that is available on the web these days, I would have thought that the trend might have been quite the reverse. But then again, what do I know?
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Post by Tony on Mar 16, 2009 9:15:18 GMT -8
I'd take this with a pinch of salt, these surveys can't be relied on IMHO.
For me it leaves a big question mark over the girls identity musically. They don't seem to have an audience to target, and that would be a disaster.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2009 2:08:52 GMT -8
I'd take this with a pinch of salt, these surveys can't be relied on IMHO. For me it leaves a big question mark over the girls identity musically. They don't seem to have an audience to target, and that would be a disaster. True. You could also put it the other way round: they have a (residual) audience but are not targeting it! Even on a Chicks board it's become clear that many of us have quite different preferences for what type of music we'd like the girls to come up with next, with many of us wishing they would revisit their earlier styles and abandon the "TTLW sound". As we've acknowledged, whatever they choose should logically (ie commercially) target an audience likely to be receptive. I'm not sure there will be one by the time they've made up their minds ...
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Post by musicnoth8 on Mar 19, 2009 12:31:13 GMT -8
As for politics, "conservative" has come to mean "to the right of Atilla the Hun". So people like me who have a true moderate political make-up have become "liberal" in modern political labeling. The funny thing about country music, as a whole, is JUST how overboard the establishment and audience went over Iraq. Even so, the Willies, Kris Kristoffersons, etc. of country weren't annihilated in popularity - reinforcing the GENDER-specific double standard of country music.
I think that is a very depressing trait of country music - how very backwards it is with respect to women. It bit the Chicks in how they were treated by country altogether. And it is reflected over and over in the way women are portrayed in (women AND men's) country music videos.
That kind of "information" coming out of country music is far more damning that a survey like this one, though it IS interesting.
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Post by Wild Turkey on Mar 29, 2009 7:31:48 GMT -8
I have the surveys from the last 4 years somewhere on my computer. I'll have to find them and post how the like/dislike has changed since 2005. I do think their "strongly dislike" percentage dropped from last year.
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