CURIOSITIES

Artists with the saddest fans: a study reveals which ones are

Preply, an online platform dedicated to e-learning, conducted a study on the fan bases of bands and solo singers to find out the predominant emotion that characterises the audience, from sadness to anger to happiness and love. 

To conduct this research, Preply analysed over 200,000 posts and comments on forums and social networks using a dataset called 'Emotion'. The latter identified emotion-related words and phrases in the communities and the results then showed how frequently these words are linked to certain emotions. 

Here is Preply's list, which ranked the bands with the saddest fans.

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Preply's interesting study
Preply, an online platform dedicated to e-learning, conducted a study on the fan bases of bands and solo singers to find out the predominant emotion that characterises the audience, from sadness to anger to happiness and love. To conduct this research, Preply analysed over 200,000 posts and comments on forums and social networks using a dataset called 'Emotion'. The latter identified emotion-related words and phrases in the communities and the results then showed how frequently these words are linked to certain emotions. Here is Preply's list, which ranked the bands with the saddest fans.
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8. Avicii/John Mayer/My Chemical Romance
A trio opens the chart. Probably contributing to the feeling of sadness in Avicii's fans is the untimely suicide of the historic DJ, who throughout his career (even in some of his tracks), never hid his discomfort and difficulties. For My Chemical Romance, it is the artistic choices of the songs that count: although the band hates to be called 'emo', many feel that their songs are typical of this musical genre. The same applies to John Mayer, whose sound is often melancholic.
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7. SZA/Lil Nas X
In seventh position we find two artists from the new R&B and Hip Hop scene. SZA wrote the lyrics of her songs with the aim of expressing her emotions, touching on personal and intimate themes related to sexuality, abandonment and nostalgia. Lil Nas X also often includes personal experiences in his songs, telling of his own homosexuality and using his songs to defend the rights of all minorities.
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6. Madonna
There is also room for pop music in this ranking: despite the fact that she records often upbeat, rhythmic songs and has a unique drive, Madonna has a fanbase that online is not afraid to describe its emotional state even when the latter tends towards sadness.
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5. Halsey
Halsey's voice is very intense and in many songs (of which she is a songwriter), her vocal timbre itself contributes to an atmosphere of melancholy: this can lead the singer's fans to feel sadness when listening to her songs.
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4. Britney Spears
Britney Spears' personal and artistic life has been anything but easy between family lawsuits, addictions and problems with the law: although Britney's music is often lively, fans tend to associate her songs with the performer's difficult existence.
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3. Nirvana/Metallica
On the lowest step of the podium we find two bands for whom it is easy to imagine why they are in the charts. Both Nirvana and Metallica have many songs in their repertoire that deal with difficult topics and include a variety of complex, autobiographical personal experiences. Added to this is the tragic death of two key members of both bands, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) and Cliff Burton (Metallica).
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2. Linkin Park
Like Nirvana and Metallica, Linkin Park also dealt with many complicated aspects of life in their songs, prompted by the difficult youth of frontman Chester Bennington, who committed suicide in 2017. Chester's death also certainly affected the feelings of the fanbase, which still cannot come to terms with the death of the band's lead singer.
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1. Panic! At The Disco
Somewhat surprisingly, first place goes to Panic! At The Disco, a band that disbanded in January 2023 (although the only permanent member of the line-up was frontman Brendon Urie). As Preply explains, even though the band's sound is very upbeat, it is contrasted by lyrics that are often linked to sad moments that everyone can identify with: perhaps it is precisely this contrast between happy music and melancholic lyrics that contributes to a feeling of sadness in the fans.
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