Music SuperStudy
COLEMAN RESEARCH’s WARREN KURTZMAN, JOHN BOYNE, and SAM MILKMAN presented the findings of CONTEMPORARY SUPERSTUDY 3, the latest version of the firm’s look at American musical preferences among the most popular recent songs in six formats, at the ALL ACCESS AUDIO SUMMIT 2021 THURSDAY (4/22).
BOYNE, comparing the last year’s and this year’s survey results to the movie “GROUNDHOG DAY,” revealed that ED SHEERAN’s “Shape of You” repeated as the top song (“our musical comfort food”), and six of the top 10 overall songs were repeats. The top 10 this year included: “Shape of You,” IMAGINE DRAGONS’ “Believer” (up from third last year), THE WEEKND’s “Blinding Lights,” SHAWN MENDES’ “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” (last year’s second place finisher), LEWIS CAPALDI’s “Someone You Loved” (again in fifth place), POST MALONE featuring 21 SAVAGE’s “Rockstar,” MAROON 5 featuring CARDI B’s “Girls Like You” (#10 last year), POST MALONE’s “Better Now,” SAM SMITH and NORMANI’s “Dancing With a Stranger,” and SHEERAN’s “Perfect” (last year’s ninth place song). POST MALONE repeated as the artist with the most songs in the top 100, and “Baby Shark” was again the last song on the chart.
The top genre represented among all tested songs was Hip Hop/R&B with 31%, followed by Country, Pop, Alternative, Latin, Dance/Electronic, and “other.” However, among the top 100, Pop overperformed, accounting for 40% of the chart.
Within formats, Hip Hop/R&B’s biggest song overall and with the format’s fans was “Rockstar.” Country’s biggest overall song was BEBE REXHA featuring FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE’s “Meant to Be,” but among the format’s fans, MORGAN WALLEN’s “Whiskey Glasses” was the leader. “Shape of You” was the biggest Pop performer. “Believer” topped the Alternative rankings.
For Latin, BLACK EYED PEAS, OZUNA and J. REY SOUL’s “Mamacita” was the overall leader but SECH, DADDY YANKEE, and J. BALVIN’s “Relación” was biggest among the format’s fans. Among Dance/Electronic songs, ZEDD featuring MAREN MORRIS’ “The Middle” was the overall topper, with THE CHAINSMOKERS featuring COLDPLAY’s “Something Just Like This” in second place, with the two songs trading positions among the format’s fans.
MILKMAN highlighted demographic differences, with women favoring Pop, Hip Hop/R&B, and Country, while men favored Pop and Hip Hop/R&B but were well behind women in liking Country. Younger listeners lean towards Hip Hop/R&B and Pop with little Country, and older listeners favoring Pop and Country and not Hip Hop/R&B. Liberals prefer Pop and Hip Hop/R&B, while Conservatives went for Pop and Country.
While song genre preferences were similar among streaming, AM/FM, smart speaker, and podcast listeners, streaming and podcast fans were less likely to listen to Country songs.
