Cleveland Rocks!

March 29, 2014 7:19 AM

"In a real ukulele-smasher, Honolulu claimed the top spot for both jazz and reggae, while Green Bay, Wisconsin, revealed an achy, breaky heart for country. For the Day-Glo spandex set, our data on EDM suggests you’ll find the highest concentration of like-minded people in Jacksonville, Florida."

A Deep Web Guide to America's Taste In Music.
posted by timsteil (40 comments total)

Indianapolis seems to rate high for Country and Christian. Sounds about right. Sadly.
And, based on my likes/dislikes, they suggest Reno would be a good place for me. I'm not sure what to think about that.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:37 AM on March 29, 2014

And, based on my likes/dislikes, they suggest Reno would be a good place for me. I'm not sure what to think about that.

Presumably we have similar tastes, at least on a very broad scale. Good thing there's the internet though -- no way I'm moving to Reno.
posted by Foosnark at 7:46 AM on March 29, 2014

These comparisons between personal preferences and cities will differ depending on the similarity measure used for the comparison. Use of the L² norm will penalize big differences in any particular factor; use of L¹ will be more tolerant of a few big disagreements so long as overall similarity predominates. Finally, the choice of L7 will tend to favor Los Angeles.
posted by tss at 7:53 AM on March 29, 2014 [6 favorites]

Where's the option for how much you like folk?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:54 AM on March 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

Another Reno candidate here. Huh.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:54 AM on March 29, 2014

It said I should move to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. My co-worker Omar is from there. Maybe I can stay at his house.
posted by jonmc at 7:58 AM on March 29, 2014

I got Hartford, CT. They seem to really dislike Christian/Gospel but love Blues.
posted by rocket88 at 8:09 AM on March 29, 2014 [4 favorites]

Actually, I suspected this and looking it up confirms: There is nothing Cleveland does less than rock.
posted by Sequence at 8:15 AM on March 29, 2014

I think Reno, NV is its default answer to everybody, and it just randomly generates another city for every sixth or tenth attempt to make it look like they put some effort into the analysis.
posted by ardgedee at 8:38 AM on March 29, 2014

It said I should move to Orlando. I'm not moving to Orlando because it's notoriously poorly planned!
posted by oceanjesse at 8:41 AM on March 29, 2014

Omaha! Surprisingly jazzy.
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:44 AM on March 29, 2014

That's their new tourism slogan, actually.
posted by jonmc at 8:48 AM on March 29, 2014 [3 favorites]

Providence, RI for me. Better pack my bags.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:19 AM on March 29, 2014

Austin. Hmm. Looks like I'm heading back home.
posted by holmesian at 9:29 AM on March 29, 2014

Austin. Hmm. Looks like I'm heading back home.

I got Austin too. That's cool; I did go to school there, although some of those genres were barely in existence back then.
posted by TedW at 9:35 AM on March 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

I wonder how they define "pop" music?

Beatles?

REM?

Bruno Mars?

Katy Perry?
posted by gribbly at 9:59 AM on March 29, 2014

For some reason Santa Barbara is #2 or #3 in several categories, including reggae, electronic, and pop. I wonder if that's a small sample size issue or what?
posted by cell divide at 10:44 AM on March 29, 2014

Yeah "Pop" and "Country" alone without specifying eras let alone further divisions is bad. And electronic? A bunch of EDM bros might ruin my IDM or Breakcore.

Apparently I'm Reno. I wanted to like Pop and Country more, but my sneaky suspicion was that they were referring to what is current and popular in those genres (i.e. NOT Johnny Cash/Hank III, etc... NOT Beatles, Eurythmics, etc...) Is Cars Rock or Pop?
posted by symbioid at 10:59 AM on March 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

My musical tastes most match . . . . Los Angeles?!?!?!
posted by erlking at 11:02 AM on March 29, 2014

Is it me or is Milwaukee the seemingly most musically egalitarian on there (that I've found so far)
posted by symbioid at 11:03 AM on March 29, 2014

And woah, the deep south for the R&B/Hip-Hop? LA, AR, AL, TN, MS? And I can confirm that Green Bay has a ton of shitty Rock stations (you know the kind, stuck in the 90s sound through whatever it evolved into today)
posted by symbioid at 11:09 AM on March 29, 2014

I'm guessing college students are skewing the Reggae download stats for smaller towns like Eugene.
posted by vespabelle at 11:17 AM on March 29, 2014

Honolulu for jazz makes no sense at all, unless people are downloading the music that is the hardest to find here. That, or the site classifies "jazz" as "everything else."
posted by kanewai at 11:22 AM on March 29, 2014

Lafayette, LA. Weird.
posted by town of cats at 11:34 AM on March 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

We analyzed location-based BitTorrent traffic and patterns among Twitter’s music fans to get a picture of America’s listening habits, broken down across 10 major music genres.

