A Music Map of England - The Most Popular Artists in Each English County
A Music Map of England - The Most Popular Artists in Each English County
Beatlemania, Bowie, Britpop. The list of music artists emanating from England is expansive – sprawling across genres, trends, and musical phenomena that have become synonymous with English culture. In celebration of England’s storied history of world-famous or pioneering musicians, we decided to chart the diversity and breadth of England’s music scene in 2022 – looking into which musicians have stood the test of time, where the new kids on the block are rising from, and ultimately, which English artists people are currently listening to the most!
We analysed monthly listener numbers from Spotify across June 2022 for 1,113 English artists, with the musicians sorted into their county of origin, to reveal the most popular throughout the month. The most-streamed artists from each county have then been mapped, and though – understandably – Pop music features prominently, the 46 counties analysed feature artists across 24 distinct musical genres.
The Most Represented Genres
Pop wins the prize of best represented genre across English counties by monthly listeners. In June 2022, 10 English counties’ most listened to artist was a Pop act! Pop is followed by Rock (5 counties) and Folk Pop (4 counties) as the best represented genres.
The five best-represented genres on the map are:
Genre Leaderboard | Number of County 'Wins' |
|---|---|
| Pop | 10 |
| Rock | 5 |
| Folk Pop | 4 |
| Indie Rock | 3 |
| Trip Hop | 2 |
The North is a musical powerhouse
With phenomena such as Beatlemania and Britpop originating from England’s North West, it may be no surprise that the North continues to produce renowned musical talent. The two most listened to English artists in June 2022 were Ed Sheeran (83,510,485 monthly listeners) and Harry Styles (74,912,286) – both hail from the North, with Sheeran born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and Styles growing up in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire. Amassing more than 150,000,000 monthly listeners in June combined, the two modern pop singers win a place on the map alongside legendary Northern artists such as the Beatles.
Few singular regions have such a long and competitive history of music legends as Greater Manchester – home of bands such as Joy Division and The Smiths, as well as notable music scenes such as Madchester.
But despite the long list of stars from the county, The Bee Gees are the Greater Manchester act with the most monthly listeners on Spotify – they’re also the oldest act on the map. Not only have they stood the test of time, but they’ve also fended off competition from subsequent acts such as Oasis and the Stone Roses.
Battle of the Londoners
London is a hotbed for musical talent, and with more than 350 bands and artists analysed in our research originating from the capital, competition for the top spot is fierce!
Synonymous with London, and Brixton in particular, David Bowie’s catalogue of classics still managed to pull in over 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify more than six years after his passing. Impressive though the numbers may be, Bowie only makes it to 19th in the London rankings.
The fight at the top is close. Despite Adele releasing her album 30 to much fanfare in November 2021, her 46,018,151 monthly listeners in June aren’t enough to land a podium place. She’s pipped to the post by Elton John’s 47,703,969 monthly listeners, with less than 1.7 million making the difference between 4th and 3rd.
But the more recent popstar Dua Lipa comfortably takes the top spot and lands her name on the map – her total of 73,430,339 monthly listeners makes her London’s most listened to artists and puts her more than 17 million ahead of her closest local rivals, Coldplay!
The most - and least - listened-to counties
Despite the successes, the North is also home to the county where the fewest streams would land your name on the map. Carlisle-born Nicki French, most known for her 1995 cover of Total Eclipse of the Heart, is the Cumbrian artist with the most monthly listeners (185,420).
Counties that had fewer native artists or artists in more niche genres could see their county music “champion” land on the map with a relatively low number of monthly listeners in comparison to other counties. We see this in the bottom ten counties in terms of the most listened-to artists’ monthly listeners. Just one Pop act falls in this bottom ten, and none of the bottom ranked counties have genres in common.
County | Top Streamed Artist | Monthly Listeners (June 2022) | Rank | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cumbria | Nicki French | 185,420 | 46 | Pop |
| Dorset | Electric Wizard | 212,785 | 45 | Doom Metal |
| Warwickshire | Spiritualized | 377,396 | 44 | Space Rock |
| Durham | Sneaker Pimps | 479,651 | 43 | Trip Rock |
| Shropshire | T'Pau | 515,467 | 42 | Pop Rock |
| Gloucestershire | EMF | 758,990 | 41 | Alternative Rock |
| Northumberland | Jade Bird | 825,537 | 40 | Folk Pop |
| Berkshire | Slowdive | 1,305,150 | 39 | Rock |
| Cornwall | Aphex Twin | 1,598,092 | 38 | Ambient |
Conversely, Pop itself features in five of the ten counties where their top-ranked musician achieved the highest number of monthly listeners in June 2022 and dominates the top three!
County | Top Streamed Artist | Monthly Listeners (June 2022) | Rank | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Yorkshire | Ed Sheeran | 83,510,485 | 1 | Pop |
| Cheshire | Harry Styles | 74,912,286 | 2 | Pop |
| Greater London | Dua Lipa | 73,430,339 | 3 | Pop |
| Oxfordshire | Glass Animals | 36,708,265 | 4 | Indie Rock |
| Kent | Kate Bush | 28,449,609 | 5 | Art Pop |
| South Yorkshire | Arctic Monkeys | 26,502,124 | 6 | Indie Rock |
| Merseyside | The Beatles | 26,237,586 | 7 | Rock |
| Northamptonshire | Alan Walker | 25,714,058 | 8 | Electro House |
| Herefordshire | Ellie Goulding | 24,933,929 | 9 | Pop |
| North Yorkshire | James Arthur | 24,415,493 | 10 | Pop |
The map also features some more contemporary artists that have managed to eclipse older acts on streaming services. Sitting as the fourth most-listened to in June 2022, Oxfordshire’s most streamed artist is the band Glass Animals, whose 2020 song Heat Waves went viral on social media, bringing the band above critically acclaimed Oxfordshire natives Radiohead on the ranking.
Who’s the most listened to artist from your county? Regardless of whether it’s a musician that’s been under your radar until now – or you’ve been one of their fans from the start, many of the acts on our map might make for a nice little soundtrack to go alongside a few of our online bingo games!
About our research
We compiled a list of artists and bands pulled from Wikipedia and sorted these into ceremonial counties.
Data on each artist’s monthly listeners was pulled from search on Spotify.The genre of each artist was then taken from Chosic.
Criteria for an artist’s inclusion in the research was being listed as an artist or band from England, and also having a profile on Spotify. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland are not covered in this research due to lack of complete and corresponding data. Number of monthly listeners taken from Spotify in June 2022 – Spotify defines this metric as unique listeners who play an artist’s music during a 28-day period.
Monthly listeners have been taken as a gauge of current popularity of an artist – as opposed to lifetime sales, chart records, or other measures of a musician’s historic success. Rutland and the City of London not tracked in the research due to insufficient data for these counties.
Please note, any brands, businesses or celebrities mentioned in this piece are purely for the purpose of storytelling and are not affiliated with Jackpotjoy.