Top 25 Metal Sub-Genres On SPOTIFY Revealed

August 5, 2015

In April, Spotifyrevealed that metal fans are the most loyal music fans, leading the Spotify Insights team to raise the follow-up question: which metal sub-genre is the most popular? Spotify analyzed their music library and determined that out of 91 different metal genres, Alternative Metal reigns supreme, followed closely by Nu Metal, Hard Rock, Groove Metal and Rap Metal.

Top 5 metal genres, according to Spotify:

* Alternative Metal mixes the heavy guitars of metal with elements of alternative rock. Emerging in the early '90s, alternative metal includes melodic vocals and unconventional, experimental sounds or song structures (example: DISTURBED).

* Nu Metal is a form of alternative metal combining groove metal and thrash metal, with elements of grunge, hardcore, hip-hop, funk, and industrial. It's a hybrid synthesizing many disparate elements. In other words — just about anything goes, so long as it's modern metal that incorporates influence from other genres (example: DROWNING POOL).

* Hard Rock uses distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often pianos or keyboards to give an extra edge to traditional rock. It has roots in the mid-'60s and influences from garage, blues, and psychedelic rock (example: TED NUGENT).

* Groove Metal is a slowed-down version of thrash metal. It has an intense sound but is played at mid-tempo (example: DEVILDRIVER).

* Rap Metal fuses the vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with those of heavy metal and hard rock (example: LINKIN PARK).

The complete top 25 and additional details on research methodology can be found on the Spotify Insights blog.

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