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What are the 5 most popular items in each of the following categories among Americans aged 15 - 24: Pop Music Artists, Hip-Hop Music Artists, EDM Artists, Mobile Apps, Television Shows
Greetings! Thank you for your question about the 5 most popular items among Americans ages 15-24 in these categories: pop music, hip-hop music, EDM artists, mobile apps, and TV shows. The most useful sources I found to answer your question were Nielsen reports and studies that ranked app data. In brief, due to differences in the age demographic definitions of the research found vs. the requirements of this inquiry as well as a lack of publicly available data, I was unable to compile a list of THE MOST popular. However, I was able to compile a list of 5 examples in each category that are AMONG the most popular.
Among the most popular for teenagers and young adults--
Pop Music Artist: Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, The Beatles, Eminen, Beyonce
Hip-Hop Music Artist: Drake, Fetty Wap, Wiz Kahlifa, Omarion, R. Kelly
EDM Artist: Ryder & Deep Chills, Egzod, Sinego & Adara, The Chainsmokers & Halsey's, Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha, Vicetone & Grace Grundy
Mobile Apps: Instagram, Snapchat, FaceBook, Spotify, Twitter
Television Shows: The Walking Dead, The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, Empire, NFL Sunday Night Football
Below you will find a deep dive of my findings including methodology, assumptions made, and many more examples in addition to the ones mentioned above.
METHODOLOGY
We performed an exhaustive search through industry reports, reports from reputable polling companies such as Nielsen and Harris, industry websites, and reputable news media to look for the top items in each of the categories for this inquiry. We did not locate any reports with a breakdown of the age demographic 15-24 year-olds within these categories. Often statistical reports were broken down by generation, such as Millennial. Each report had a slightly definition of what ages are included within this generation, with the most common being 18-34. Some reports defined Millennials as ages 18-37 and ages 15-25. Other sources we found did break down their information according to these age categories: 13-19, 12-24, 18-49, and 13-32.
We paid close attention to the age of the data and used the most recent information available, which in almost all cases was from 2015 or 2016. Many of the industry reports, such as those from Nielsen, only make a portion of their data publicly available with the full reports only being available for purchase. Also, in some industries, such as EDM, there was no industry report available, but rather a dynamic, user-based report, such as the weekly song rankings that come from play-time on Spotify (one of the most popular apps in the age category of this inquiry). When no quantitative data was publicly available, we relied upon qualitative data such as a survey asking teens what their favorite apps are.
Because of the differences across reports regarding age categories vs. the category of this inquiry, the limits on what research is publicly available, and the need to incorporate qualitative data, it was impossible to create a definitive Top 5 list. However, we were able to compile a list of at least 5 examples in each category that are among the top (in terms of popularity) for this demographic.
The specific assumptions that were used for each category are detailed within the sections below.
GENERAL LISTENING TRENDS REGARDING MUSIC
"Boomers, Millennials, and The Music Experience" is a Portland State University Honor's Thesis that explores the music listening characteristics of Millennials. According to the paper, in general that this generation has eclectic taste ranging from metal rock to R&B to hip hop among others. It is a very social thing for many. About 1/2 of Millennials only listen to music as part of a social activity like a party or when they want to illicit a particular emotion, while the other 1/2 tend to listen to music all day. In addition they tend to have large music library available to stream as opposed to being tied into a particular genre or song.
POP MUSIC ARTISTS
Among the top pop music artists for 15-25 year olds are:
Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, The Beatles, Eminen, Beyonce
In 2015 YPulse asked 13-32 year-olds who their favorite music artists were. A portion of their results are publicly available, with the full report being available for sale. According to the text infographic, the most common answer was that they didn't have a favorite music artist. After that, the clear favorite was Taylor Swift. Here are some of the top artists identified:
Taylor Swift
Maroon 5
The Beatles
Eminem
Beyonce
Fall Out Boy
Linkin Park
#1 Beyonce's "Crazy in Love"
#2 R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)"
#3 Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"
#4 The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy"
#5 Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl"
This Top 25 list of Popular Songs for the Millennial generation was compiled from data on the US Billboard Hot 100 Charts. There are songs from many genres on this list. Here are the top 5:
#1 Mariah Cary & Boyz II Men's "One Sweet Day"
#2 Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"
#3 Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You"
#4 Elton John's "Candle in the Wind '97"
#5 Los Del Rio's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)"
Music Machinery explored the listening preferences of a 13 year-old vs. a 64-year-old through using demographic data on a popular music streaming app. All of the top artists for a 13-year-old are pop artists, while the list for 64 year-old is a mix of genres. They include One Direction, Bruno Mars, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Imagine Dragons, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Eminem, Jay-Z, David Guetta, Rihanna, Drake, Pink, Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, Lana Del Rey, Robin Thicke, and Avicii. Interestingly, there is consistently a 35% overlap rate between the top songs list for the younger and older listener. This report also details the most distinctive artist for each age group, meaning artists that only that age group is likely to listen to.
