Spotify playlist data reveals most popular driving songs
Everyone has an opinion on what playlists and artists to listen to on a road trip, sometimes it ends in an argument in the middle of the 4 hour drive to the destination.Surely there is a list of songs that the majority of people agree make the best driving songs. Over the years we have put together 27 road trip songs to kick start your summer as well as The 10 best driving related songs of the Millennial era, so there are no shortage of opinions and choices of great songs to listen to.
Curious to find this out for themselves, British motoring group Halfords analysed the data of Spotify playlists to reveal which songs and artists are the most listened to on the road.
The study involved analysing over 300,000 songs that included the words ‘car’, ‘driving’ and ‘road trip’ in the playlist’s title. The data never lies...
10 most listened to songs in the car
1. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. Don’t Stop Believin’ - Journey
3. Hotel California - Eagles
4. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
5. All Star - Smash Mouth
6. Hey, Soul Sister - Train
7. Africa - TOTO
8. Livin’ On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
9. Party In The U.S.A. - Miley Cyrus
10. Hey There Delilah - Plain White T’s
What this list tells us is that a lot of people do love the old classics and are very reluctant to update their road trip playlists to include any songs from the last decade.
‘Sweet Home Alabama’ come out on top as the most popular driving song. Released in 1974 by American Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, the platinum-selling song was made famous by various movies including ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Despicable Me’. It is also a favourite for karaoke participants so no doubt there are many sing-a-longs on road trips which include most of these top 10 songs.
10 most listened to artists in the car
1. Post Malone
2. Drake
3. Khalid
4. Queen
5. Ed Sheeran
6. Rihanna
7. Kanye West
8. The Beatles
9. Maroon 5
10. The Weeknd
When it comes to listening to your favourite artist in the car, there is a bit more of a variety in genres and decades of when they released their big hits.
Post Malone has taken top spot and his song ‘Circles’ which was released in 2019 and is the 34th most popular driving song according to the data on Spotify. While pop singer Rihanna is the only female to feature in the top 10 coming in 6th. Her top car songs include ‘Umbrella’, ‘FourFiveSeconds’ and ‘S&M’.
Related: Research confirms that listening to rock music makes you a worse driver
Related: Top five songs for belting out a tune behind the wheel with Rob Mills
Related: Could the drive-in be the future of concerts and festivals in Australia?
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