Above: American west coast band Big Mountain has a huge fan base in Hawaii.—
WHAT’S on your iPod? For music fans in Honolulu, Hawaii, the choice of sound is reggae.
According to TIME Magazine, that is the finding of global news site Vocativ which did a survey of what music lovers were listening to across the United States.
The results were compiled for a Deep Web Guide to America’s Taste in Music.
According to the TIME article, Vocativ looked at the musical tastes of residents in major cities such as New York, Kansas City, Atlanta, Nashville and Los Angeles.
Hip hop and rap are the most popular in urban centres, while country and the blues get the nod in Nashville and Kansas City, respectively.
In Honolulu, however, people love jamming to reggae. Hawaii, like other Pacific islands, is one of the music’s most vibrant markets.
In fact, the love of Jamaican music inspired the widely popular genre, Jawaiian.
A number of reggae acts including Shaggy, Sean Paul, Junior Gong and Half Pint have performed in Honolulu in the last decade. But it is American west coast bands like Big Mountain and Rebelution that attract some of the biggest audiences there.
Homegrown bands such as Malino, The Green, Rebel Souljahz, Rootikal Riddim and Sashamon also help to keep the beat alive.
Last year, Hawaiian singer Bruno Mars, as part of his tribute to Bob Marley at the Grammy Awards held at the Staple Center in Los Angeles, performed a set with the reggae legend’s sons: Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley and Ziggy Marley.
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