Music
New study proves metalheads are the most loyal music fans
by Tyler Munro
April 6, 2015
As someone who once spent 12 consecutive hours watching Manowar DVDs, I can tell you without speculating that metalheads are undoubtedly the most loyal fans in music. Sure, they rarely hit the hysterics of a One Direction fan, or the defensiveness of a Kanye West fan, but their intensity and devotion to the genre is well documented—picture someone carving Slayer into their arm here—and now there’s a study to back it up.
The Echo Nest is a music fingerprinting service and Spotify affiliate that conducted a global study of genre allegiances, identifying the biggest artists in Metal, Pop, Folk, Rock, Hip-Hop, Jazz and so on and so forth to find which fans came back most consistently to their faovourite sound.
And the results, they found, were conclusive: Metalheads affectionately stick to their guns; guitar oriented genres earn the most loyalty, while people tend to only dabble in genres like jazz and classical. Curiously, punk was not included in the study, so we’re not sure where it falls on their global chart, seen here:
They also didn’t bother sharing, or at least including, Canada in their results, though at least we can tell you that Filipino fans are fiendishly loyal to Original Pilipino Music, while the French apparently can’t get enough of Francophone Reggae. No, seriously. Other quirks are Americans’ apparent loyalty to “regional Mexican” music, Norway’s love of hip-hop and Australia’s passion for local country.
Pour through all the results here.
