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FtttG  Gheobhaidh mé bás ar an gcnoc seo.  1d ago (docs.google.com)   Edited 1d ago   1212 thread views

The Motte infidelity survey

docs.google.com

In yesterday's small-scale questions thread, @cjet79 asks why the song "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers has had such staying power, famously staying in the UK singles charts decades after its initial release. Some explanations (including my own) point to its compositional elements; others focus on its lyrics and subject matter. @100ProofTollBooth argues that it's a very universal and relatable song, as "The experience of infidelity (to some degree) is common to many (most? idk) people."

I'm curious if this is really the case, so I decided to go Aella mode and created a simple survey to find out about people's experiences with infidelity. It consists of a few demographic questions (age, sex, sexual orientation, relationship style), then asks you if you've ever had an unfaithful partner, then asks you if you've ever been unfaithful to a partner.

Completely anonymous, and I've set it up so the form doesn't collect email addresses if you're logged in.

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Am I the only person in the world who wasn't familiar with the song "Mr. Brightside"? Just looked it up and I'd believe I might have heard it once or twice in the past, but maybe not. It's musically chaotic and the lyrics are completely unintelligible to me.

Never heard or heard of it before to my knowledge.

... Are you serious? Have you been to any weddings at all for the past 20 years? Or Karaoke?

I'm already aware you live in a different subculture but this is pretty surprising. It would be difficult for me to find a single person who's unaware of it.

Have you been to any weddings at all for the past 20 years? Or karaoke?

No.

It's one of those songs that I'd definitely heard (at least in snippets), but didn't know the name... until a college football comedy sketch involving Missouri and Kansas.

It's funny because I have seen references to it for years but was finally only nagged into finding out what it is once this place spontaneously generated a ton of discourse about it.

Same here. I've heard of it but when I looked it up it wasn't a song I recognised.

I guess you had to be there.

I believe it was performed recently as the opening show to the Champions League Final, so it might not be entirely "spontaneous".

I believe at least one other person in the thread hadn't heard of it, but you might be the first native English speaker who hadn't. That genuinely surprises me.

I'm also a native English speaker and had never heard the song before either. I know of the Killers, but only through other songs (Somebody Told Me and When You Were Young). Never heard this one despite its apparent popularity.

I like quite a few of the Killers' songs and have listened to them a lot which is what makes this even crazier to me. Although now that I've looked into Mr. Brightside I find it an unpleasant enough experience that I'd probably have just screened it out if it came up in the wild.

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