Poll result Well, the results of our Mother of all Music Polls are in, and they make sobering reading indeed. More than 7,000 of you voted and we can now confirm beyond any doubt that - despite previous reports to the contrary - developers do not play air guitar to Megadeth. No, it's much, much worse than that.

The shocking truth is that the whole of the IT world is apparently obsessed with unpleasant Canadian pomp rock in the shape of Rush. In fact, the only profession which did not vote this their number one choice of easy listening were the Strategy Boutiques (Ad Sales/Marketing/PR), who have evidently decided to eschew whalesong to rock on to honourary unpleasant Canadian pomp rockers Heart.

There are three possible explanations for this:

1) That the world of IT is awash with Rush aficionados.
2) That the vote is simply a "dirty protest" against the omission of certain genres and artists - the online equivalent of fouling oneself and spreading the results around the walls.
3) That participants did not understand that only one vote was allowed overall - not one vote in each category, thereby swinging the tally in favour of unpleasant Candian pomp rock.

Whatever the truth, all three options are equally unpalatable.

Furthermore, we discern few patterns emerging from the poll, apart from the fact that academics are the only people to have even the slightest interest in classical music and hardware engineers will occasionally get their rocks off to Queen. Draw what conclusions you will from that chilling prospect.

Before announcing the full results we would, however, like to give a heads-up to CIO/IT directors who do not - as previously claimed - enjoy fine wines to the sound of Mozart, but rather formulate their IT strategies to a backdrop of Slayer and the Dead Kennedys. And Rush, obviously.

Here, then, are the top 30 artists as voted for by you, our beloved readers:

1. Rush — 737
2. Metallica — 422
3. Radiohead — 281
4. Heart — 276
5. Iron Maiden — 274
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers — 238
7. Pink Floyd — 230
8. Led Zeppelin — 202
9. Megadeth — 191
10. Nirvana — 188
11. Slayer — 165
12. Queen — 138
13. Portishead — 129
14. Smashing Pumpkins — 125
15. Kraftwerk — 125
16. Pixies — 116
17. AC/DC — 115
18. U2 — 108
19. Black Sabbath — 99
20. Coldplay — 87
21. Guns N' Roses — 84
22. R.E.M — 75
23. Bach — 69
24. Beastie Boys — 65
25. Dead Kennedys — 65
26. Jimi Hendrix — 62
27. Motorhead — 60
28. The Beatles — 60
29. Joy Division — 57
30. The Smiths — 57

And you may now peruse the top five artists by profession. Read it and weep:

Software developer

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Radiohead
4. Iron Maiden
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Webmaster

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Nirvana
4. Radiohead
5. Metallica

Security

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Iron Maiden
4. Radiohead
5. Pink Floyd

Telecoms jockey

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Heart
4. U2
5. Radiohead

Reseller/distie/channel-type

1. Rush
2. Pink Floyd
3. Led Zeppelin
4. Kraftwerk
5. Slayer

Training

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. AC/DC
4. Nirvana
5. Kraftwerk

Student

1. Rush
2. Iron Maiden
3. Metallica
4. Radiohead
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Sales

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Metallica
4. Led Zeppelin
5. Nirvana

Project manager

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Radiohead
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Queen

Strategy Boutique (Ad Sales/Marketing/PR)

1. Heart
2. Rush
3. U2
4. R.E.M
5. Bach

Database administrator

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Pink Floyd
4. Metallica
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hardware engineer

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Heart
4. AC/DC
5. Queen

Callcentre thingummybob

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Iron Maiden
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Slayer

Academic

1. Rush
2. Radiohead
3. Pixies
4. Bach
5. Pink Floyd

Engineer

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Heart
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Pink Floyd

Network manager

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Portishead
4. Nirvana
5. Iron Maiden

IT manager

1. Rush
2. Radiohead
3. Heart
4. red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Pink Floyd

Sysadmin

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Iron Maiden
4. Pink Floyd
5. Megadeth

IT hack

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Megadeth
4. Pink Floyd
5. Metallica

CIO/IT director

1. Rush
2. Pink Floyd
3. Heart
4. Slayer
5. Dead Kennedys