And the Top 25 Sub-Genres of Metal on Spotify Are…
Remember the Spotify report that came out a few months back showing that metal fans are the most loyal of all music fans? We’re not sure if it showed “loyalty” so much as the fact that metalheads are fixated on certain core artists in their genre of choice — which could also be interpreted as close-mindedness — but it was a fun study to look at nonetheless.
Now Spotify Insights, the same blog that published the above, has come out with another study about metal showing which sub-genres are the most popular on the streaming service. The results aren’t too surprising, with the more mainstream and radio-friendly sub-genres depressingly taking the top spots — although it’s a shock to see funk metal place at #6! surely Kevin Stewart-Panko’s “In Defense of Funk Metal” piece for MetalSucks sent Scat Opera streams soaring — but it’s still fun to see what kinds of metal people are listening to on the service. I’m wondering how much of this is a function of how popular these genres actually are and how much of it just has to do with the demographics that are more likely to use Spotify?
Either way, the layman descriptions of each sub-genre are worth the price of admission alone. For example:
1. Alternative Metal mixes the heavy guitars of metal with elements of alternative rock. Emerging in the early ’90s, alternative metal includes melodic vocals and unconventional, experimental sounds or song structures (example: Disturbed).
2. Nu Metal is a form of alternative metal combining groove metal and thrash metal, with elements of grunge, hardcore, hip hop, funk, and industrial. It’s a hybrid synthesizing many disparate elements, in other words — just about anything goes, so long as it’s modern metal that incorporates influence from other genres (example: Drowning Pool).
And so on and so forth. Things start to get interesting farther down the list. Read the full study here while trying not to get too upset about the fact that way more people are listening to Godsmack than Cattle Decapitation.
