Hell hath no fury like a Duranie’s ego

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen the polls lately. During the past month or so I have voted for Rio as the best album of all-time, I’ve made sure that Duran has taken out both Hall and Oates AND Rick Springfield in their mock race to the Hall of Fame (or infamy, if you prefer), I’ve voted to make certain that DD has properly whipped the collective spandex-clad behinds of KISS, I’m in the process of proclaiming that Duran’s eyeliner was MUCH better than that of Depeche Mode (our keyboardist makes YOUR keyboardist look like an amateur!), and I think I’m also voting that Duran Duran has made me spend more money than any other band or person in the world….except for maybe my oldest daughter.

You get the point, we’ve been voting a lot lately. All in good fun, and all to protect the reputation of Duran Duran. (Or is it??  More on that in a bit…) Take this past week for instance. We were up against KISS in a pretty tight contest for…well…I’m not really sure, but I think it’s for “bragging” rights in a mock-contest for who should enter the hall of fame (I still say it’s infamy). During the last week there was one point where the deck was stacked well-against our heroes, we were down about 80%, which was frightening. Any self-respecting Duranie was not going to see that go down without a fight. So there was voting. There was also a lot of coercion from DDHQ to go and vote, which certainly amused me. Apparently I am not the only one with a competitive streak! As it came down to the wire (and KISS fans certainly put up a valiant fight), Duran fans (Wait, was it the fans that won, or the band???) pulled out ahead, and now we’re up against Depeche Mode for the final.

Even more interesting than the poll itself, are the comments that are below the poll. For the first few times I voted, I didn’t really look beyond the “vote now” box. I was in a hurry to stuff the ballot box, so to speak. Then yesterday, something caught my eye and I began reading the comments. You would have thought that we were arguing over political beliefs, or even religion – which I suppose to some extent, we were. The comments ranged from explanations as to why KISS was far more innovative and long-lived than Duran Duran (I could do an entire thesis paper on this statement alone, but I will save that for another day.); to out-and-out insults, and to be fair – they were indeed hurled in both directions. I didn’t see any threats of bodily harm though, perhaps I didn’t read far enough?

Why do we do these things? Keep in mind, I was voting with vigor right along with the rest of you…but why? Does it really matter what a poll on the San Jose Mercury News website really says? Why do we care so much? I can almost read the comments I’m going to get on this one now – “I never vote in those stupid contests.”  “I’m about the MUSIC.”  “Who cares about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anyway?”  “Why are you writing a blog about this stuff anyway?  Don’t you have kids to raise???” (I think that last one will come from my husband….) The fact is, for all of you self-proclaimed “I don’t care-ists” out there, I know of many (Whose names I can mention right here!) that have voted their hearts out. They automatically know how to erase their cookies so that they can vote again and have that vote be counted, and they do it over and over again. I think most people know these are probably silly contests, but there is this competitive streak in a lot of us that just refuses to be ignored.

Fans of sports teams have a similar problem, but the way they “vote” is with their cheers at the games. While I know there is quite a bit in the way of ribbing going on between fans of sports teams, the “answer” is spoken at the end of each season, when we know who – at least for that year – is the “best” team. Music fans have a different problem.  It isn’t as though there is a constant “Battle of the Bands”. When we attend music events like concerts – typically unless it’s a festival there’s only a band or two playing, and they really aren’t in competition with one another. So it is only during polling such as this that we have to put our voting fingers to good use. None of us want to see the band of our choice sink like the Titanic.

The one sticking point is whether or not crusades such as these polls are about saving the reputation of the band, or our own egos. Let’s face it, art and music…it’s all about having different tastes. We all like different things. Somehow though, that idea of taste gets intertwined with what might be “good taste” or “bad taste”, and we all pass judgement on one another based on what we believe to be one or the other. So when we vote, are we voting because we really believe the band is the best, musically speaking – or are we voting and arguing over our vote simply because at this point, our ego and the reputation of the band is so closely bound that we can’t tell the difference?

No matter…I have voting to do.  🙂

-R

Wanna get in on the voting?

Check out the Duran Duran vs. Depeche Mode for the FINAL “mock” Hall of Fame bracket here.