I don't know about you, but I put survey places on the annoying phone call list, just below…read moretelemarketers and political robo-calls. However, at my house, when Cleaview calls, we ALWAYS pick up the phone. We're on their call list for potential surveys.
Clearview's surveys often pay upwards of $100 for participation. Most of their surveys deal with mass media like television or radio stations. My wife has been to more of them than I have since she watches more TV than anyone else in the family. Seems every time they called me about a TV survey, I was disqualified for not watching the right shows or not watching enough TV, period.
Well, finally I got a call for a $120 survey I could do regarding classic rock radio format song variety. In a 2-day, 2-1/2 hours per visit survey, I had to listen to 650 song clips each time and rate them by preference and whether they are overplayed on the radio. The survey took place at the Rosemont Sheraton Hotel in a conference room with about 100 people attending, seated at tables with electronic Scantron forms and #2 pencils in hand. It was like a high school final exam flashback for me.
Demographically, I was a bit on the young side, as about 3/4 of the participants were white men in their 40s and 50s, many of them with caps, thick moustaches, and some baldness, dressed in flannel shirts or other blue-collar apparel, almost stereotypical of what you would define a "classic rock listener" to look like. The host of the survey was entertaining with his humorous remarks and kept the survey moving at a brisk pace so we did not waste time or get bored.
Anyway, being away from a steady diet of classic rock for some time now, spending so much time exposed to 6-second clips of songs became an introspective, self-exploratory journey.
While I didn't get any feedback on my survey, I discovered some things about my own tastes from the preferences I expressed on the survey.
I discovered I like Fleetwood Mac a lot. I also have a new appreciation for Bob Seger. Songs like "Lido Shuffle" from Boz Scaggs and "Steppin' Out" from Joe Jackson got me tingly all over and got some of my highest scores. I also seem to like The Who a lot more than I thought.
In the middle category of the mundane and overplayed, Led Zeppelin, Eddie Money, REO and Foreigner took their place.
Finally, I tore apart the Rolling Stones, Pretenders, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, even The Boss and Jimi Hendrix, plus the dreary assortment of songs from The Police in particular. And somewhere in hell, there is a place for Dennis DeYoung to sing "Lady" 24 hours a day.
I also found my musical tastes are conflicted.
While I love Fleetwood Mac, I hate Stevie Nicks solo.
Despite Yes being my favorite band of all time, the "usual" Yes songs radio stations normally play (we all know them and can count them on one hand) I grouped with the middle-of-the-road, overplayed songs.
All I can say is that I was mercilessly honest.... and came out of it $120 richer.
I now eagerly await my next call once I'm eligible to participate in their next survey.
