Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Survey says...

There’s always a recent study that’s been conducted somewhere by a panel of independent panelists. For instance, everyday BBC Breakfast is filled with new information on what causes this & that, heart disease & obesity. Or what we think of the post office or a change in length of the school day, or even a little humour like what we think of selleotape (ok the last one was lie).

Well the latest study I’ve read about sheds some interesting light on the concentration of subcultures throughout the UK. Through compiling sales figures from HMV branches, ‘musos’ over at Uncut magazine have conducted a study into the musical tastes of different regions across the UK. They’ve learnt that Goth & heavy metal music is most popular in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield & Nottingham, where as Hip-Hop & Grime are major flavours of London.

So does this reflect fashion tastes & identity? In other words does this mean that every other person in these northern cities is dressed in black to the max? Or perhaps the reason there’s so many rival gangs in London is because of the popularity of Hip-Hop & Grime, and its street life themes?

I’m not one who likes to base wild accusations of identity on music taste, but this does provide some interesting findings into how two exemplars of popular culture merge, as well as demonstrating a location’s social history.

One of the study’s most interesting findings is that people in the north listen to more beats per minute than in the south. So does this mean southerners are all downbeat & reflective?

We do like to create information, don’t we?

1 comment:

Gill said...

as a northerener who is a bit long in the tooth I have to confess that I don't have a clue what Grime is! Rock on Rammstein!!