HIP-HOP MUSIC ARTISTS
Among the top hip-hop music artists for 15-25 year olds are:
Drake, Fetty Wap, Wiz Kahlifa, Omarion, R. Kelly
R. Kelly is added to this list based on the Spotify list in the above section. The reasons for the other 4 artists are detailed below.
According to Nielsen, the largest demographic of listeners of hip hop by age and gender are males ages 18-24. Also, Hispanics and African-American are more likely to be fans as compared to the general population. In addition, hip hop fans tend to be the most digital savvy of all music fans.
Drake is one of the top-rated hip-hop artists among Millennials (defined as ages 18-34). The most popular streamed hip hop albums for the first half of 2015 were:
#1 Drake's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late"
#2 Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen"
#3 Wiz Kahlifa's "See You Again"
#4 Omarion's "Post to Be"
Since such a large proportion of the listeners who streamed these songs are within the target demographic of this inquiry, this song list became the basis of the list compiled for you.
EDM ARTISTS
Among the top EDM artists for 15-25 year olds are:
Ryder & Deep Chills, Egzod, Sinego & Adara, The Chainsmokers & Halsey's, Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha, Vicetone & Grace Grundy
According to Nielsen, most (62%) of American Millennials (defined as ages 15-24) listen to EDM. The EDM marketing firm Frukt says, "If you're 15 to25 years old now, this is your rock n' roll." A Nielsen report says of Millennials, "EDM is their defining platform, a passionate channel bursting with contagious, spontaneous energy, and brands that can add tangible value to the experience have much to gain here." The article by Cardenas Marketing Network says that brands can connect with Millennials through EDM and this is particularly true of Hispanic Millennials.
If EDM really is the music of the Millenial generation, then it seems reasonable to conclude that top EDM artists in general will also be the top choices among 15-24 year-olds. EDM Charts tracks the top EDM songs on Spotify. Here are last week's top 5:
#1 Ryder & Deep Chills' "Fade Away"
#2 Egzod, Sinego & Adara's "Free"
#3 The Chainsmokers & Halsey's "Closer"
#4 Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha's "In the Name of Love"
#5 Vicetone & Grace Grundy's "Kaleidoscope Feat"
MOBILE APPS
Among the top mobile apps for 15-25 year olds are:
Instagram, Snapchat, FaceBook, Spotify, Twitter
Business of Apps' report looks at top apps by many categories. They defined the Millennial age group as ages 18-34 (as of Dec. 2015). Here are the top apps in terms of amount of time spent:
#1 Facebook
#2 Pandora
#3 YouTube
#4 Instagram
#5 Spotify
The study did not look at users less than 18 years old.
According to a report by Statista the following are the top 5 social media and networking sites used by teenagers and young adults (ages 12-24 as of Feb. 2016):
#1 Snapchat (72%)
#2 Facebook (68%)
#3 Instagram (66%)
#4 Twitter (36%)
#5 Kik (29%)
These sites are increasingly being visited via mobile devices with 93% of teens ages 15-17 now having mobile access. In fact, American teens and young adults (ages 16-24) spend most of their time (about 200 mins/day) online via a mobile device.
In 2016 Business Insider talked to teens (ages 13-19) across the U.S. about their favorite apps. They estimate that teens spend about 6 hours/day on their phone. Snapchat was identified as the top all overall. Other favorite apps included:
~Spotify was identified as the best music app and was listed as a top app by a lot of respondents.
~Instagram
~Twitter
The teens said that they were still using Facebook but that it wasn't their favorite app. Some reasons cited were because it's out of date and that their parents were their Facebook friends, so they couldn't be themselves.
These are apps that the teens identified as cool and that they thought adults probably didn't know about:
~After School, which allows high school students to post anonymously
~musical.ly, which is already in the top 20 in Apple's App Store. It lets you make music videos.
~Color Therapy. It's like adult coloring therapy on your phone.
~Wishbone. This viral teen phenomena offers two options are posted and users vote. "What kind of bangs?" "Which engagement ring?"
~Neko Atsume. It translates to "cat collecting". It's a game.
~Color Switch. A game.
#1 Instagram
#2 Twitter
#3 Facebook
#4 Snapchat
#5 Tumblr
TV SHOWS
Among the top TV show for 15-25 year olds are:
The Walking Dead, The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, Empire, NFL Sunday Night Football
According to a Harris poll the Top 3 shows for Millennials (defined as ages 18-37) were Walking Dead, Big Bang Theory, and NCIS.
A list of the Top 100 TV shows for the 2015-16 season found on IndieWire ranked the following as top shows for adults ages 18-49. This age category is pulled out separately because it is the dream demographic for television advertisers.
#1 The Walking Dead
#2 NBC's NFL Sunday Night Football
#3 Empire
#4 CBS' NFL Thursday Night Football
#5 The Big Bang Theory
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, 5 popular examples among those ages 15-24 within each of the categories (pop music, hip-hop music, EDM, mobile apps, and TV shows) are provided above. Due to limitations on publicly available data, the TOP 5 examples within each category were unable to be definitively identified.
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