I'm happy with James Blake, though I have no idea how they reached this conclusion. I would bet my life savings that if you polled New Yorkers, James Blake would be NOWHERE CLOSE to being the top artist.
The post where this came from is much more informative about the methods used to create this map: That being said, I'm not too surprised to see The Head and the Heart for Washington. I've yet to listen to them, but I have definitely heard a lot about them in the past few months.The Echo Nest director of developer platform Paul Lamere has determined the recording artist that is most “distinctive” to music fans in any state — that is to say, their favorite artists, relative to the people in other states — and presented his findings in the map below.
The title is a little misleading here - the artist listed for each state is the most 'distinctive' pick for that state, ie the one who sees the most relative increase in popularity in that state. James Blake isn't the most popular answer for a favorite artist among New Yorkers, but he's picked more often in New York than in other states.
Imagine Dragons, Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, and Haim would like to have a word with you.
I'm with you on most of those as well. I don't get the hype Imagine Dragons gets. My favorite version of any of their songs is the one with the Kendrick Lamar mash-up. Edit: Never mind, with you on all of them.
Eric Church for Kansas - I get that. That makes sense. For my home state of Arkansas - Wiz? Really? I'm baffled.