Buh - whu?!

[shipperx]

From HuffPo:

Pandora Can Predict How You Vote

Listen to Bob Marley on Pandora recently? Then Pandora assumes you're a Democrat.

Using an algorithm influenced by election results and the musical preferences of individual users, Pandora will introduce a new advertising service next week that enables political organizations to target listeners based on its sense of their political leanings, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Mary J. Blige and Bob Marley listeners should expect to hear Democratic advertisements, while those who jam out to Yanni and Dolly Parton would be best targeted by Republican campaigns. Bruce Springsteen and Jay Z listeners could go either way.

Specific genres can also give insight into users' political leanings. Country, Gospel and New Age listeners lean toward Republicans, while fans of jazz, reggae, R&B and electronic music are more commonly found in counties favoring Democrats, the company said.

Jack Krawczyk, Pandora's director of product management, told The Wall Street Journal he believes Pandora's predictions are between 75 percent and 80 percent accurate. Y'all know there are plenty of Brad Paisley fans rootin' for Hillary in 2016.

For more on Pandora and political ads, head over to WSJ.com.

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ME:

So, I wonder what a playlist of Cary Brothers, Kings of Leon, A Perfect Circle, Lifehouse, Porcupine Tree, Staind, Steven Wilson, Imagine Dragons, The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons, Three Days Grace,  One Republic, Sick Puppies, Goyte, The Civil Wars, Airborne Toxic Event, Bear Lake, Puscifer, Alternate Routes, Theory of a Deadman, Trapt,  Lana Del Ray,  and Pink,  indicates...?

(I'm guessing some sort of bipolar disorder as part are relentlessly depressing, the other relentlessly upbeat while the rest are either wholeheartedly sappy or entirely cynical (with Puscifer and A Perfect Circle being downright blasphemous on occasion).

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Specific genres can also give insight into users' political leanings. Country, Gospel and New Age listeners lean toward Republicans, while fans of jazz, reggae, R&B and electronic music are more commonly found in counties favoring Democrats

Oh please! Petzi Sis listens to New Age and she's a total Democrat. And Gospel? There aren't that many black Republicans out there.

What a crock.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

I'd say Pink gives it away. I don't think this is too far off, but I know A LOT of Dolly Parton fans that lean v. v. left.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Pink, huh. :)

I would've thought it might be A Perfect Circle with lyrics like:

Pay no mind to the rebel. Pay no mind to the rabble. Head down, go to sleep to the rhythem of the war drums. Pay no mind to what other voices say. They don't care like I do. Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils {...} Just stay with me, safe and ignorant. Go back to sleep. {...} I'll be the one to protect you from your enemies and your choices, son (are one in the same) I must isolate you. Isolate and save you from yourself. The boogiemen are coming. The boogiemen are coming. Put your head down and go to sleep to the rhythem of the war drums. Stay with me, safe and ignorant. I'll be the other to protect you from the Other Ones. The 'evil' ones. Go back to sleep to the rhythem of the war drums..."

Or

"And not to pull your halo down around neck and tug you off your cloud, but I'm more than just a little bit curious how you're planning to go about making your amends to the dead..."

But almost certainly this song:

F--- your God. He did this. Took all you had and left you this way. Still you pray, never stray, never taste of the fruit, and never thought to question "Why?" {...} Oh so many ways for me to show you how your dogma has abandoned you. {...} Talk to Jesus Christ, ask if he knows the reasons why he 'did it all for you'. {...} It's not like you killed someone. It's not like you drove a hateful spear into his side. Praise the one who left you broken down and paralyzed. He 'did it all for you...'

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

I guess we fall into the percentile that are just going to be annoyed by irritating political advertisements.

[sp23.livejournal.com]

You're shitting me. I would rather rip my toenails out than listen to Yanni, and I am *not* a Democrat! This is beyond fucking stupid.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's probably accurate for each parties extremes. Thing is though, they'd probably vote for said parties whether they heard ads or not.

The middle, which makes up the majority of the vote (though Repubs don't seem to realize this), can't be nailed down so easily. I suppose it's little different than anything else, though. If you listen to a country radio station, I'd think you'd hear more Republican ads, but that could be due to the location of the market than content.

[owenthurman.livejournal.com]

Actually, reliable partisan Democrats have poor turnout rates for primaries and off-year elections; they vote mostly in presidential elections. Republicans vote more steadily. I think it's because Democrats skew young and Republicans skew old. That hasn't always been the case but it's clear in the last two decades of data.

Also, cultural correlates don't often correlate with extreme partisanship. Extreme partisanship usually has underlying specific motivations like ideology or financial interest that can overcome cultural cues. For example, black Republicans and gun collecting Democrats don't get that way by cultural drift; they have some reason to go against type. It's the casual partisans that are easy to pick out with demographic and consumer data.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

In my own experience, the "Nashville Pop" listeners tend to be the right-wing sorts (Toby Keith, etc.), while alt-country and old country listeners lean left (me and my fellow real country listeners).

Of course, it doesn't say much for just how weird my general selection of music IS.... (I just downloaded Peter Frampton AND Lady Gaga.)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I do think it's difficult to make blanket assumptions based on music choices. On the other hand, there probably is a bit of truth in demographic markets.

And in the midst of all my alt_rock, I have a fair number of songs downloaded from the show Nashville. :)

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and amidst my excellent alt-country and alt-rock, I have most of the first three seasons of Glee....