The Sun-Herald

The Tribal Mind: United in seasonal sensations

by David Dale
What, if any, were the experiences Australians shared over the Christmas break? Apart from ham and plum pudding, were there any pleasures that brought the nation together, or has our society fragmented into 21 million islands of purely personal entertainment?

This column is now in a position to answer those questions, because the data-gathering agencies which continued their labours between December 19 and January 2 have just delivered their discoveries. Here are a few clues on what might unite us ...

The TV we watched. Although it's officially a "non-ratings period", the people meters attached to TV sets in 3000 urban homes allowed OzTAM's computer to estimate that 1.8 million saw Carols By Candlelight, while the test matches between Australia and South Africa occasionally managed 1.4 million, and most nights 1.2 million have been watching Seven's news. Other hot properties were Shrek The Halls (9) 1.2m; A Very Specky Christmas (ABC) 1.2m; Outback Wildlife Rescue (7) 1.1m; repeats of Bones (7) and NCIS (10) 1.1 million; Top Gear (SBS) 880,000 and the Queen's Christmas message (ABC) 510,000.

In the absence of anything adventurous on the free networks, Pay TV flourished, and its top performers were America's Next Top Model (Fox 8) 190,000; Futurama (Fox 8) 180,000; The Vicar of Dibley (UK TV) 141,000; and the Bond flick For Your Eyes Only (Fox Classics) 138,000.

The movies we queued for. The cinemas sent their box office totals to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, which reveals that over the past fortnight more than a million Australians saw Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa; while 500,000 saw Twilight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; 400,000 saw Australia, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Bedtime Stories, and 250,000 saw Quantum of Solace (probably for the second time, having rented Casino Royale in the meantime to find out what the chase at the beginning is all about).

And the readers who entered this column's contest to predict the success of Australia might like to know that as it nears the end of its run, it has so far made $27 million here and $US47 million over there. To discover the most successful films of 2008 and of all time, go here.

The music we played. The Australian Record Industry Association reports that the $20 notes in the Christmas card from grandma mostly went on the albums Funhouse by Pink, Only By The Night by the Kings of Leon, Unessential Listening by Hamish and Andy, the soundtrack of High School Musical 3, and Circus by Britney Spears.

So in the past two weeks, if you heard no Pink and saw no carols, cricket or cartoon animals, you are a splendid individualist -- and deeply unAustralian.

Footnote: Last week this column asked readers to name the decade, and the 40 responders suggested such notions as the Facebook Decade, The Decayed, the D'Ohcade, the 3D (Dumbed Down Decade), the Meltdown Decade, the Viral Decade and Decade of Squandered Opportunity. But the consensus stayed with The iDecade, where the initial letter stands for iPhone, iPod, internet, Islam, Iraq, imbeciles (who kill people for religious reasons or start wars for political reasons), ignorant, inept, indulgent, and ego (since this is above all a decade of vanity).

So we've settled on the theme. Spread the iWord.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). To discuss Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.