Your Favorite City's Musical Taste Sucks

February 2, 2010 12:17 PM

In Manchester, LadyGaGa pwns, but in New York Radiohead has her slightly beat. Does Cleveland still rock? Not so much, but Bursa, Turkey definitely does. International musical dick-waving at My City vs. Your City

Data from last.fm

posted by spicynuts (60 comments total)

Bump of Chicken is HUGE in Kobe, Japan.
posted by Skygazer at 12:41 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Take that, Saskatoon!
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 12:42 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Just like a tour schedule, Canada ends at Halifax!
posted by futureisunwritten at 12:45 PM on February 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Austin is significantly more like NYC (67%) than Houston (20%). I'm not surprised by this.
posted by immlass at 12:46 PM on February 2, 2010

Everyone listens to the Beatles more than London. Thats surprising!
posted by vacapinta at 12:50 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, god knows all I ever hear in New Orleans is Radiohead and Animal Collective. Well, Lady Gaga sure, but ... I take it all the black neighborhoods weren't surveyed, exactly.
posted by raysmj at 12:55 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

St. Louis, the closest city close to me, doesn't even have data.
posted by schyler523 at 1:03 PM on February 2, 2010

I'm singlehandedly responsible for Cleveland's Lady Gaga rankings, FYI. ;)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 1:04 PM on February 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

You do realize that means I'll have to shoot you.
posted by jonmc at 1:04 PM on February 2, 2010

You do realize that means I'll have to shoot you.

Dude, she lives in Cleveland. That should be punishment enough.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:08 PM on February 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

Portland, the largest city in my state, doesn't have data.

I bet it would be all Propagandhi and Paul Baribeau.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:09 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

There's nothing for Wyoming because the only music we listen to is the cows lulling us to sleep.

Moooooo!
posted by elder18 at 1:11 PM on February 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Lots of bands I've never heard of, makes me feel old. I will go home tonight, listen to Buddy Holly, and sob into a bowl of rice krispies.
posted by marxchivist at 1:15 PM on February 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

Before I look at Calgary I'm going to guess a hefty dose of that band I like to call Three Doors Down There's A Theory of a Dead Staind Nickelback Man with 11 Fingers.
posted by jimmythefish at 1:18 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I like to think that Calgary's high dosage of Yeah Yeah Yeahs is all me. I dig that last.fm.
posted by jimmythefish at 1:21 PM on February 2, 2010

Guys, if you don't scrobble, you don't get a voice in the survey. You have no one to blame but yourselves.

That said, I tend to listen to songs while driving, and I commute a total of 1 hr a day, so those count a lot. And I had The Fame Monster on repeat for the past two weeks, so GaGa haters may need to pick a bone with me.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:22 PM on February 2, 2010

Lady GaGa, wins in JAX... which makes my heart sad...

It's damn good to see Radiohead, Weezer, and Deathcab fo Cutie in the top five.

There is hope, afterall.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 1:23 PM on February 2, 2010

Your city sucks.
posted by fixedgear at 1:24 PM on February 2, 2010

I just tried it for St. Louis, the region where my family has been thinking about moving from the Northeast. I'd heard that there'd be some culture shock, but, wow. Nothing at all on the list. Not even Ke$ha and Britney. Cultural void.

Please tell me it ain't so, St. Louis Mefites.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:25 PM on February 2, 2010

Your city sucks consumes popular music.

etc
posted by Burhanistan at 1:38 PM on February 2, 2010

The main thing I take away from this is that Radiohead should run for, like, President(s) of the World.
posted by chalkbored at 1:55 PM on February 2, 2010

The French love some Air and Serge Gainsbourg. Once again proving that they are sexier than the rest of the world combined.

I'm disappointed Gothenburg doesn't listen to its own bands. Hey, you guys have Jens Lekman, The Knife, Air France, Jose Gonzalez, Sally Shapiro, jj, Tough Alliance, etc. etc. Any of which is better than the Black Eyed Peas!
posted by naju at 1:56 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I can't listen to music on the computer I'm using, but I'm looking forward to hearing some of these bands I've never heard of who are really popular in Japan and Poland and Russia. I'll probably think they're awful, but maybe I'll come across a sleeper. The lead singer of Hey (big in Szczecin, Poland) has cool hair and glasses, so that's something.
posted by painquale at 2:03 PM on February 2, 2010

Hey guys, what if the UN held a concert where each nation had their favorite band play? And then they agreed to do crazy mashups?

