Who is in the audience?

[animal]

I'm back after some issues, Thanks to Eugenio for all your help.

Turn 36 on Wednesday.

I blame my Uncle for my addiction.

I was just 8 years old when I heard the album Regatta De Blanc eminating from his room while visiting my Grandparents.

Was never able to see them on tour, as I was too young.

Now all grown up "cough".

Even though I willl only see them once on the Tour, a childhood dream coming true, words cannot describe.

[Jennythenipper]

[quote="animal"]I'm back after some issues, Thanks to Eugenio all your help.

Even though I willl only see them once on the Tour, a childhood dream coming true, words cannot describe.[/quote]

Yeah, my sentiments exactly. The idea of not going? Unbearable.

[Jennythenipper]

Now that we've developed a sense of age and or occupation, (or lack thereof), what about gender and musical tastes outside the Police.

I always got the impression that Police mainly appealed to females who were into pop music. Perhaps it was their collective hotness and the undeniable catchiness of many of their songs. And yet I get the impression from reading this forum that their are a lot of guys in the hardcore fan base and a lot of people who are musicians, either amateur or pro. There is a discussion comparing Rush to the Police in another forum. Rush? I've never met a female Rush fan. I associate Rush with long, technical solos and experiment, not with pop music.

This is not what I would have expected, back in the day, or even watching Everyone Stares, given how calculated they were in their image to appeal to the teeny bopper crowd. (I was one of those teeny boppers so, I am in no way detracting from that!)

It is clear from their fan base now that The Police, although they marketed themselves like Duran Duran, were never Duran Duran. (And we fans always knews that anyway.)

So to answer my own question, I'm female. (If you couldn't already tell from my screen name) and my other musical faves include U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Billy Bragg, old school hip hop and Prince. I'm not entirely stuck in the 80s, I like Tulip Sweet, the Heartless Bastards, the Decemberists, British Seapower, the Gossip and the White Stripes. (Although looking at my recent artists list, most of these groups have a very powerful retro sound and I probably like them because they remind me of my familiar favorites.) I think the overall theme of my favorite lists is good songwriting. I a sucker for a clever turn of phrase or couplet put to music.

[Wait and See]

I've heard them mention--I think on the commentary of the Everyone Stares DVD--that their fans have always been a weird combination of female groupies and guys who are musicians (me being the latter). Obviously that hasn't changed.

Most of the female fans (maybe not on this board, but generally) are obsessed with Sting and think everything he does descended from on high. They're the ones who whine and complain when anybody points out a flaw in the object of their worship, and downplay the extent of Andy and Stewart's contribution to both the Police's music and STING'S CAREER.

As for other music I'm into...take your pick. I've been into almost all of it at one time or another. If I had to single out the greatest artist of the last 100 years, it would probably be James Brown.

[GinaSuperCat]

And then there are those of us gals who are Stewart and drum geeks (or aspiring)! <grin> Let's see: we have sockii, me, donna, dirty martini, mercury rising...<grin> Stewart.Grrl.Drummers.Rock! YYESSSSSSS!!!!

[mardee]

[quote="GinaSuperCat"]Stewart.Grrl.Drummers.Rock! YYESSSSSSS!!!![/quote]

LOL this most definitely should be on a shirt.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Maybe that's why I prefer this board over a few others. There are a lot of awesome women on here who have more to talk about than the boringly obvious. We're probably close to 50/50 men/women, which is a rare thing on a music message board with as much technical talk as this one has.

Other music I'm nuts for: Neko Case, Mike Doughty, Nick Lowe, Wilco, Guided by Voices, soul musicians like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and the Dynamites, Aussie musicians Beasts of Bourbon, Paul Kelly and the Hoodoo Gurus, international stuff like Ozomatli, Gilberto Gil, Carlos 'Patato' Valdez, Jorge Ben...though I've been on a huge David Bowie kick lately for some reason...

[Duke]

Cool, we're talking about favorite music now.

The Police, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, The Grateful Dead, U2, The Sex Pistols, Bob Marley, Lee Perry, Sting, Big Country, Joy Divison, Dylan, Gang of Four, Joe Strummer and the Mescleros, The Kinks, Marvin Gaye, The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Television, Siouxsie and the Banshees, anything Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales did, Steve Kimock Band, the Stone Roses, etc


Just a few of my favs.

[michelle]

[quote="Duke"]now I have to fight with the husband to keep it up.<<

there is SUCH an opening for a joke here [/quote]


Ah... and I thought I was leaving myself vulnerable for the "head banging" comment then and now....

trying to address a few posts here...

I wasn't into the Duran Duran at all, maybe I was too old? Looking back, I was SUCH an IRS whore. Besides most of their bands, I loved the Clash, David Bowie, Supertramp, Talking Heads, Swimming Pool Q's, B-52's (and squeeze big time, although they were IRS, right?) I think I really liked pat benatar for a while there too. Used to have tight black pants and sing into the hairbrush as well!

Funny, Rush: I liked the ONE album and that was it (moving pictures or something like that?)

I missed the boat on U2 and Echo and the Bunnymen, and have started getting into that lately (only due to seeing them both in the past year or so). Guess I saw U2 in the 80's, but don't remember it at all. Have the t-shirt and stub. Very bizarre!

[Mrs. Gradenko]

The 70's was the best decade for music... no one ever agrees with me on that, but it's true. Even our Boys (as a band) were at their best in thoes days. The 80's? Meh.

[georgygirl]

Mrs. Gradenko I could agree for you if you give me 10 reasons to make support to your statement:

"The 70's was the best decade for music..." [quote]

[/quote]

[Mrs. Gradenko]

Yes mam! It's summer, am I back in class?

1) Stones
2) Aerosmith
3) HBreakers
4) Eagles
5) Dylan
6) Floyd
7) Skynard
8 ) Clapton
9) Our 3 boys
10) Hendrix (he still counts!)

[georgygirl]

Really good reasons.

I also like Queen, America and Ramones and they are also from 70's

Anyway, don´t you like The Cult? (80)

[Mrs. Gradenko]

Queen it more my Mom's taste, so of coarse I never really got into them... past their greatest hits. The Ramones arn't bad, their just not my top ten.

The Cult, we're talking about the 70's...

[Wait and See]

There is usually good and bad music in any time frame, but there was a lot of bad music made in the 70s--disco, soft rock, etc. The Stones, Dylan and Hendrix all made their best stuff in the 60s, and kind of fell off in the 70s. Hendrix died in 1970, so it's kind of a stretch to include him.

The problem in the 80s was the adoption of sterile cookie-cutter production techniques and electronic instruments that were supposed to be "technological advances!", and ended up sounding dated very fast. I think Synchronicity suffers slightly from that kind of sound. One thing I like about the period was the creative use of analog synths. I think they're underrated, although some people have started to bring them back. Good idea for the Police if they do a new album--throw in some analog synth sounds like they did back in the day (there are some really good software versions that have come out recently). Obviously rap came from the 80s, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view.

As for the 90s, I went along and tried to appreciate the grunge/alternative stuff that took over, but I've basically gotten to a point where I hate Nirvana and the rest of them. I think they totally destroyed rock and roll. Not that hair metal was any good, but emo is worse, and grunge is directly responsible for emo.

Basically, there always has been and always will be really bad mainstream pop music. The good stuff is few and far between.