15 February 2014

Does Your Musical Taste Influence Your Politics (or is it the other way around)?

Pandora now reveals your political leanings to advertisers based on your musical taste.

I kind of like that the Beatles and Johnny Cash are artists who bring us together (meaning Democrats and Republicans alike are fans) but what does it say about our country that so many of the bands whose appeal cuts across party lines are metal bands? Isn't that proof of a coming apocalypse? (Marilyn Manson appeals to Republicans and Democrats?)

Artists whose fans are most correlated to Republican
  • 1. Kenny Chesney
  • 2. George Strait
  • 3. Reba McEntire
  • 4. Tim McGraw
  • 5. Jason Aldean
  • 6. Blake Shelton
  • 7. Shania Twain
  • 8. Kelly Clarkson
  • 9. Pink Floyd[7]
  • 10. Elvis Presley
Artists whose fans are most correlated to Democrat
  • 1. Rihanna
  • 2. Jay-Z
  • 3. Madonna
  • 4. Lady Gaga
  • 5. Katy Perry
  • 6. Snoop Dogg
  • 7. Chris Brown
  • 8. Usher
  • 9. Eminem
  • 10. Bob Marley

Artists whose fans are hardest to predict for either Democrat or Republican
  • 1. The Beatles
  • 2. Marilyn Manson
  • 3. The Rolling Stones
  • 4. Johnny Cash
  • 5. Pantera
  • 6. Alice in Chains
  • 7. Paradise Lost
  • 8. Moonspell
  • 9. Fleetwood Mac
  • 10. Tiamat


One other interesting note. Democrats are harder to categorize. This is partly because they're more likely to listen to a wider variety of music. 

Here's the blog post about the relationships in the data.

http://notes.variogr.am/post/26869688460/how-well-does-music-predict-your-politics

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow- who would have thought Marilyn Manson would be the one to bring us all together?

~Thomas

Ron Davison said...

Thomas -
I think that before this report, only Marilyn Manson would have thought that.