Settled Science
By Mitch Berg
Spotify put together of the top Fourth of July music in their playlists.
And some of the results are a little surprising:
Click to see full-size.
The heartland is, perhaps a little unsurprisingly, into Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”.
I was a little surprised to see Illinois go for “ROCK in the USA” by John Mellencamp – while Mellencamp’s native Indiana chose Greenwood over their rabid-blue favorite musical son.
A bit less surprising? California and Florida chose “America! F*** Yeah!”, from Team America: World Police.
The high-quality shock? West Virginia going with “American Girl” by Tom Petty. West Virginia – f*** yeah!
And while New Jersey went with Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”, I was gladdened to see New York State opt with “Fourth Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”, from Springsteen’s 1974 The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle album. Kudos, WV and NY!
But the one that opened my eyes? North Dakota, New Hampshire and Maine going with Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA”.
This struck me as odd. So I dug deeper.
And I found this map:
Click for full-size image.
You’ll note that these are three of the five states in the lower 48 where Spanish isn’t the second most popular language.
The inescapable conclusion?
Latinos hate Miley Cyrus.
July 2nd, 2015 at 6:41 am
I’m somewhat puzzled by state of Texas’s choice of Robert Earl Keen’s rendition of X’s Fourth of July. It’s not really a happy song that leaves you questioning what went down that night. Doesn’t seem fitting. And just how popular is alt-country, not quite mainstream or super star status Keen in Texas?
July 2nd, 2015 at 8:05 am
I’m puzzled too – I have to assume the ballot was very very split. Or perhaps that Keen has a Chinese hacking shop hitting Spotify for him.
But now I’m gonna crank “The Road Goes On Forever”.
July 2nd, 2015 at 9:04 am
Latinos hate Miley Cyrus? If that isn’t a reason for expanding legal immigration, I don’t know what is. And do we send all those Cyrus-loving Frenchies and Huns back to Quebec and Bavaria, then?
July 2nd, 2015 at 10:20 am
Let’s make a deal with Mexico. We’ll take all your undesirables if you take Miley Cyrus and the gals from “The View.”
July 2nd, 2015 at 12:54 pm
Stink, that’s called “casus belli”. Let’s not fight another Mexican war!