Study Determines Each State’s Favorite Musical Artist

Nathaniel Light11 years ago

A recent study has determined each state’s favorite musical artist, relative to other states. Paul Lamere and his team at The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company, boldly claim they “automatically know everything about music.”

These findings do not state the most listened to artist in each state. Rather, they show unusually supportive fan bases in each of these states.

This first thing that becomes surprisingly apparent is that the South is way more prone to rap and hip hop than it is country music. Arkansas loves Wiz, Louisiana prefers Kevin Gates, and Mississippi is more into August Alsina.

The Northeast shows high frequency for older bands, such Grateful Dead, Phish, R.E.M., Nirvana, and Rush.

New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma are more into country, coming in with Alan Jackson, Eric Church, and Jason Aldean, respectively. It’s a given that George Strait is Texas’s pick–I feel like half his songs mention the state (“All My Exes Live in Texas,” “Remember the Alamo,” “If It Wasn’t For Texas,” “Amarillo By Morning,” “I Can’t See Texas From Here”). If I didn’t know any better, I’d guess the King of Country was actually from Texas or something.

Ironically enough, Florida Georgia Line went to neither Florida or Georgia; Ohio claimed the duo.

However, there are obvious winners and losers in this music map. Of course, people have their own tastes in music, but we should all be able to agree on some things.

Firstly, a couple of states are pretty on point in when it comes to musical appreciation.

Wisconsin: Jack Johnson. The ultimate winner. I can’t really say much else except good for you, Wisco. You’re some chill ass bros–you earned this one.

Virginia: Dave Matthews Band. Say what you will about Dave, but he’s the fucking man. It’s really tough to beat.

New Jersey: Bruce Springsteen. He’s The Boss, and “Born in the USA” is a ballad for any blacked out fratter who needs to show some love and respect for the US of A.

Montana: Tim McGraw. Kind of a random choice for Montana, but it’s Tim fucking McGraw. ‘Nuff said.

Other states have questionable taste. Check them out:

Arizona: Linkin Park. That just sucks. You’re lucky your girls are hot and make poorer decisions than your citizens when they open Spotify.

Idaho: Tegan and Sara. Maybe I live under a rock, but up until 30 seconds ago, I didn’t even know who this was. I just looked up their music and they suck.

West Virginia: Matchbox Twenty. If this study had been done 10 years ago, this would have been acceptable. But 10 years ago, Tobey Maguire was still Spider Man and people thought it was acceptable for No Doubt and Hilary Duff to record albums.

Kentucky: Fall Out Boy. They ruined the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show for me this year. I won’t pretend we’re on good terms, Kentucky.

South Dakota: Hinder. No–just no.

Honorable Mentions

Alaska: Ginger Kwan. Ginger is a weird Asian chick who ranks the 12,062nd most popular artist in the country, but the 33rd most popular in Alaska. I only place this in the honorable mention category because I feel bad for Alaskans. They’re all alone up there, surrounded by Canadians and Russians. However, this is the strangest choice hands down.

Missouri: The Shins. I’ll be honest, I’m shuffling The Shins right now just to fulfill the stereotype.

Michigan: Young Jeezy. I swore he was in jail for trying to kill his son. Or maybe I thought he was dead.

Illinois: Sufjan Stevens. Personally, I’m a fan, but I’ll admit that he is weird as fuck. No surprise Illinois was all about the guy who recorded an album called Illinoise, though.

Tennessee: Juicy J.

Fuck it. I think we can all agree Tennessee wins.

[via Business Insider, Music Machinery]