Music

Indie music fans are the most open minded

by Richard Howard

So you know when you ask someone, “Hey, what music do you listen to?” And they answer “Oh, everything”? It turns out that if you’re talking to an indie music fan, they might actually be telling the truth.

Researchers at McMaster University’s Digital Music Lab have been delving into the downloading habits of music consumers since 2013. After analyzing data from over a billion song downloads, they’ve developed a unique insight into the world’s music consumption. Alongside other considerations, the researchers looked into the idea of ‘exclusivity’ – that is, the likelihood fans of one genre will have music of differing types in their libraries.

What they found is that Indie, Jazz and Folk listeners would most often have other genres in their playlist while Rap and Dance fans tended to be more exclusive. The number one ‘I-don’t-need-no-other-tunes’ posse, however, was shown to be fans of Pop music. Considering the same study also shows that Pop music has been kicking all other genres’ asses in the past few years, the more panic-prone among us may take this as a sign our country is heading for a future as a close-minded artistic wasteland. Optimistic guy I am, I’m just gonna assume Bruno Mars and Miley have been killing it.

Here’s the full list:

1. Indie
2. Jazz
3. Folk
4. Country
5. Classical
6. Rock
7. Metal
8. Rap
9. Dance
10. Pop

While the researchers require more research to get into the reasons behind the data, I’m going to hazard a few guesses (based solely on personal prejudice and having no scientific merit). I most definitely enjoy some indie, a bit of folk and can even dig a bit of jazz every now and then. If I listened to any of them exclusively, however, I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy/develop a disturbing involuntary twitch. Still, I find it odd that indie beat out the other two.

Theory: hipsters love indie. Hipsters also love being at the forefront of everything. Thus, a hipster’s music library will contain small samplings from nearly every genre so that, like the hot pizza they burned their tongue on, they can say they had it before it was cool. Boom. Q.E.D. You’re welcome, science.