Music download analysis reveals mood of Bahrain 'Triumphant,' 'Warlike,' 'Metal'

"The most popular song in Bahrain within the past hour or so according to Last.fm is Fates Warning's 'The Ivory Gate of Dreams pt. 3,' a heavy metal song that appears quite indicative of the mood in that country."

Listen below, or you can buy it on Amazon, if you like. Bahrain's Mood Is 'Triumphant' and 'Warlike' According To Listening Habits , a post at Evolver.fm.

(thanks, Eliot van Buskirk!)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Ugly Canuck

No, indeed not bland: I’d call it “diffident”, though. that’s no bad thing – in fact, it’s refreshing, when it comes to rock’n'roll.

But they’re no Fuzzbox, though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYQsMWcmBsA
- robulus
  
  “But they’re no Fuzzbox, though”
  
  Nope!
Anonymous

Just had a look at the site. Current number one in Afghanistan? “Seemed like a good idea at the time” by The Darkness, which seems like another bit of opportune political comment…
Anonymous

At the moment…

HIM – Scared to Death
StrippedNuts

Fates Warning? Hell yes!
millrick

Bahrain has moved onto “Angry” with “Protest The Hero – A Plateful Of Our Dead”
– not sure if this is encouraging or not….

http://lastmoodfm.heroku.com/
baberman

The mood judgment is not all that accurate. I just saw some country listed as “Joyful.” The song? Nirvana’s “Rape Me.”
theLadyfingers

As a fan of some pretty abrasive music, but not by any means a metal fan, it’s sort of nice to see that more-than-slightly campy genre (admit it) find a purpose that actually suits its general bombast.
Keir

Either some of those countries have a very small sample size or the Lithuanians are crazy for Korean music at the moment!

Oh, and Libya is depressed.
Ponchyan

Awesome to see Amon Amarth as the first entry on the list! I will be headbanging with them at the Regency SF on April 22.
anaglyph

Australia is ‘Depressed’. Yeah, that would be about right.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  And who could blame them, what with them being all tucked away under there like they are.
- robulus
  
  The analysis is we’re depressed because we are listening to Radiohead. That’s the kind of analysis my Mum would make.
  - robulus
    
    OK at second glance every second country is listening to radiohead, resulting in emotions ranging from triumphant to decisive. I would have thought decisive was a given, otherwise Argentina would still be browsing iTunes.
  - Ugly Canuck
    
    I’m depressed that you are listening to Radiohead too.
    - Ugly Canuck
      
      Oh, sorry, that’s too flip.
      Radiohead actually doesn’t sound so bad at all, judging from this:
      
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8
      
      First time I’ve ever heard these guys.
      - robulus
        
        Thats alright old chap. However, if you haven’t heard Radiohead, you’ve kind of missed what popular music has evolved to in the last decade. They have successfully combined a number of contemporary forms and distilled the essence of generation x, urban paranoia and hope and despair and beauty. Its a wild ride and well worth your time.
      - Pantograph
        
        If the music of Radiohead is the distilled essence of my generation then we have good cause for despair. Are we really that bland?
      - robulus
        
        Bland? There are a lot of reasons you might not enjoy Radiohead, but that is a surprising one. Which of these albums do you find bland: “The Bends”, “OK Computer”, “Kid A”. All of them? You’re sitting at the end of those three, released in the space of five years, and you’re wanting something more interesting?
      - Ugly Canuck
        
        this being the internet, i have taken the liberty of providing Youtube links to the three songs which you have mentioned:
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_QqX5ioWM
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afis1Ne3Kq0
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea1LJYWDepE
        
        Not “bland”, no.
      - robulus
        
        Well those were albums, released in succession. I guess my point is the transformation is pretty astonishing. On “the Bends” you’ve got a great alt rock band, but then with “OK Computer” you’ve got the most successful attempt to reinvent the prog-rock album in recent memory, and it really turned heads. Then “Kid A” transcended pop music completely, and turned heads a full 360.
        
        I mean, I know I’m not exactly being brave waxing about Radiohead, they’re a pretty safe choice. But I think they live up to the hype.
      - Ugly Canuck
        
        The sound of the track I linked to above kinda reminded me of the sonic style of that AR Kane fellow from twenty-five years ago:
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLkBm7gJsqU
        
        But only a bit.
      - robulus
        
        I hear it. That track was great, I never heard of A.R. Kane, but it reminded me a little of the Cocteau Twins, who I was obsessed with in the late eighties, and one of their tracks came up in the recommendations afterwards. Go internet!
      - Ugly Canuck
        
        Oh wait the second link is to track 1 of Radiohead’s album ‘OK Computer’, “Airbag”, and not the track named “OK Computer” itself – if in fact there be any such.
Chevan

One small note. Last.fm tracks music play counts, not downloads. It’s not strictly accurate to say this is an analysis of music downloads.
phisrow

While creative, I think that they might need a slightly more… nuanced… analysis of some of these songs than that provided by its key. The following seems a touch odd.

“Colombia Happy Torsofuck – Fistfucking Her Decomposed Cadaver B-flat Minor”
sloverlord

If you’re wondering where all the Radiohead is coming from, it’s because their new album came out over the weekend.
Anonymous

Any idea how ‘Valkyries Ride’ (or indeed any Amon Amarth) resulted in a ‘peaceful’ mood (see Albania)? That sort of calls the whole method into question.
Destronok

Guys, metal is huge in Bahrain and in the Middle East in general. Iron Maiden and Megadeth have both played to pretty large crowds in Dubai.

Megadeth’s encore song in Dubai was Holy Wars.

It’s also important to know the situation in Bahrain isn’t one-sided. A pro-unity demonstration was held today and I think it’s safe to say there are a lot of Bahrainis that are for a pluralistic society made stable by the monarchy, rather than a system that can be gamed by sheer numbers.

The Shia remain the only religious group with -one- party that represents all of them in parliament (they had 18(+-) out of 40 seats for eight years and haven’t done anything with it except try to be the moral police of the country). The Sunnis used to have two conservative groups, but it only took one election cycle for people to realize that they were better off going with independent candidates (Independent candidates who hopefully will lead the transition to political parties based on policies and platforms rather than sectarian ideologies).

I wish the media (CNN et al.) would do a little research on the situation in Bahrain. It’s not Narnia or Middle Earth here. It’s complex, and unfortunately, you do have to understand the society in order to analyze it.. it’s funny how those two are related.
Bora

H, thanks for the feature. We made the app for fun and it ended up being quite interesting to look at.
Bora
adamnvillani

Uh-oh, Aruba is angry, too! Queen Beatrix had better watch out!