It ain’t often that a metal band decides to take a break from their creative, and in this case – historical – lives to engage with a scientific study of the masses, but Sabaton ran a study this past month that looked at the most searched for music genres online. And guess what? Rock is ranked at #1.
The specific research method Sabaton used was through Google’s ‘Keyword Planner,’ which allowed them to track and analyse the search volume data in the UK for multiple genres of music across an entire calendar year, and their findings showed that both rock and metal make the top 5 most searched.
The UK’s top ten favourite music genres range, but there’s nearly 20,000 more searches per month for the first most popular genre and the fourth. You can find the full list below.
Total Monthly Searches
- Rock – 44,986
- Electronic/Dance – 38,037
- Pop – 27,670
- R&B/Soul – 25,790
- Metal – 24,484
- Classical – 23,468
- Country – 18,403
- Reggae/Ska –13,008
- Indie/Alternative – 11,790
- Hip Hop/Rap – 5,701
2025 was a pretty large year for alternative music – from Turnstile, Knocked Loose, Spiritbox, and SCOWL performances on late-night television shows, to Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne‘s ‘Back To The Beginning,’ to record attendance numbers at rock and metal festivals, to Deftones, Sleep Token, and BABYMETAL breaking Billboard records… rock and metal permeated the mainstream in a way it hasn’t in decades.
So, the statistics shown in the research reflect what was beginning to feel like a rock renaissance – quantifiable data from a full year of search tracking that shows that rock and metal are indeed more popular than they’ve been in a long time, but rock is currently leading the charge.
Pär Sundström, the bassist, co-founder, and manager of Sabaton, was happy with the findings, saying: “It’s fantastic to see both rock and metal ranking so highly in these search results. The UK has always been a stronghold for rock music, with its rich history of producing legendary bands that shaped the sound of modern music.
“The fact that metal ranks in the top five is particularly meaningful. Metal has always had this remarkable ability to build passionate communities around it, even without the same level of mainstream exposure that other genres receive.
“Rock music’s enduring popularity in the UK isn’t surprising when you consider its deep roots in British culture, from the British Invasion of the 1960s to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These movements influenced UK music and transformed global music culture.”
The research also showed that there were quite a few very undersearched genres, with rock searched 43,000 more times a month than instrumentals. You can check out the five least searched for genres below, with all research credited to Sabaton.
The UK’s least searched for music genres
- Instrumental – 1,760
- Opera – 2,302
- Gospel/Christian – 2,454
- World Music – 2,767
- Soundtracks – 4,205
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