At just 9 years old, Taylor Swift was already en route to become an actor in New York City. By age 12, a computer repairman taught her how to play the guitar, which ultimately sent her and her family to Nashville. You probably know how the rest of the story goes; after some initial country music touring, she eventually became the Taylor Swift we know today.
But where did she actually come from? No, it actually wasn’t Nashville. Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, a modest southern Pennsylvanian town with fewer than 100,000 people, now a place that can lay claim to arguably the most popular singer in the world.
Which got us wondering: where do the biggest music acts in America come from? Maybe there’s something in the water in Reading, PA? Can we trace famous genres and artists to other small towns? What are the patterns?
Well, we explored a wealth of data and charts from Spotify and singer biographies to see where the music we all listen to really all comes from.
Key Findings:
- Hip-Hop/Rap is the top streaming genre
- Hip Hop/Rap leads by both number of artists and total Spotify streams, with names like Future, 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert, and Cardi B.
- NYC produces the most superstar artists
- 718, 212, 917, and 347 show up more often than any others: Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan.
- Atlanta’s area codes top total stream counts
- 770, 404, 678, and 470 collectively represent the highest combined streams, with artists like Future, Playboi Carti, and Lil Baby
- Pop and Indie artists thrive outside major cities
- Taylor Swift (Reading, PA), Billie Eilish (Highland Park, LA), and Clairo (Carlisle, MA) show that stars can come from smaller towns and suburbs.
- Legacy area codes still producing
- 213 (Los Angeles), 305 (Miami), and 212 (Manhattan) are still tied to artists with massive cultural influence
What Genres Are People Listening to the Most? The Top Genres on Spotify by Stream Count
First thing’s first: before we source famous musicians, we think it helps to see what genre of music is being streamed the most in the first place.
- Hip-Hop/Rap (1.17T)
- Pop (870B)
- Rock (429B)
- R&B (287B)
- Indie (272B)
- Country (182B)
- “Other” (123B)
- Electronic (82B)
Coming in hot and ranking first, rap music is by far the most streamed genre by Spotify tag, with 1,179,312,153,335 total streams to date. Yes, if you’re not sure how to read that number, that’s 1.17 TRILLION streams!
Trailing “close” behind is pop music, with a cool 870 billion listens to date, followed by rock, with 429 billion.
Are you surprised by the landscape? And before anyone erupts into debate over their favorite chameleon-esque artist, just remember that we are letting Spotify arbitrate how each song is classified. (Sorry, Beck.)
The Top 10 Streamed Individual Artists
- Taylor Swift (Reading, Pennsylvania)
- 101,775,204,381 streams
- Ariana Grande (Boca Raton, Florida)
- 53,554,493,075 streams
- Eminem (St. Joseph, Missouri)
- 49,929,090,900 streams
- Billie Eilish (Highland Park/Los Angeles, CA)
- 47,087,225,732 streams
- Kanye West (Atlanta, GA)
- 46,187,177,918 streams
- Post Malone (Syracuse, NY)
- 44,768,793,234 streams
- Travis Scott (Houston, TX)
- 38,646,296,241 streams
- Bruno Mars (Honolulu, HI)
- 36,228,194,813 streams
- Kendrick Lamar (Compton, CA)
- 36,202,132,938 streams
- Imagine Dragons – Dan Reynolds (Las Vegas, NV)
- 34,979,258,714 streams
The top individual performer is Miss Taylor Swift herself, with almost twice as many streams as the next closest, Ariana Grande! We’re going to go out on a limb and say that Reading, PA might not have made the top 10 without her help. (But keep at it, Reading musicians!)
It’s interesting to see other smaller places made the top 10, such as St. Joseph, Missouri, thanks to Eminem — yes, he may have profiled himself as a Detroit legend in his movie 8 Mile, but he hails from a much smaller Missouri town. Highland Park is another smaller location just outside of Los Angeles, famous for both its tacos and, now, Billie Elish.
And of course, as he will proudly remind you, the legendary Kendrick Lamar is, in fact, from Compton. Type your city in the chart above to see if any top artist is from your location!
Note: For bands, we opted for the hometown of the lead singer — not because we like to push stereotypes that the face of the band is all that matters, but because it’s simpler to visualize!
Where Are They Coming From? The Top 50 Origin Area Codes
What’s in the water in [insert location here]? Well, when you search which origin area codes are responsible for birthing the most celebrities, here’s what we find.
Despite some strong showings from smaller areas, it’s still the bigger metropolitan areas that reign supreme. In order, it’s Los Angeles (213), Manhattan, New York (212), Atlanta (470), Chicago (872), and Brooklyn, New York (718) that make up the top five area codes of the most streamed artists on Spotify.
Top States
This trend is generally reflected at the state level, too. Looking at the origin area codes of the top streamed artists by their state, here’s what it looks like:
Top 5 States by # of Birthed Artists
- California
- New York
- Georgia
- Texas
- Florida
Not every state is represented, but even smaller density states like North Dakota and Oregon have been contributing to the culture stage at the highest level. Touch the graph above to see how many of the top streamed artists come from your home state.
Top Area Codes by Their Number of Spotify Streams
Finally, it’s fun to know not only which places musicians are coming from, but which cities are getting repped by the most by number of streams?
In other words, these stats are reminiscent of a popularity contest based on how many listens a song gets, and where the artist is from.
Put this way, Atlanta is your number one city in the country for streams. It’s a group effort, thanks to artists like Usher, Outkast (both Big Boi and Andre 3000), Janelle Monae, Alan Jackson, Ludacris, and the most streamed of all, Kanye West. (Yes, despite being far more famous for his time in Chicago… we’ll just pretend that’s what Kanye is most famous for.)
Atlanta tops usual suspects Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Compton, in that order. It’s worth noting that Taylor Swift’s fame is so massive, that she places Reading, PA into the top 10 virtually single-handedly!
Methodology:
We analyzed the 426 top-streamed artists using lifetime Spotify stream data from ChartMasters up to June 2025.
Each artist was matched to their U.S. birthplace, and we assigned them a single area code based on ZIP Codes, neighborhoods, or the nearest populous city area when exact information wasn’t available.
To keep things consistent, we gave each artist only one area code, then totaled all streams by their assigned area code to find the most musically influential regions.
Illustrations by Chalzea Xu
