First! Before you start shouting at me because few of these bands are not metal bands by most people’s standards…or pretty much all people’s standards (you will soon see what I mean). Hear me out: I coded stuff and used tools to pull all this official data out from Spotify. So Spotify is the one who gave these bands the Genre:Metal. So send your hate mail to Spotify, haha. But feel free to leave comments and thoughts here.
So remember, I just forward stuff…just like Michael Scott:
And to show my frustration…may I just yell…”if Blink 182 is there, where is Sum 41!” and where is “Iron Maiden, Pantera, and Megadeth!”. Now that I got that out of the way, the explanation could just be that those are not in the top 50 in terms of popularity on Spotify just right now (when it comes to metal).
The best thing about this is that we see what people actually listen to right now. You know, many people rate Schindler’s List 5 stars and Adam Sandler’s movies 3 stars, but according to Netflix co-founder and former CEO Reed Hastings, data shows that people mostly consume/ watch Sandler’s movies. (My most watched movie of course really is Schindler’s List and other movies like it….)
Let’s check this out!
The 50 Most Popular Metal Bands on Spotify Right Now
Below I will give a more detailed explanation of Spotify’s Popularity Rating, but if you don’t care about that, just remember: the closer the number is to 100, the more popular the artist is right now. This data was pulled on December 30, 2023, so this is fresh from the oven!
| Band | Spotify’s Popularity Score | Main Genres | Listen to Them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linkin Park | 84 | Nu Metal/Alternative Rock | Listen to Linkin Park |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | 82 | Alternative Rock/Funk Rock/Funk Metal (Earlier stuff was funk metal, no question about it) | Listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers |
| Metallica | 80 | Heavy Metal/Thrash Metal | Listen to Metallica |
| System Of A Down | 78 | Nu Metal/Alternative Metal | Listen to System Of A Down |
| Guns N’ Roses | 78 | Hard Rock/Heavy Metal | Listen to Guns N’ Roses |
| Rammstein | 78 | Neue Deutsche Härte/Industrial Metal | Listen to Rammstein |
| Deftones | 77 | Alternative Metal/Nu Metal (early stuff) | Listen to Deftones |
| blink-182 | 77 | Pop Punk (I was shocked too but check “Just About Done”, a weird song, but Nu Metal’ish) | Listen to blink-182 |
| Foo Fighters | 77 | Alternative Rock/Heavy Metal (Some songs are metal-ish) | Listen to Foo Fighters |
| Bring Me The Horizon | 77 | Metalcore | Listen to Bring Me The Horizon |
| Slipknot | 76 | Heavy Metal/Nu Metal | Listen to Slipknot |
| Bon Jovi | 76 | Hard Rock/Glam Metal | Listen to Bon Jovi |
| Nickelback | 75 | Post-Grunge/Alternative Metal | Listen to Nickelback |
| The Offspring | 75 | Punk Rock (some have called the early stuff metal-inflected punk and their Smash album absolutely has metal influence) | Listen to The Offspring |
| Korn | 74 | Nu Metal | Listen to Korn |
| Avenged Sevenfold | 74 | Heavy Metal | Listen to Avenged Sevenfold |
| Three Days Grace | 73 | Hard Rock/Post-Grunge/Alternative Metal | Listen to Three Days Grace |
| Ghost | 73 | Hard Rock/Heavy Metal | Listen to Ghost |
| Limp Bizkit | 73 | Nu Metal | Listen to Limp Bizkit |
| Pearl Jam | 73 | Grunge/Alternative Rock (A ton of metal influence, check “Once” for example) | Listen to Pearl Jam |
| Sleep Token | 72 | Alternative Metal | Listen to Sleep Token |
| Five Finger Death Punch | 72 | Heavy Metal | Listen to Five Finger Death Punch |
| Disturbed | 72 | Heavy Metal | Listen to Disturbed |
| Bad Omens | 71 | Metalcore | Listen to Bad Omens |
| The Smashing Pumpkins | 71 | Alternative Rock (Has metal influences for sure) | Listen to The Smashing Pumpkins |
| Skillet | 71 | Christian Metal | Listen to Skillet |
| Black Sabbath | 71 | Heavy Metal | Listen to Black Sabbath |
| Evanescence | 71 | Alternative metal | Listen to Evanescence |
| Alice In Chains | 70 | Grunge, Alternative Metal | Listen to Alice In Chains |
| Falling In Reverse | 70 | Post-Hardcore, Metalcore | Listen to Falling In Reverse |
| Ozzy Osbourne | 70 | Heavy Metal | Listen to Ozzy Osbourne |
| Papa Roach | 70 | Alternative Metal | Listen to Papa Roach |
| Trans-Siberian Orchestra | 69 | Symphonic Metal | Listen to Trans-Siberian Orchestra |
| Breaking Benjamin | 69 | Hard Rock/Alternative Metal | Listen to Breaking Benjamin |
| 3 Doors Down | 69 | Post-Grunge (Some nu-metal vibes) | Listen to 3 Doors Down |
| Mötley Crüe | 69 | Heavy Metal, Glam Metal | Listen to Mötley Crüe |
| Rise Against | 69 | Melodic hardcore (Strong metal influences for sure) | Listen to Rise Against |
| Rage Against The Machine | 69 | Rap Metal/Funk Metal | Listen to Rage Against The Machine |
| Shinedown | 68 | Hard Rock/Alternative Metal | Listen to Shinedown |
| Creed | 68 | Post-Grunge/Alternative Metal | Listen to Creed |
| TOOL | 68 | Alternative Metal | Listen to TOOL |
