Metal was the most disproportionately searched music genre in Alaska over a 12-month period, according to a new state-level analysis of Google Trends data, placing the state in an 11-state bloc where heavy music led all categories.
SeatPick, a ticket search platform, examined state-level interest in 18 genres for the 12 months ending August 11, 2026. The categories included pop, country, hip hop, rock, metal, R&B (rhythm and blues), soul, jazz, punk, reggae, EDM (electronic dance music), Latin, indie, folk, gospel, blues, bluegrass and classical music.
National genre leaders
Pop led in 13 states, including California, Washington, Texas and Arizona, the largest single-genre bloc in the study. Metal followed with the top position in 11 states: Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Maine and New Hampshire among them.
- Pop: 13 states
- Metal: 11 states
- Soul: 5 states, including Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Illinois
- Country: 4 states: Tennessee, West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota
- Indie: 3 states: Colorado, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
- Latin and R&B: 2 states each
Eleven other genres, including jazz, blues, gospel, punk, reggae, bluegrass, folk, hip hop, rock, EDM and classical, led in at least one state. Arkansas indexed highest for rock, while Vermont led for classical music. The metal results were spread across central, northern and remote states, rather than only industrial cities or established heavy music scenes. SeatPick published an interactive map of the state-level results.
How the data was measured
The study did not measure total listening, record sales, concert attendance or raw search counts. Google Trends scores show where a term attracts unusually strong interest relative to other locations. SeatPick measured each genre separately and assigned every state the genre for which it indexed highest.
That means metal did not necessarily generate more searches in Alaska than pop did. Alaskans searched for metal more intensely relative to the rest of the United States than they did for the other genres studied. The result is a map of regional musical affinity, not a definitive ranking of what every resident is streaming.
What it means for touring and promotion
National streaming totals tend to favor the same large genres and artists across markets. Relative search interest can reveal pockets of demand that disappear inside those national averages.
For example, a metal band considering a northern routing strategy, an indie act buying regional ads, or a promoter testing an unfamiliar market could use this data to identify where concentrated interest in a genre might support attendance and attention.
Search activity cannot guarantee ticket sales, but it can identify places where a genre occupies more cultural space than conventional wisdom suggests.