...Sorry. That's just the afterglow of the Lady Gaga-Elton John conjoined piano Grammy™ act talking.
posted by mccarty.tim at 2:09 PM on February 2, 2010

Lady Gaga scoring high in New York!!??
Its official, Washington DC is the new NYC.
posted by 1charm1 at 2:23 PM on February 2, 2010

Please tell me it ain't so, St. Louis Mefites.

Given that it's last.fm, this should probably be People With Broadband In My City vs. People With Broadband In Your City, with all the skewing of demographics that would go along with that. Fret not.

Looking at my old town, apparently as many people in Baltimore are listening to Death Cab for Cutie and Vampire Weekend as Jay-Z, while no one is listening to Rod Lee or Scottie B.

[Insert joke here about The Wire, Barksdale crew listening to Jay-Z, Prop Joe liking Death Cab and Marlo swooning over the new Vampire Weekend.]
posted by el_lupino at 2:29 PM on February 2, 2010

Given that it's last.fm, this should probably be People With Broadband In My City vs. People With Broadband In Your City, with all the skewing of demographics that would go along with that. Fret not.

With the additional all-important demographic skew: people who use last.fm.
posted by kmz at 2:36 PM on February 2, 2010

Well, Sheffield's not there either, which is a disappoint. But I am glad to discover that Liverpool and Manchester match 81%, though they probably won't be.
posted by Sova at 2:37 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Portland, the largest city in my state, doesn't have data.

Weird, it worked for me (shows 39% between Portland, OR and LA here.) Maybe they just fixed it?
posted by floam at 3:08 PM on February 2, 2010

Toronto likes Metric. What a shock. Though it was cool that time they played the parking lot across the street from my office.
posted by GuyZero at 3:08 PM on February 2, 2010

I was promised dick-waving
posted by longsleeves at 3:09 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Portland OR listens to a lot of Coldplay
posted by angrycat at 3:13 PM on February 2, 2010

I was promised dick-waving

Ok.
posted by Burhanistan at 3:18 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

People who aren't aware how stupid the word "scrobble" sounds in my city versus people who aren't aware how stupid the word "scrobble" sounds in your city.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:43 PM on February 2, 2010

This confirms what I already knew - MIAMI SUCKS. I *DESPISE* Lady Gaga and everyone else that popular here. I should be living in San Francisco.
posted by mike3k at 3:49 PM on February 2, 2010

Dick's waving:

Here

Here
posted by spicynuts at 3:51 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

oh no, it sounds like mefi is falling out of love with gaga.

I thought she was great at the grammys.
posted by empath at 4:05 PM on February 2, 2010

This would be more interesting if they somehow filtered out all the stuff that's popular all over (like gaga).
posted by empath at 4:07 PM on February 2, 2010

The turkey list looks interesting -- a lot of high pitched male singers (radiohead, muse, placebo).
posted by empath at 4:09 PM on February 2, 2010

DID U GUYS WISH GAGA WOULD HAVE GROWN 50 ft WHEN SHE LOST AND SWALLOWED TALOR SWIFT TOO OR WAS THAT JUST ME
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:20 PM on February 2, 2010 [8 favorites]

yr city's a sucker. my city's a creep.
posted by battleshipkropotkin at 4:31 PM on February 2, 2010

DID U GUYS WISH GAGA WOULD HAVE GROWN 50 ft WHEN SHE LOST AND SWALLOWED TALOR SWIFT TOO OR WAS THAT JUST ME

Honestly, who the fuck is even going to know who taylor swift is in a year. I couldn't name one song.
posted by empath at 4:34 PM on February 2, 2010

Taylor Swift is hot in China, though. According to this site.
posted by painquale at 4:56 PM on February 2, 2010

Eh she's tall

I ain't mad at er.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:22 PM on February 2, 2010

Just who is this "Lady GaGa" I keep hearing about?

/lawn, get off of
posted by telstar at 5:44 PM on February 2, 2010

I have no idea what Taylor Swift is about apart from the fact that she looks exactly like all the plastic girls at my university. I can't say I've heard a single song by her and known it was her.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:55 PM on February 2, 2010

DID U GUYS WISH GAGA WOULD HAVE GROWN 50 ft WHEN SHE LOST AND SWALLOWED TALOR SWIFT TOO OR WAS THAT JUST ME

NO I WANT A 50 FOOT KANYE TOO AND THEY BOTH EAT HER
posted by fleetmouse at 6:08 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Before Kanye's outburst hit every media outlet in existence, Taylor Swift was better known as, "You know, that blonde teenager who looks like a full-sized Bratz doll with a guitar who's always on CMT when you're flipping past it?/Oh, you mean that girl with the video where she's supposed to be unattractive just because she's wearing large 80s-style eyeglasses which, ironically, are ironically fashionable among people way cooler than her?/Yeah, probably."

