Which American state has had the most number one songs?
Generally speaking, as someone who is equal parts a sports and music fan, I like the latter being the antidote to the former.
My tribalist instincts are allowed to flourish in the former, supporting teams to a point of absolute irrationality, allowing all of my behavioural sensibilities to fall away. Music, then, is a mind-expanding tonic, devoid of competition and a place where I can rightly indulge myself in curiosity. But what if that changed?
What if music fans were separated into teams, forced to support the artists of their region? Much like football, the North West of England would enjoy endless periods of success, with some of the greatest bands of all time hailing from that small concentrated area. But in America, it would be a much fairer playing field.
Famously, the two coasts were embroiled in a bitter competition during the heyday of 1990s hip-hop and the very idea of musical tribalism was proved ugly. But the essence of that idea, before it was manipulated into being something violent and fatal was ultimately entertaining. It brought the very best out of the Los Angeles and New York, as each of their burgeoning artists wanted to prove themselves as the next inline to hip-hop’s throne.
The music was hard to separate, for both coasts had their own artistic merits, and the case would undoubtedly be the same were you to move across to different genres. Throughout the 1970s, classic rock flourished in the streets of all America’s great cities and towns.
Sure, success eventually brought artists to the glamorous hills of Los Angeles, but it didn’t all start there. Iggy Pop thrived on the gritty streets of Detroit, streets he shared with the emerging artists of Motown. Nashville became a creative hub for the deep south, New York’s societal destitution gave way to one of the greatest punk scenes in history, while Seattle quietly resisted against all of this with its own grunge scene in the 1980s and 1990s.
Were each of the 50 states to franchise themselves – as I’m sure one money-hungry businessman has already tried to do – and create a leaderboard of musical teams, then it would always make for an interesting season. One whose fans could buy into, given the vast diversity across the country, and one that would be evenly fought out, given the widespread distribution of musical brilliance.
So, who has dominated the charts?
When it comes to music metrics, the charts are often viewed as the most definitive. But it seems as though my immorale idea to franchise American states hasn’t yet been shared by any statisticians, as there are no fundamental stats that go to prove which US state has garnered the most number one hits.
This is all the more reason for injecting musicianship as a metric for their respective rating. For the sheer number of artists who have gone on to achieve critical acclaim, it’s truly hard to look past New York State and California. For the former, Talking Heads, the Ramones, and Simon and Garfunkel proudly represent the state, while the latter has fellow chart toppers, The Beach Boys and Sly and the Family Stone to boast.
But as the nation’s creative hubs, most of these artists were formed there or simply migrated there in their career infancy. States outside of those, like Michigan, Tennessee and Louisiana, are proud music states that gave birth to some of music’s biggest artists: Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin.
