Do You Like American Music

There are days when I don't know what to blog about, and then there are days when someone names the favourite musician for each U.S. state.  Okay, it's not the favourite artist, but the most distinctive artist.  That is, the artist who's popularity in the state most exceeds their national popularity (for instance, Alan Jackson is the distinctive artist for New Mexico, since he is the 45th most popular artist there, but only 425th nationally.

There's a few oddities about it:

• There aren't that many obvious selections.  I mean, Bruce Springsteen in New Jersey is the only "No, Really?" choice.
• Indie props to Alaska, whose artist is Ginger Kwan, 33rd in the state but 12,062nd nationally, and so obscure that she doesn't even have her a Wikipedia entry.
• Rush in Delaware?  Of course, Delaware has so few people that it could be thrown off by only a few big fans.  And I'm betting Joe Biden is one of them.
• Sufjan Stevens is famous for his tongue-in-cheek attempt to make an album dedicated to each of the fifty states.  He's only done two of them, but one was for Illinois, and apparently that meant a lot to the state.
• Tegan and Sara in Idaho?  Okay, I guess I don't really know what I should expect from that state.  The only mental picture I have of them is people farming potatoes while dreaming up trick football plays.  But from now on, I will also assume they are singing "Closer" to themselves as they go.
• The Virginias went with Matchbox 20 and the Dave Matthews Band.  I didn't see them as being the laid-back states.
• Rhode Island is America's enclave of grunge.  Wouldn't have called that one.
• Looking up some of the names I wasn't familiar with, I find that many of the musicians that are popular in their own state are folk or hip-hop artists.  So apparently those are the most regional genres.