Music Tastes of a Nation: MySpace reveals Top 20

Minuit

Music Tastes of a Nation

MySpace reveals the Top 20 most popular artists across the North and South Islands to reveal which artists Kiwis are really listening to…

[EMBARGO: Sunday 6th September 2009] MySpace today unveiled New Zealand’s Top 20 most popular artists across the North and South Islands. Clocking up over 100,000 visits between them, the MySpace Top 20 lists reveal for the first time the most popular artist profiles in each isle over the last three months, to provide an organic barometer of the artists currently being sought out by Kiwis.

Unsigned and local artists were the toast of New Zealand listening last quarter; with 19 of the South Island’s MySpace Top 20 Kiwi acts, and 17 of the North Island’s list Kiwi artists. With only three international acts - Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson and The Darlings - appearing across both Islands’ lists, the MySpace Top 20s reveal a nation with distinctly patriotic music tastes and an alternative take on contemporary listening trends:

Sick Section

South Island MySpace Top 20

1 Patrik Fitzgerald

2 MedicTune

3 Legacy of Disorder

4 Jessica Denton

5 Minuit

6 Skatelly Kat Gang

7 Sand Fly Bay

8 Six60

9 Taylor Swift

10 Sick Section

11 Haylar

12 Tightlipped

13 Our Fallen

14 The Checks

15 Tim Finn

16 The Bats

17 Gin Wigmore

18 The Eastern Family

19 We the Night Sky

20 Chris Matthews & Robot Monkey Orchestra

Sick Section

North Island MySpace Top 20
1 Sick Section

2 Minuit

3 Midnight Youth

4 KIDS OF 88

5 Taylor Swift

6 Michael Jackson

7 Gin Wigmore

8 The Darlings

9 The Earlybirds

10 Shotgun Valley

11 MedicTune

12 Patrik Fitzgerald

13 The Checks

14 Svartalvheim

15 Frayden

16 Family Cactus

17 The Cherished Collective

18 A Kiss GoodBye

19 Clap Clap Riot

20 Computers Want Me Dead

Despite the dominance of independent and local acts in The MySpace Top 20 this quarter, local and international superstars including; Lady Gaga, Flight of the Chonchords, The Veronicas, Miley Cyrus, Paramore and Savage, peppered the Top 50 list of the same period.

“It’s great to see such a massive chunk of the MySpace Top 20 lists taken up by local artists,” said the NZ Music Commission’s Steve Newall “and even more impressive that they span such a wide range of genres and levels of exposure. There really is a staggering amount of great music of different kinds finding its way into New Zealanders’ ears”.
As Susan Carlton, Head of Business Development MySpace New Zealand explains; “A compilation of the artists that around half a million Kiwi fans are seeking out each month, these MySpace Top 20 lists from the last quarter provide a genuine indication of which artists are most popular now. As more Kiwi’s move online to discover and share music, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that measuring an artist’s popularity by album sales alone is defunct.”

Over the quarter, Kiwi MySpace users listened to over 35,000 hours worth of music on MySpace, a staggering playlist when you consider this would take more than 4 years to listen to. With over five million artists connecting with around 30 million fans on MySpace Music globally, music has been a primary bloodline of MySpace since its inception, offering established and emerging artists a free platform to showcase and promote their work.

This popularity is only set to grow following the launch of MySpace Music in New Zealand. Set to launch later this year, the newly created joint venture with the major, indie and unsigned artist communities, MySpace Music will revolutionise how Kiwis discover, buy and share their music online.

ends

© Scoop Media