She totally owes that crazy asshole a huge favour.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:43 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

To be honest, I was kind of disappointed by the Gaga act at the Grammy™s (stupid official spelling). It was too on the nose. Usually, the actual meaning is a bit harder to get at, giving me a tasty plate of beans to overthink.

But still, it was fun to watch, and had some funny in-jokes for the fans ("She has her own pogo stick!"). If I had to give it a letter grade, a solid B.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:50 PM on February 2, 2010

I just tried it for St. Louis, the region where my family has been thinking about moving from the Northeast. I'd heard that there'd be some culture shock, but, wow. Nothing at all on the list. Not even Ke$ha and Britney. Cultural void.

Please tell me it ain't so, St. Louis Mefites. -- mccarty.tim

As for St. Louis, its music scene is surprisingly robust, but yeah Wash U would probably severely screw with the rankings if they did it and I wouldn't be surprised to find Lady Gaga, Girl Talk, etc. on the list.

However, the general St. Louis community tends to have awesome local music and listen to some cool bands as well. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the music scene is pretty good.

So, it ain't so, we like other kinds of music here also non-mainstream. We also play it too...

Oh yeah I've started calling myself a St. Louisian...man that's weird.
posted by lizarrd at 6:59 PM on February 2, 2010

Wake me when everybody uses last.fm, and then I'll complain about or cheer on my city for its musical taste or lack thereof.
posted by Spatch at 7:10 PM on February 2, 2010

> Dick's waving

This is an AWESOME band name.
posted by Decimask at 7:54 PM on February 2, 2010

Portland OR listens to a lot of Coldplay

Some well organized people, who like to pull off pranks and have access to people all over the place could really game these metrix. I mean how great would it be if Captain Beefheart or the Fall or (insert band here), suddenly go to number one in Paris, NYC, London, Tokyo, ROme, Athens, Melbourne, Moscow, Buenos Aries.

All it would take is a little dedicated scrobbling, but it would be worth it for the joke factor.

Right? I mean right? No??

Who's with me!!




*Crickets*
posted by Skygazer at 8:16 PM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Honestly, who the fuck is even going to know who taylor swift is in a year.

She's already been around for four. It's quite possible you're not the target demographic for everything.
posted by Cyrano at 8:18 PM on February 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

Radiohead and Vampire Weekend are evidently #1 and #2 both in San Francisco and Nashville, which is mildly annoying.
posted by blucevalo at 8:40 PM on February 2, 2010

Honestly, who the fuck is even going to know who taylor swift is in a year.

I'm completely not into the Taylor Swift genre, but I took a listen after reading a Rolling Stone interview last year. I have to say, Fearless is a remarkably good pop album. And, it's not about sitting on dicks or doing drugs - just largely about being yourself through high school, and loving your family. Seriously. There's only one passing God reference, too.

I can't honestly see anything wrong with it. I'd be incredibly happy to let my daughter listen to it if I had one. I don't understand the Taylor Swift hate.
posted by jimmythefish at 5:52 AM on February 3, 2010

Dude, she lives in Cleveland. That should be punishment enough.

Favorited for truth, Sys Rq. Favorited for truth.

NO ONE good plays here anymore. When I was younger, EVERYONE played Cleveland. It was awesome. Now we're lucky if good bands transit our airspace. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, my tuchis.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 12:21 PM on February 3, 2010

I don't understand the Taylor Swift hate.

It's not hate; it's indifference. Her music is just so bland. She's like a watered-down Avril Lavigne, which is saying something. She's practically homeopathic.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:46 PM on February 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

She's practically homeopathic.

Well done Sys Rq. I can't wait to use that. You don't mind if I give it a test drive?:

Bob: Have you talked to "Mr. blah blah" yet?

John: Yeah, guy's so stupid, he's practically homeopathic.


Lovely. Nice feel. Good impact. handles well with a nice distribution of gravitas and levity. Not overly snarked.

Excellent!



*Files term way in word arsenal somewhere in ever shrinking brain.*
posted by Skygazer at 11:52 AM on February 4, 2010

Yeah, guy's so stupid, he's practically homeopathic.

I really don't think I can approve such loose usage. Sorry.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:06 PM on February 4, 2010