Bittorrent and twitter! Surely that covers all demographics.
posted by Poldo at 11:43 AM on March 29, 2014

Birmingham, AL here. I guess my love of Rock (whatever that means) hip-hop and slight nod to country (and I am talking old school country) puts me in the deep South. Not surprised at all.
posted by Benway at 11:44 AM on March 29, 2014

For some reason Santa Barbara is #2 or #3 in several categories, including reggae, electronic, and pop. I wonder if that's a small sample size issue or what?

And woah, the deep south for the R&B/Hip-Hop? LA, AR, AL, TN, MS?

These sound right to me, as did my choices. Interesting.
posted by bongo_x at 12:07 PM on March 29, 2014

I grew up in Northeastern Ohio, and was surprised to see that Cleveland apparently no longer rocks. It, along with Detroit, most definitely did in the 70s, when "disco sucks" became a rallying cry. It continued to rock when the region's economy collapsed, creating the Rust Belt and a dynamic, alienated punk/new wave/avant garde scene well into the 80s. I remember being confused when I went to college in the East, and confronted all of that Jackson Brown and Hot Tuna and David Bromberg... stuff I came to like, but that was a long stretch from Humble Pie Rockin' the Filmore.

Now an adult with kids in their twenties, I mostly just think how lucky I was to not have been killed, driving 50 miles in crappy cars packed with shaggy teenagers, all in various mind-altered states, to go see rock shows at the Agora.
posted by mondo dentro at 12:23 PM on March 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

I remember living in Cleveland in the 80s and being reminded every two minutes by WMMS Buzzard Radio (which my roommate had cranked up any time he was around) that Cleveland was the home of rock and roll.
posted by lagomorphius at 1:49 PM on March 29, 2014

So where do you go if you want to meet people who listen to stuff like Pan American? I'm honestly asking.

I have no friends
posted by Doleful Creature at 2:14 PM on March 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Billings, Montana? what is this i can't even
posted by scratch at 5:20 PM on March 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Now an adult with kids in their twenties, I mostly just think how lucky I was to not have been killed, driving 50 miles in crappy cars packed with shaggy teenagers, all in various mind-altered states, to go see rock shows at the Agora.

Judging from the ages of our kids, I'd say I'm 15-20 years younger than you, but this sentence describes my teenage years in Cleveland perfectly.
posted by jpe at 6:31 PM on March 29, 2014

I'm movin' to Reno!
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:20 PM on March 29, 2014

I submitted my preferences, the site says I should live right where I live, music-wise-speaking. So, lucky me.
posted by tgyg at 8:31 PM on March 29, 2014

Benway, I got Birmingham, too, but without liking hip-hop or giving a nod to country. Go figure.

The one that surprises me is Kansas City. I really thought blues and jazz would be bigger there than they are, and I never expected Christian music would be tops there. Wichita, KS, sure. But KC? Sad.
posted by bryon at 9:10 PM on March 29, 2014

Honestly, the only thing that surprised me about KC was how high dance/electronica rated, and that country didn't outrank rock. Christian being that high didn't surprise me at all. Sort of sad that Jazz is as low as it is, though.
posted by jferg at 9:15 PM on March 29, 2014

So where do you go if you want to meet people who listen to stuff like Pan American? I'm honestly asking.

I have no friends
posted by Doleful Creature at 6:14 AM on March 30 [+] [!]


Mayng, sometimes niche is just niche. Beijing here, and we finally got a Caspian show this month. How it be.

HARTFORD 4 LYFE
posted by saysthis at 2:28 AM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Did anyone else get Naples FL?
posted by Mister_A at 5:42 AM on March 30, 2014

It gave me Green Bay. Ugh. I'm an endless summer kind of guy.
posted by scottymac at 7:05 AM on March 30, 2014

I got Eugene, OR. This is rather interesting, as I was told by a friend that I should move there - while I was in high school, in 1977.
posted by MexicanYenta at 12:08 PM on March 30, 2014