On the same eight-term music-search index, the bottom of the table is the northern Plains and the Deep South. South Dakota ranks last (66), behind North Dakota, South Carolina, Alaska, Mississippi. "Least musical" here means least music searching. Several still search for radio more than most: Iowa, South Dakota and Montana are among the top five states for "radio" (after dropping Wyoming and Kansas).

Bottom 10 states, composite music-search index

Rank	State	Index	music	songs	lyrics	concert	spotify	karaoke	concert tickets	guitar
49	South Dakota	66	77	93	66	61	81	31	60	56
48	North Dakota	66	81	80	59	58	100	29	61	59
47	South Carolina	66	81	74	71	66	67	38	68	67
46	Alaska	66	81	72	80	51	76	47	48	77
45	Mississippi	67	83	83	77	61	72	36	62	62
44	Louisiana	67	85	85	78	64	62	39	59	67
43	Florida	68	81	66	69	73	62	49	73	69
42	Montana	68	83	78	62	57	92	31	61	82
41	Iowa	68	81	89	65	65	89	32	64	62
40	West Virginia	69	81	90	78	62	62	31	71	77

Same states on "radio" (top state = 100, WY/KS dropped)

State	radio index
South Dakota	55
North Dakota	47
South Carolina	41
Alaska	45
Mississippi	43
Louisiana	42
Florida	38
Montana	54
Iowa	56
West Virginia	41

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, US, web search, past 12 months, state maps. Composite index = average of eight state indices (music, songs, lyrics, concert, spotify, karaoke, concert tickets, guitar), each rescaled so its top state = 100 after dropping Wyoming and Kansas.
Wyoming and Kansas are not included in state tables.
Geography: state level. "radio" is left out (it mostly measures stations and car audio).

Cite and download

Free to use and cite with a link back to this page.

aisong.lol Research. (2026). The least musical states? Where America searches for music least. aisong.lol. https://aisong.lol/research/the-least-musical-states-where-america-searches-for-music-least

Use this data. Every table in this study as one spreadsheet-ready file.

↓ Download the data (CSV)