google trends, dubstep vs drum n bass

So, i had a quick look on google trends just now for a laugh, and it revealed to me not only that Google really is obsessed with stats, but also that dubstep is kicking drum & bass’s arse.

If you study the chart above, you can see a distinct decline in drum n bass’ popularity. If i was a nerd, i would probably draw some lines indicating the steady downward trend. Luckily for you i am a bit of a nerd so you can find said lines on this picture, here.

There is no search data for dubstep before 2005, and a small trickle of news related data from early 2004 when the sound was quietly gaining worldwide attention. But it’s at the start of 2006 it really starts to take off and not until around November 2007 dubstep, as a search term takes the lead. This corresponds with a sudden surge in news reference volume, where it pushed above drum n bass briefly, causing the search term to reach upward and break through.

Other search terms yield similar results. All pointing toward the decline in the number of people searching for dnb related terms.

Here you can see, again there is absolutely no search data before 2005. Those letters represent news results corresponding to the search terms, which is pretty nifty. The start of Q4 2006 is marked by this article in pitchfork by Blackdown’s Martin Clark.

Here are some results broken down by region. You can see the UK dominating on both.

Oddly enough, New Zealand with a population of something like 3million people, has the second spot. They love it.

Anyway, i’m kinda sick of typing lol. So you can see all this live on Google Trends site here. You do have to sign in to Google to see the extra stuff.

Now after i started typing this i had a bit of a look at how Google Trends works, all this probably isn’t actually what i am interpreting it to be, taking into account scaling etc. But its nice to speculate a bit!

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