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FtttG  Gheobhaidh mé bás ar an gcnoc seo.  3mo ago (docs.google.com)   Edited 3mo ago   2180 thread views

The Motte infidelity survey

docs.google.com

UPDATE: My analysis available here.

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.

Am I the only person in the world who wasn't familiar with the song "Mr. Brightside"?

No, same. Both my work and my extended family listen to (different) classic/vintage/modern rock radio stations 24/7, and I'm 100% certain this song hasn't been on rotation once on any of them since it was released.

The only context in which I encountered it was an old Soothouse video in which they did one of the "Google translate 1,000 times in various languages" games with the lyrics, producing:

Get out of my fucking cage
And I did all right
He must go
I want all the reasons
She began to kiss.
How it ended?
This kiss, kisses
I'll sleep
She called a taxi
Despite the fact that there is smoke
And she performs oral sex
Now they sleep
My stomach is very painful
All in my head
But she touched her breast
NOW HE GATHERED HIS HARVEST.
Let me go
I can not kill me.
Avoid
Hey, turn to the sea
Swinging lullaby
STRENGTHEN YOUR POWER
But that's the price I paid.
The fate is calling me
Open the sight,
Because I'm Mr. Brightside.

But I'd never actually heard the music, and still haven't.

Surprisingly, most of the context came through, and the "She's taking a drag" line becoming "And she performs oral sex," is almost a metaphor implicit in the song. I don't know how Google Translate somehow amplified the sexual content.

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.

I have also never heard this song before and I’ve been to a decent few weddings. It sounds… very early 2000s to me?

I did listen to The Killers a few times in the past too, I might have just forgotten about that one.

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.

Somebody Told Me

I had to look this one up -- not very familiar to me. I have to admit, the first thing that came to mind was Smash Mouth.

When You Were Young

Not familiar to me at all.

But me not knowing rock bands doesn't really mean much, I almost exclusively listen to disco, disco house, and Europop. Disco Demolition Night was an offense against God.

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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