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Popular Music For Road Trips
The most popular music for road trips, according to Spotify data
We analysed 125 playlists and 25,937 songs on Spotify to determine which artists and songs people like to listen to while travelling.
Music is such an important part of our lives. It has the power to make us happy or sad, motivate us to exercise or work harder, and relax and calm us. Travelling can also inflict the same feelings.
But what kind of music is best when on a road trip?
Don’t worry, we have the answer! We analysed 125 playlists and 25,937 songs on Spotify to determine which artists and songs people like to listen to while travelling. We focused on playlists that included five main keywords: “driving,” “travel,” “holiday,” “road trip,” and “summer.”
Key highlights:
The most popular songs to listen to when travelling include “Riptide” by Vance Joy, “One Kiss” by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa and “As It Was” by Harry Styles.
Taylor Swift, One Direction, Glee Cast, Harry Styles, and Ed Sheeran are among the most popular artists to listen to when travelling.
Music from Calvin Harris appeared twice in the top ten most popular songs to listen to when travelling.
The most popular artists to listen to while travelling
Taylor Swift topped the poll for the most popular artist to feature across the playlists, appearing a staggering 188 times, with 95 of her songs making the list. The songs from her back catologue that were the most popular were “Shake It Off”, “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “Love Story”. A popular choice for family members of all ages, it is no surprise that the pop superstar features so heavily.
One Direction closely followed in second place, featuring over 159 times and 81 of their songs featuring on the playlists. Unsurprisingly, sing-a-long anthem “What Makes You Beautiful” was the most popular 1D song to make the list - featuring on 17 of the analysed playlists.
Although the show ended in 2015, it seems the legacy (and music) of Glee lives on, with 177 of songs from the cast featuring on the playlists. The mashup format for some of the most popular songs in the world make them a popular choice for roadtrips - “Bust Your Windows” by Amber Riley (or Mercedes Jones as she was known in the show) was the most popular song to feature.
Man of the moment Harry Styles, whose song “As It Was” was the third most popular song to listen to when travelling, took fourth place overall for the most road trip-friendly artists. Outside of his One Direction hits, he appears twice in the top 20 most popular songs, with “Watermelon Sugar” featuring on 17 of the playlists.
Ed Sheeran completes the top 5 most popular artists for travelling playlists, featuring over 113 times. It seems that his newer songs are more popular for road trips, with “Shivers” featuring on 15 of the analysed playlists, followed by his collaboration with Justin Bieber “I Don’t Care”. Overall, 59 of his songs or songs he has featured on appear on the playlists.
The most popular songs to listen to while travelling
The top 20 most popular songs to listen to while travelling, according to our research, is:
- “Riptide” by Vance Joy
- “One Kiss” by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa
- “As It Was” by Harry Styles
- “Head & Heart” by Joel Corry and MNEK
- “Pompeii” by Bastille
- “Wake Me Up” by Avicii
- “Mr Brightside” by The Killers
- “Summer” by Calvin Harris
- “Waves” by Mr Probz and Robin Schulz
- “Dancing in The Moonlight” by Toploader
- “Cheerleader” by OMI and Felix Jaehn
- “Levitating” by Dua Lipa and DaBaby
- “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles
- “Heatwaves” by Glass Animals
- “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
- “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus
- “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic
- “3 Nights” by Dominic Fike
- “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train
- “Am I Wrong” by Nico & Vinz
Akosua Akobeng, our Head of Guest Marketing, said: “The drive to your staycation, whether you’ll be in the car for half an hour or half a day, is made infinitely better by a good playlist, which is why we wanted to uncover just what holidayers are listening to. To get our customers in the holiday mood, we have created an official UKCaravans4Hire road trip playlist featuring all of the songs identified in our research”.
Published on May 24th, 2023