Music theorists have debated the influence of external factors on music preference for centuries. Studies have shown that everything from geographical location to socioeconomic status can have an impact on the way a person enjoys different kinds of music. Recently the folks at Music Machinery decided to take that idea a step further. What they came up with were color coded maps that depict the nationwide favorite artists as well as the distinctive artists, each comparatively by state. According to the researchers at Music Machinery…
The data for both maps is drawn from an aggregation of data across a wide range of music services powered by The Echo Nest and is based on the listening behavior of a quarter million online music listeners.
Surprisingly enough (or maybe not surprising at all) when we look at their findings, the map shows the top 3 artists dominating nearly all of the country. The #1 artist in the country was Jay-Z, carrying almost the entire east coast. He was then followed by Drake, who took most of the southern states and then in third place was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis covering the midwest.
It was easy to differentiate the herd mentality states from the rogues. California, for example, was one of the few states that listened to Daft Punk more than any other artist. Then Colorado was the only state in the country to list Lorde as their most played artist.
Granted this data is limited in that it is selected from users who are internet savvy and up to date on music streaming technologies which limits the results to reflect a younger, possibly wealthier demographic. Nonetheless it is an interesting study and if you want to go even deeper into your curiosity you can check out this app created by Echo Nest. Choose two regions and how closely you’d like to compare them. The page will generate a list of artists and you can see how those artists rank in each of those states.
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