Music

Canadians love pop music more than any other genre

by Richard Howard

A study of music downloads by McMaster University’s Digital Music Lab recently revealed that while Canadian indie music fans are the most open minded about other genres, those into pop music are the least likely to enjoy other styles. Well, it seems these sticklers for sickly sweet pop jams are also the most plentiful (or at least the most ardent downloaders), as the data shows Canadians are crazy for the hits.

After studying data gathered from more than a billion song downloads between 2011 and 2014, the researchers were able to put together a top 10 list of Canadian downloads. Now, the fact that a genre that’s named for its popularity came out on top isn’t really a surprise. However, the overwhelming nature of its superiority is what’s raising some eyebrows. With very few exceptions, the list reads like a VH1 dream playlist.

1. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis — “Thrift Shop”
2. P!NK — “Just Give Me a Reason”
3. Bruno Mars — “When I Was Your Man”
4. Imagine Dragons — “Radioactive”
5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis — “Can’t Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton)”
6. Awolnation — “Sail”
7. Jay Z — “Holy Grail”
8. The Lumineers — “Ho Hey”
9. Robin Thicke — “Blurred Lines”
10. Miley Cyrus — “Wrecking Ball”

Even the majority of artists that could be considered non-pop (Macklemore, Imagine Dragons, and The Lumineers) have very strong pop leanings, making Jay Z the only real dark horse in the list. Admittedly, the data doesn’t give a complete picture – while the sample size is huge, it was gathered only from the music service MixRadio. Also, it’s missing the last year’s downloads – and of course doesn’t include streaming, which is a major consideration of late.

Still, the evidence here makes a very strong argument: in the Great North, pop music has been mercilessly whooping everyone else’s behinds.