We checked which US state searches each of 70 well-known musicians most over the past year, and where that artist's birth state ranks. 7 rank No. 1 at home (Dolly Parton, Tyler Childers, Loretta Lynn, Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Lil Wayne, Darius Rucker). 24 rank in the top 5 and 36 in the top 10 of 50 states, against about 7 and 14 you would expect by chance. The median home-state rank is 10. Country and Southern artists show the strongest hometown pull. Pop stars born in big states (Taylor Swift in Pennsylvania, rank 12; Beyoncé in Texas, 16; Demi Lovato in New Mexico, 50) do not.
Home-state rank for each artist (US, past 12 months; 1 = searched most in their birth state)
| Artist | Birth state | Home-state rank (of 50) | Home-state index | Top state (index) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dolly Parton | Tennessee | 1 | 100 | Tennessee (100) |
| Tyler Childers | Kentucky | 1 | 100 | Kentucky (100) |
| Loretta Lynn | Kentucky | 1 | 100 | Kentucky (100) |
| Garth Brooks | Oklahoma | 1 | 100 | Oklahoma (100) |
| Carrie Underwood | Oklahoma | 1 | 100 | Oklahoma (100) |
| Lil Wayne | Louisiana | 1 | 100 | Louisiana (100) |
| Darius Rucker | South Carolina | 1 | 100 | South Carolina (100) |
| Bruce Springsteen | New Jersey | 2 | 96 | Vermont (100) |
| Jay-Z | New York | 2 | 91 | Vermont (97) |
| John Denver | New Mexico | 2 | 50 | Colorado (100) |
| Lady Gaga | New York | 3 | 97 | South Dakota (100) |
| Kid Rock | Michigan | 3 | 86 | West Virginia (100) |
| Bob Seger | Michigan | 3 | 82 | Connecticut (100) |
| Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) | Wisconsin | 3 | 81 | Minnesota (100) |
| Elvis Presley | Mississippi | 3 | 79 | Oklahoma (100) |
| Chappell Roan | Missouri | 3 | 75 | West Virginia (100) |
| George Strait | Texas | 3 | 68 | Arkansas (100) |
| Jason Aldean | Georgia | 3 | 65 | Montana (100) |
| Louis Armstrong | Louisiana | 3 | 36 | Montana (100) |
| Donna Summer | Massachusetts | 4 | 82 | Wyoming (100) |
| Blake Shelton | Oklahoma | 4 | 72 | Wyoming (100) |
| Miley Cyrus | Tennessee | 4 | 67 | Arizona (100) |
| Morgan Wallen | Tennessee | 4 | 56 | South Carolina (100) |
| Glen Campbell | Arkansas | 5 | 59 | Hawaii (100) |
| Chris Stapleton | Kentucky | 7 | 76 | Wyoming (100) |
| Jimmy Buffett | Mississippi | 7 | 67 | Alaska (100) |
| Madonna | Michigan | 7 | 57 | Maine (100) |
| Reba Mcentire | Oklahoma | 7 | 46 | West Virginia (100) |
| Justin Timberlake | Tennessee | 8 | 71 | New Mexico (100) |
| James Brown | South Carolina | 8 | 52 | Louisiana (100) |
| Tori Amos | North Carolina | 8 | 50 | Vermont (100) |
| Selena Gomez | Texas | 9 | 57 | Wyoming (100) |
| James Taylor | Massachusetts | 10 | 62 | New Hampshire (100) |
| Bon Jovi | New Jersey | 10 | 57 | Wyoming (100) |
| Whitney Houston | New Jersey | 10 | 52 | Minnesota (100) |
| Kenny Chesney | Tennessee | 10 | 24 | Arkansas (100) |
| Macklemore | Washington | 11 | 60 | Wyoming (100) |
| Kurt Cobain | Washington | 11 | 50 | Rhode Island (100) |
| Luke Combs | North Carolina | 11 | 47 | Iowa (100) |
| Jimi Hendrix | Washington | 11 | 37 | North Dakota (100) |
| P!nk | Pennsylvania | 11 | 9 | Alaska (100) |
| Michael Jackson | Indiana | 12 | 61 | Louisiana (100) |
| Taylor Swift | Pennsylvania | 12 | 58 | Maine (100) |
| Hank Williams | Alabama | 12 | 39 | Wyoming (100) |
| Billy Joel | New York | 13 | 48 | Wyoming (100) |
| Frank Sinatra | New Jersey | 13 | 45 | Hawaii (100) |
| Britney Spears | Mississippi | 14 | 56 | Vermont (100) |
| Ariana Grande | Florida | 15 | 54 | Maine (85) |
| Ray Charles | Georgia | 15 | 49 | West Virginia (100) |
| Beyoncé | Texas | 16 | 52 | Maryland (76) |
| Lionel Richie | Alabama | 17 | 61 | Georgia (100) |
| Sabrina Carpenter | Pennsylvania | 17 | 58 | West Virginia (100) |
| Stevie Wonder | Michigan | 17 | 44 | Hawaii (100) |
| Lizzo | Michigan | 17 | 38 | Arkansas (100) |
| Mariah Carey | New York | 18 | 53 | Nevada (100) |
| SZA | Missouri | 19 | 60 | Wyoming (100) |
| Bob Dylan | Minnesota | 19 | 46 | Maine (100) |
| Willie Nelson | Texas | 20 | 33 | North Dakota (100) |
| Olivia Rodrigo | California | 21 | 55 | New Hampshire (100) |
| Tom Petty | Florida | 21 | 36 | Wyoming (100) |
| Katy Perry | California | 21 | 24 | Wyoming (100) |
| Luke Bryan | Georgia | 22 | 18 | Wyoming (100) |
| Billie Eilish | California | 24 | 42 | Wyoming (100) |
| John Mellencamp | Indiana | 25 | 16 | West Virginia (100) |
| Prince | Minnesota | 26 | 42 | Maryland (95) |
| Kendrick Lamar | California | 30 | 35 | Alaska (100) |
| Kelly Clarkson | Texas | 32 | 21 | Rhode Island (100) |
| Johnny Cash | Arkansas | 35 | 21 | Wyoming (100) |
| Post Malone | New York | 38 | 19 | Rhode Island (100) |
| Demi Lovato | New Mexico | 50 | 13 | Vermont (100) |
What it means
Music travels, but language still shapes what people go looking for. If you have a hook of your own, an AI song generator can turn it into a full track with vocals in a few minutes. For a soundtrack to your own day, an AI music generator can score it to whatever mood you need.
Method
- Google search interest by state, US, past 12 months (Nov 2025–Oct 2026). Each artist's top state = 100. Five artists per query; each artist is scaled on their own.
- 70 artists picked by hand for a well-documented US birth state (country, pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, legacy acts). DC is excluded.
Cite and download
Free to use and cite with a link back to this page.
aisong.lol Research. (2026). Every state's hometown hero: the musician residents search most who was born there. aisong.lol. https://aisong.lol/research/every-states-hometown-hero-the-musician-residents-search-most-who-was
Use this data. Every table in this study as one spreadsheet-ready file.
↓ Download the data (CSV)
