More often than not, when I’m travelling, music makes time in transit A LOT quicker. Whether that be on a bus, mid-flight or even when sailing around a coastline, there’s a good chance I’ll have a backpacking playlist on at some point.
Now, if you’re anything like me there is a good chance you too have a backpacker playlist; something you can whack on as you travel, that takes you away from the stressful moments or provides a soundtrack to memorable.
So like my look at WFH playlists, I started thinking…what are the most popular songs and artists for backpackers and long term travellers?
To find out, I analysed [1] 710,820 songs across 3,479 Spotify playlists (that included the terms “Backpacking”, “Backpacker”, “Gap year”, “Travelling” and “Travel” in the playlist’s title) to see which songs and artists people are putting in their backpacker playlists and, in turn, what are most popular song and artist for people as they travel.
The Most Popular Songs In Backpacker Playlists (2020)
I don’t think it’s massive surprise most of the top 10 songs according to Backpacker playlists are soft/classic rock, the mellow and soft beats make them perfect for calming mid-transit nerves or relaxing at your destination.
The track most likely to feature on a backpackers playlist is Riptide by Vance Joy, followed by two George Ezra tracks – Budapest (2nd) and Shotgun (3rd).
Three of the 10 tracks come from the 70s and 80s, those being; the utter banger, Africa by TOTO (6th), Hotel California’s 2013 Remaster by The Eagles (7th) and, I’m loving this one, Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver (9th). Nothing quite a classic and, clearly, most backpackers and long term travellers agree with me.
The remainder of the top 10 tracks are; Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People (4th), Blinding Lights by The Weeknd (5th), Billie Eilish’s bad guy (8th) and Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men (10th).
10 Most Popular Songs On Backpacker Playlists
- Riptide – Vance Joy
- Budapest – George Ezra
- Shotgun – George Ezra
- Pumped Up Kicks – Foster The People
- Blinding Lights – The Weeknd
- Africa – TOTO
- Hotel California (2013 Remaster) – Eagles
- bad guy – Billie Eilish
- Take Me Home, Country Roads – John Denver
- Little Talks – Of Monsters and Men
Most Popular Bands And Artists With Backpackers
The individual songs people listen to as they travel are interesting enough on their own but they often show the most trending artists rather than the most popular. To see which artists are most popular among backpacker playlists, I ran a second analysis to see who appears in them travelling playlists the most.
My artist analysis discovered that not only does Vance Joy have the most popular song, but he is also the most likely artist to appear in a backpackers playlist.
In second place is Ed Sheeran, who though the sheer number of songs in the top 100 (5) pipped George Ezra to the silver medal. Ezra, despite having the second and 3rd most popular songs in backpacker playlists, hasn’t been able to overcome Sheeran’s production line of hits.
The 10 Most Popular Bands And Artists On Backpacker Playlists
- Vance Joy
- Ed Sheeran
- George Ezra
- The Chainsmokers
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Coldplay
- The Lumineers
- Of Monsters and Men
- Post Malone
- Billie Eilish
What do you think?
Do these artists and song reflect your playlists? Let me know in the comments below.
If you’re enjoying these Spotify analysis posts, what scenarios would you like me to do next?
Methodology:
All results are based on Spotify data correct as of 15th August 2020.
Most popular artists and songs were by using the Spotify Playlist Miner, which analyses Spotify playlists and shows the most popular 1000 by users/followers. The search terms analysed were:
- ‘Backpacking’ (766 Playlists & 96,004 songs)
- ‘Backpacker’ (233 Playlists & 41559 songs)
- ‘Gap year’ (330 Playlists & 39,173 songs)
- ‘Travelling’ (1000 Playlists & 244,687 songs)
- ‘Wanderlust Travel’ (151 Playlists & 22,145 songs)
- ‘Travel’ (999 Playlists & 267,252 songs)
(In all, 3,479 playlists and 710,820 songs were analysed)
Songs were given a score based on the number of times that have appeared in playlists and, once collated, a mean score for the songs and artists was then given. Full data available on request.
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