What is normal?

Many very `popular´ things are of minority interest

To show that many very `popular´ things are only of interest to a few, let's look at some examples of the most popular TV, movies, music, and books.

I then show how the media and political commentators assume that the whole country has changed its political mood when all that has happened is that a very small minority of the population have changed their view.

Television

How many people watch the most popular TV show in your country?

The top rating Australian TV show in mid March 2007, Dancing With The Stars, was watched by 1.86 million Australians. As there are 20.8 million people in Australia, this show was watched by only 9% of the population. 91% of people did not watch (ie for every person who watched, 10 did not).

In 2006 the most watched non-sport program on Australian TV, The Great Escape - an interview with the Beaconsfield miners who survived 9 days trapped one kilometer underground, was watched by 2.79 million Australians. This is only 13.4% of the population. 86.6% did not watch (ie for every viewer, 6.5 people did not watch).

Between February 12 and 18, 2007, the most watched TV show in the USA was American Idol with 31.2 million viewers. As the population of the USA is 301.5 million people, the top rating show was only watched by 10.3% of the population. 89.7% of people did not watch (ie for every viewer there were 8.7 people not watching).

Television is the mass-market entertainer. But even the most popular regular shows are only watched by about 10% of the population. The reality is that even the most popular mass-market television is only of interest to a small minority of people.

Movies

On 28 December 2006, USA Today reported that the top-grossing film of 2006 was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, at $423.3 million, and at number ten was Casino Royale at $145.0 million. They also reported that the average cost of a movie ticket in 2006 was $6.58. Assuming that each person watched these films only once, and that they paid the average ticket price, then 21.4% of the population went to the movies to see the number one film, and only 7.3% of the population went to the movies to see the tenth most popular film.

Movies are also mass-market popular culture, yet the tenth most popular film in 2006 was not seen by 92.7% of the population (ie for every person who saw the film, 12.7 people did not go).

Music

The best selling albums of all time in the USA include at number one The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits, having sold 29 million copies, and at number ten, Fleetwood Mac - Rumours, having sold 19 million copies.

Assuming that no-one bought two or more copies of the same album (though many fans who had the LP would have upgraded to a CD) these figures show that 90.4% of people do not own the USAs most popular album of all time, and 93.7% of people do not own the tenth most popular album.

In 2006 the best selling album in the USA was the soundtrack to High School Musical which sold 3.7 million copies. This means that 98.8% of the population did not buy the best selling album (ie for everyone who did buy it, 80.5 people did not).

Buying even the most popular music is only a minority interest. (Note that the most popular music is significantly less popular than the most popular movies.)

Books

In 2006 the most sold book in Australia was Spotless, Shannon Lush and Jennifer Fleming's guide to tackling stains in the home. This sold 238,000 copies. That is 1.1% of the population bought a copy, but for every person who bought a copy, 86.4 did not.

The biggest selling book in Australia in recent years was in 2005 when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold more than 800,000 copies. For every person who bought this book, 25 people did not buy a copy.

Even the best-selling books are only of minority interest.

Politics

We are so used to our political coverage that we do not question many statements made by the media and the political commentators.

In 2007 there was a federal election in Australia which ousted the Liberal government and elected a new Labor government. The Prime Minister, John Howard, even lost his own seat. The national swing against the government was 5.31%.

The political analysis often talked about a change in the mood of the country. What did each party do right and do wrong? What are the issues effecting people's votes? When John Howard won the previous elections he was "in touch with the people". When he lost the question was "How could he get so out of touch?"

What did the voters of Australia do at this election?

In two party terms, 47.44% voted for the Liberal party, just as they had done at the previous election. 47.25% voted for the Labor party, just as they had done at the previous election.

With all the political commentators talk of the change in mood of the people, you would not think that  94.69% of the voters had voted exactly the same as in the previous election!

Only 5.31% of voters changed their vote from Liberal to Labor (two party preferred).

It makes perfect sense that only 5.31% of voters are able to kick out one party and elect another (as both major parties had about 50% of the vote).

But how does it make sense that the mood of the country had changed before the vote was counted? The mood of the 5.31% had changed. But 94.69% of voters showed by their vote that they had not changed their mood.

In the months before the election there is massive media coverage of all the major issues, all the controversies, and all the good and bad things done by each party during each stage of the campaign. There is also a massive political advertising campaign. Despite all of this, the vast majority of voters voted just the same as they had at the previous election. The big issues, the controversies, and the advertising did not change their vote.

Of course the mood of the country changes after an election when the government changes. But this is due to the change of government, and has nothing to do with the vast majority of the people's mood when they cast their vote.

Political commentary is one area where the changing views of a very small percentage of the population are deemed to be the changing views of all of us. Clearly this is not the case.

Though the media bombard us with the idea of a `popular´ change in mood, the vast majority of voters have not changed their views. Yet another example where `popular´ is not!

Conclusion

The above figures might be a surprise to you. The media and advertising always pretend that our most watched TV, most popular movies, and most purchased music and books are of potential interested to a mass market. And we tend to think of that mass market as being the majority of the population.

The reason why the marketers oversell the popularity is obvious. Which message encourages people to watch a TV show?

• Don't be one of the few to miss the most popular show on American television - tune in to American Idol tomorrow night, or
  
  
• Last week 90% of Americans chose not to watch American Idol. Be one of the few to tune in tomorrow night.

Our political commentators also pretend that the changing view of just a few is a changed view of the majority. Social commentators make the same mistake.

The overselling of popularity is so embedded into our thinking that some people would expect me to pretend that Devotional Sex could be of interest to most people. Instead I prefer to be honest.

As most people are not interested in even the most popular mass culture, then it cannot be expected that most people will be interested in Devotional Sex. Even if this site received huge publicity, most people would not be interested in looking at this site.

There is also the question of how to measure success. For all the products discussed above, success is measured by how many people watch or buy the product. Not much commitment of time or money is required to watch or buy.

With Devotional Sex it is more meaningful to measure success by how many people decide to make Devotional Sex a part of their lives.

Trying Devotional Sex requires a couple to be committed to giving it a go, and requires them to spend some time and effort in order to discover the benefits. This will be too much `work´ for many people (fortunately some will find trying Devotional Sex fun and exciting).

So the reality is that most people who look at the site will probably only look and not want to make the commitment of time and energy to try Devotional Sex. And not everyone who tries Devotional Sex will want to keep doing it.

So even in the most optimistic scenario, only a very small proportion of the population are ever likely to become Devotees.

But does this matter?

Perhaps what really matters is just whether or not Devotional Sex is right for you.

And for me, the success of this site will not be measured by its popularity, but by how much of a difference it makes to the few who decide to make Devotional Sex a part of their lives