All That Jazz … Nobody Is Listening To

In a survey by Statista Consumer Insights, jazz and blues came in among the five genres people listened to the least in 21 out of 21 countries. Even in the genres' birthplace, the United States, only 18 percent said they listened to jazz or blues - rank 7 out of 10. But the genres were even less popular around the globe at the time of the most recent survey in 2023 and 2024. Indians placed the genres last, despite a high 22 percent claiming to listen to jazz and blues at least occasionally. In Sweden, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, they ranked nine out of 10 for the most popular genres at between 13 percent and 19 percent saying the listened to them. Another U.S. genre, country, was in the bottom five in 16 out of 21 countries, making it on the whole less popular internationally than classical music.

Religious music ranked at the bottom for many countries, but there are also some places where the genre is thriving, namely Brazil and South Africa, where a third of people said they listen to this type of songs.

The survey also included two types of music specific to the English-speaking and German-speaking world: folk and schlager, the latter being a type of less innovative pop music. Being included in the United States and in the United Kingdom, folk fared extremely poorly, being the least listened-to and the second least listened-to, respectively. Schlager did somewhat better, being very unpopular in Switzerland, in rank 6 out of 10 in Austria and even coming in among the five most popular genres in Germany.

The most popular music styles in the survey were rock music, pop music, hip hop/R&B music and dance music, even though there are also regional differences to this. Not every nation has a big love for hip hop and related styles, with six nations placing the genre in the bottom half of listening preference. It was especially unpopular in Brazil and China. Dance music fared better overall, but also has its pockets of lower preference - namely the U.S., Canada and Japan, where ranked six out of 10 for the most popular genres.