Something Seems a Little Off About This Music Poll

60 Minutes and Vanity Fair recently published a monthly poll about music. They asked all the right questions: How do people listen to it? What's their favorite decade? Their favorite genre? But somehow, they forgot one important thing: the research methods and demographics of the poll. Normally, this isn't something that would be noticeable, but the results of this poll seem a little... skewed. How? Well, here's a few answers that made us raise our eyebrows:

People Love to Listen to Music on the Radio

Radio certainly isn't dead, but it's incredibly hard to believe that nearly 50 percent of those surveyed primarily listen to music on the radio. First of all, most people don't own a radio that's not part of the iPod or installed in their car. Second of all, it's hard to find someone these days who doesn't walk around listening to an iPod or MP3 player. It's not as if you look around the subway to find people listening to Hot 97 instead of their own personal music library.

Jazz is More Important Than Hip-Hop

Already, that's a question that's both incredibly heavy and vague. Important how? Historically? Culturally? Politically? And arguably, jazz already has the upper hand, being much older genre that's also more likely to be recognized academically. But still, it's hard to believe that almost three-quarters of those surveyed even listen to jazz...even the vile "everything but country and rap" crowd probably couldn't tell you who John Coltrane is.

Hip Hop Has Reached its Peak

Whether you're a hip hop fan or not, it's hard to argue with the fact that the genre is the one that's evolved the most over the past decade. And although there's certainly been good rock music released in the past decade, there hasn't been any significant innovations in the genre. So while the opinion that hip-hop has "reached its peak" may be an opinion that over half the survey takers hold, its certainly a very uninformed one.

This Generation Has the Worst Music

This isn't a surprising opinion as much as it is an ill-informed and tired one. Who took this survey, the thirteen-year-olds who comment on Beatles videos on YouTube? "I'm so tired of my generation's music, music was so much better than the '60s." Not only is that a weird comparison to make, but it's an ignorant one. Anyone who thinks new millennium is the advent of terrible music simply isn't looking hard enough. The beauty (and downfall, depending on what stance you take on media theory, but let's not get into that) of this generation is that it's possible for anyone to find new music that interests them. People no longer have to be beholden to top 40 radio — if Dutch noise house is more your thing, it's out there.

"I Wish I Could've Seen Buddy Holly Live"

This is where the survey participants really show their age. Buddy Holly was an incredible songwriter and rock n' roll innovator, but no one in the history of anything has said "Yeah, Buddy Holly is a great musician, but you really need to see him live." That's what's so charming about him, watching old footage of his performances: he's so gawky and stilted. Twenty-two percent of people survey would rather use their opportunity for time travel to see that instead of watching Freddie Mercury belt onstage or Jimi Hendrix light his guitar on fire?

What is this world coming to?