Spotify Just Discovered That Heavy Metal Is More Popular Than Pop Music

This article by Vice.com states a pretty big claim. Though the data is shocking the way it has been presented, it seems to be a bit skewed for shock value. Vice did not take accessibility into account when making their claims among other things. A pop fan has a massive amount of vendors to get their fix. There are countless radio stations that play their music, yet metal has very few dedicated stations- thus pushing metal fans to look elsewhere to get their fix. A user on Reddit states- "Its not more popular, just more insular. Here's the blog that spotify published, with the country breakdown. Notice anything? It's always the most obscure country-specific genre with the most 'loyalty'. Australian Country has a more devoted listenership than Pop in Australia, French Reggae has more 'loyalty' than Rock in France. Is it more popular overall? No. Ditto for Metal here. Through the fog of the author's persecution complex they have misinterpreted some fairly straightforward numerical data." nodice182 Here is the article that has generated so much buzz in the online music community. Every diehard metalhead alive and breathing knows that A. heavy metal is the law, and B. other genres pale in comparison, but it's always nice to see some quantifiable data to that effect, outside of what you and your friends howl at one another during especially spirited bouts of Kreator worship. Spotify threw heshers a bone recently by releasing a slew of figures that detail by exactly how wide a margin heavy metal is ruling the streaming airwaves. From Portugal to the United States to (of course) Norway, metal holds down a spot in the top ten—and usually top five—most listened to genres in every country included in the study. Metal also takes the overall global genre loyalty crown, leaving pop to trail behind as a distant second and folk, country, and hip-hop to founder in the dust. As Mashable notes, Spotify calculated their date around sets of core bands for each genre, with metal's champions comprising Metallica, Slayer, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Sepultura, Pantera, Cradle of Filth and Anthrax. It's not exactly surprising to hear that a lot of people are using Spotify to listen to classic tunes from Slayer and Papa Het, but what is at least a little jarring to see how thoroughly flummoxed some folks are about it. Given metal fans' fierce loyalty to their chosen genre and propensity for making physical purchases, it makes perfect sense that they'd be spending the most time pressing replay on old Iron Maiden songs. As the label personnel interviewed in the Mashable piece noted, metal labels have been selling cassettes and vinyl for years, metal shirts and embroidered logo patches are de rigeur attire, metal festivals regularly draw fans from every corner of the globe, and there's still a multitude of metal print magazines and fanzines circulating in a world that's gone mostly digital. While fans of most other genres are drawn to shiny new artists, metal fandom is generational; new [...]

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