The New York Times loves maps. At this point I’m sure we’re all familiar with their extensive election analyzing (we will never forget that meter that slowly moved away from Hillary). In addition to producing maps that make still me depressed, even looking at them 200 days later, the New York Times has now released new maps.
In the feature, “What Music Do Americans Love the Most? 50 Detailed Maps,” heat maps show where 50 of Billboard’s hottest artists are the most popular in the United States. Washington’s results were pretty interesting, and even slightly embarrassing!
Here’s how they produced the maps:
Of the artists on the Billboard Top 100 this spring, we looked at the 50 that were most watched on YouTube in the United States between January 2016 and April 2017. Each map shows relative popularity in different parts of the country. If one part of a map is lighter, it doesn’t mean people there weren’t watching the artist’s videos; it just means fans were more likely to listen to a variety of other artists.
First off, the heat maps of the two most popular Justins in music are strikingly reminiscent of the 2016 Presidential Election. Bieber’s map is almost exactly the same as Trump’s victory map, and Timberlake’s looks a whole lot like Hilary’s. I feel like that speaks for itself, but take what you want from it.
Overall, the maps show nothing too out of place, like the South loves Future and Chris Brown (both from Atlanta), college towns love The Chainsmokers and Coldplay, and that the West Coast loves pop stars like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga.
Except when it comes to Washington. Throughout most of the 50 maps, Washington never really lights up with the dark purple shade indicating that an artist is more popular, except for Twenty One Pilots.
Yep, we have apparently been caught.
Remember the pandemonium when TOP were announced as Sasquatch headliners? Eastern Washington apparently loves that shit.
Washington has also been caught with having an affinity for Maroon 5, Katy Perry, and The Weeknd over the past year and a half. Eastern Washington also has a propensity to watch Justin Bieber, Eminem, and Taylor Swift videos, whereas Western Washington enjoys artists like Bruno Mars, Big Sean, and Kendrick Lamar.
King County lights up dark purple for one band only: BTS, revealing the love for K-Pop, among other pop artists. And according to the feature where you can enter your zip code to get a personalized playlist of music that the area has been listening to, the entire playlist is Kendrick, J. Cole, Big Sean, Linkin Park, and Metallica for zip code 98122.
On the other hand, Washington tends to not watch as many DJ Khaled, Future, and Kevin Gates videos. It’s also pretty surprising how light the maps are for Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj, so maybe Washington has a higher concentration of TIDAL subscribers? Check out the maps here for yourself.