A new study has revealed the artists with the saddest, angriest and happiest fanbases.
The research, orchestrated by Preply, analysed over 200,000 popular posts and comments in Reddit fan forums of 92 popular bands and artists to find out how they were making their listeners feel.
By using a dataset called Emotion, the survey flagged various emotive words and phrases present in each community, with the results showing how often these words linked to certain emotions.
According to the study, the artist most likely to make their fans feel sadness is Panic! At The Disco, which isn't that surprising, considering they're one of the OG emo bands. As the research states: "While the music itself sounds upbeat and fun, the lyrics discuss sad moments everyone can relate to, such as a chapter in life coming to an end."
Ranking in the second spot is Linkin Park, which researchers note is most likely due to the common themes of mental health in their writing, noting: "That pain can resonate with people who struggle with those same problems."
Joint third are Nirvana and Metallica, the latter band's presence here confusing us the most, as personally we finding ourselves feeling more pumped than miserable when listening to the San Francisco metal giants. But hey, science.
With the next handful of artists coming from the pop genre, the last rock band to appear in the list, ranking 10th, is My Chemical Romance. Surely the emo overlords should be far higher on the sad list, no?
Other surprising results show that R&B music has a far greater effect on its listeners when it came to making them angry; a complete rejection of the stereotype that suggests that rock and metal is the most anger-inducing genre.
That said, Guns N' Roses and Metallica share sixth slot in 'artists most likely to make their fans feel angry', ranking below artists such as Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Kanye West.
When it came to happiness, Ed Sheeran and U2 were at the top of the board, with their music both containing "metaphors that connect fans to joyful, carefree moments in life make the songs particularly relatable."
For read the full study, check out Preply.
