Red vs. Blue States: Key Takeaways From Pandora’s Political Data Crunch
Pandora crunched the data between red and blue states' favorite genres, and we have some key takeaways for election night.
Below are some key takeaways we learned from a data set provided to Billboard by Internet radio giant Pandora, which split the states between Democratic and Republican (blue and red), and then listed each state’s favorite genre stations through the month of September. Whoever you’re supporting, remember to go vote today!
Red states don’t love country as much as you think they do
Out of 24 red states, eight picked country as their favorite genre. That’s a relatively surprising one in three.
No blue states prefer country
That’s right, no states identified by Pandora as primarily Democratic prefer country music. The closest parallel would be Wisconsin’s love of “jock jams,” which we assume includes “Cotton Eye Joe.”
Surprise? Utah really likes show tunes!
Viewers of Big Love won’t be surprised by the state of Utah’s love of wholesome, family-oriented music from the the history of Broadway. (Mormons are 60 percent of the state’s population).
Blue states love regional music
Of the 26 states identified as primarily Democratic, 42 percent had a regional style of music — dancehall from Jamaica, Norteno, Hawaiian — as their favorite. Who knew that Floridians love Cuban music? Okay, everyone — but did you know that Connecticut loves dancehall?
… but that doesn’t explain why Alaska and Washington state love Hawaiian music so much
We’re going to assume it’s because Olympia, Wash., and Bettles, Alaska, have 600 tiki bars each. (Not verified.)
Folks in Wyoming are jamming out big time to dubstep
Is it that they’re predominantly Republican and so pre-emptively celebrating their predicted win at the polls? Or maybe it has something to do with this kid:
Kentucky and West Virginia are outlaws
Or rather, the homes of Appalachian moonshinin’ really, really love their outlaw country.
New York’s love of dancehall is the largest geographical distance between a genre’s home and the state that loves it
While everyone knows Crown Heights loves its dancehall — what about the Finger Lakes? It’s 1,713 miles from Kingston to Albany. (Wait, did we just accidentally title a dancehall/country song?)
Oregon is the only state of any political affiliation that likes comedy more than a musical style
Oregonians prefer to commute to the sounds of “today’s comedy” over more traditional choices (like Nevada’s preference for “lowrider oldies”).
Texas love Tejano, Illinois loves Chicago blues, Maryland loves Baltimore club music, the Carolinas love Carolina beach music, Hawaii loves Hawaiian, Michigan loves Motown and Louisiana loves Cajun and zydeco
Yeah, these aren’t super shocking. (And no, we have no idea what “Carolina beach music” is.)
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