[Harp-L] Is the blues dying out? (was is live blues dying out?)

[Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

People on harp-l have bemoaned that live music is dying out in general. How about what people listen to?
I spent a few minutes on the big music playing website LastFM seeing who was top of various categories (list of lists at the bottom). This is kind of interesting because it is a sample of what people actually choose to listen to, rather than what is being heavily promoted, who is on tour etc etc. Whether Tom Waits and The Black Keys are the blues could entertain us for hours - but BB King , Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker place before Howlin Wolf and no arguments there. It looks as if people who listen to music are still listening to the blues, about as much as other genres. It doesn't mean that they ONLY listen to the blues of course. Er, who does? One great thing about the blues is that almost everyone will play it though. Even hard-core classicos will give it a shot, hard to imagine Robert Bonfiglio doing hip hop for instance.
Better stop this and go back to practicing harmonica, as this sort of list mania is oddly compulsive. Enjoy
Richard

Last FM 
Category Blues
Tom Waits
54,190,699 plays (1,000,967 listeners) 
The Black Keys
37,474,634 plays (902,340 listeners) 
Eric Clapton
30,784,491 plays (1,703,860 listeners) 
Top blues harmonica player
Howlin Wolf (7th in ranking)
3,919,446 plays (367,483 listeners) 

Category Hip Hop
Kayne West
97,912,276 plays (2,910,883 listeners) 
Beastie Boys
46,200,178 plays (1,585,432 listeners) 
Eminem
105,128,599 plays (3,026,090 listeners) 

Category Country
Johnny Cash
64,562,387 plays (1,882,588 listeners) 
Taylor Swift
40,252,104 plays (1,017,314 listeners) 
Dixie Chicks
7,599,933 plays (489,879 listeners) 

Jazz
Miles Davies
26,458,635 plays (988,875 listeners) 
Billie Holiday
16,357,326 plays (904,094 listeners) 
Norah Jones
42,431,854 plays (1,457,057 listeners) 

Rock
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
183,083,867 plays (3,349,798 listeners) 
The Beatles
337,078,094 plays (2,604,241 listeners) 
U2
94,775,052 plays (2,565,616 listeners)