How’s this for pomp and circumstance? Deftones, ‘Tallica and Slipknot are topping metal kids’ graduation playlists this year, per a recent study.
A new report from education resource k12 analyzed the data on a bunch of grad-related Spotify playlists to find out teens’ listening habits as they bid adieu to high school — with researchers combing the streaming platform for playlists tagged with buzz words likes “graduation,” “grad party” and “class of 2025.”
While the exact methodology is unclear, it’s also noted that k12 reached out to 277 new or recent high school graduates, 13 percent of which from the outgoing class of 2025, and 430 parents of new/recent grads, 36 percent of which with kids in this year’s graduating class.
After talking to teens and scanning 207,000 playlists within those constraints, they discovered that Taylor Swift’s “You’re On Your Own Kid” popped up the most. When it came to the top artist in their seven-genre breakdown, the major players were: Taylor Swift (pop), Drake (rap/hip-hop), Queen (rock), David Guetta (EDM), Morgan Wallen (country) and Deftones (metal).
It wasn’t revealed which grad-friendly Deftones songs were making those playlists, but we’re going to take a stab at Ohms’ “Ceremony” making at least a few of ‘em, and perhaps “My Own Summer (Shove It).”
With heavy music, in particular, it was also noted that Metallica were the second most popular metal band, while Slipknot came in third. The rock category went retro and shaped up around Queen, the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac.
A more parent-specific Q about what bands reminded them of their own graduation yielded a few fond memories of rock acts Green Day, Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana.
You can find out more about k12’s study over here.