It’s that time of year once again where the incessant jingle bells, old-timey ballads, Mariah Carey blowing out shitty in-store speakers, and *shudder* songs about Christmas shoes takes over the airwaves. