The advent of downloads and streaming has made music tastes more homogeneous. With the discography of basically every artist ever at our finger tips, there’s almost no excuse for not exposing yourself to a diverse array of genres and styles.
Still, there’s a great degree of brand loyalty going on in the music world. As Tone Deaf previously reported, a Spotify study revealed which music genre has the most loyal fans among Aussie listeners, with Aussie country ranking the highest.
Now, a new study coming out of McMaster University’s Digital Music Lab has revealed which music fans are the most open-minded, as well as those who are the least. The researchers came to their conclusions after studying roughly a billion song downloads over the past two years.
One of several metrics studied during the project was “exclusivity”. That is, how likely a fan of a certain type of music is to also have other genres of music in his or her library. In other words, are metal fans monogamous or willing to experiment?
The McMaster study found that indie fans are in fact the most likely to listen to other genres, while fans of pop music are the least likely to branch out. Falling right in the middle are fans of country, classical music, and rock.
“Some genres are very exclusive,” professor Matthew Woolhouse, who headed the study, told Canada’s CBC News. “That says something about the type of person who likes that type of music. We think it relates to personality.”
“It has to do with more complex sociological reasons that we’re currently exploring,” Woolhouse explained. “We’re trying to get a handle on what features about a musical style make it more attractive to people who are exclusive.”
Check out the full list of genres explored in the study, ranked from most open-minded to least, below.
Most Open-Minded Music Fans
1. Indie
2. Jazz
3. Folk
4. Country
5. Classical
6. Rock
7. Metal
8. Rap
9. Dance
10. Pop