| A Day To Remember | 68 | Metalcore | Listen to A Day To Remember |
| Jimi Hendrix | 68 | Rock (Yes, I know…) | Listen to Jimi Hendrix |
| Seether | 68 | Post-Grunge/Nu Metal | Listen to Seether |
| Motionless In White | 67 | Metalcore | Listen to Motionless In White |
| I Prevail | 67 | Post-Hardcore/Metalcore | Listen to I Prevail |
| Incubus | 67 | Alternative Rock/Alternative Metal | Listen to Incubus |
| Godsmack | 67 | Post-Grunge/Nu Metal | Listen to Godsmack |
| Rob Zombie | 66 | Industrial Metal | Listen to Rob Zombie |
| Hollywood Undead | 66 | Rap rock/Nu Metal | Listen to Hollywood Undead |
Spotify’s Popularity Score Explained
Spotify’s popularity rating (sometimes also called the Popularity Index) is a metric that represents the overall popularity of a track or an artist on Spotify. It’s important to understand several key points about this rating:
- Calculation: The popularity rating is calculated based on the total number of plays a track or artist has received and how recent those plays are. This means that newer tracks or artists who have recently gained a lot of attention may have a higher popularity rating than older tracks or artists with more total plays but fewer recent plays.
- Scale: The popularity rating is a value between 0 and 100, with 100 being the most popular. The scale is relative, meaning that a popularity rating of, say, 80 doesn’t represent a specific number of plays or streams, but rather indicates the track’s or artist’s popularity relative to other tracks or artists on Spotify.
- Dynamic: The rating is dynamic and changes frequently. It’s updated regularly to reflect current listening trends on Spotify. As a result, the popularity of a track or artist can fluctuate over time.
- Confidentiality of Exact Formula: The exact formula used by Spotify to calculate these ratings is not publicly disclosed. This is likely to prevent manipulation of the ratings and to maintain a level playing field for all artists and tracks on the platform.
- Use in Spotify’s Algorithms: Spotify uses popularity ratings, among other factors, to recommend music in features like “Discover Weekly” and “Radio”. This means that tracks with higher popularity ratings are more likely to be recommended to users.
- Not a Measure of Quality: It’s important to note that the popularity rating is a measure of how often tracks or artists are played on Spotify and does not necessarily reflect the quality or artistic value of the music.
- Impact on Artists and Industry: Popularity ratings can have a significant impact on artists, particularly emerging artists, as higher ratings can lead to increased visibility and opportunities within Spotify and the music industry at large.
In summary, Spotify’s popularity rating is a relative measure of how often a track or artist is played compared to others on the platform, taking into account the recency of those plays. It’s a dynamic metric that reflects current listening trends and behaviors on Spotify.
How I Put This List Together
Simple rundown:
- I used Spotify for Developers page to get access to the Spotify Developer Credentials and API.
- I used Visual Studio Code for writing and running Python code.
- Then I extracted the data and changed it to a cleaner format using ChatGPT.
It took a few hours, but it was pretty simple. I hope you enjoyed this list and if you found it cool, share it!
PS. I think I will create more articles like this, just out of pure curiosity about what people listen to right now…
Didn’t even remember how metal’ish The Offspring’s “Smash” album was…just listening to it…great stuff.
That Jimi Hendrix really got me……
I had to take a deep breath after that one…haha
Weird that Spotify classified him that way. As an influence he is sited across genres, but even though he influenced many metal guitarists, it is very hard to find him being very metal….anywhere!
True. A bug….?
I wonder if bands like Trans-Siberian Orchestra are there because they have song names including “Christmas”
That might have something to do with it…they still make good music tho!
I don’t know them, but did they put sleigh bells in to make it a Christmas record?
How to write a Christmas hit!
1) Write a hit
2) Add bells
Major fan of Incubus’ early stuff! S.C.I.E.N.C.E was/is an incredible album!
I have to check that out!
Ah! Jimi Hendrix… my fav metal guitarist! P.S.: Would be interesting to see a list of the top “rock” bands as well.
Find the fresh rock piece here: https://blog.guitaristnextdoor.com/most-popular-rock-bands-on-spotify/
Yeah, it seems hard to believe we are at a point where Iron Maiden doesn’t appear in that list. They pretty much ARE heavy metal. Nonetheless, we need a new album. I’ll always say that and I got into Maiden from Killers (yeah, I’m the site granddad!).
I’m not sure how narrow timeframe Spotify uses to calculate this score…couple of days, a week, a month… it could even be that Iron Maiden was not popular for a couple of days and that’s why when I pulled this, it was not featured in the top 50…have a peaceful weekend granddad!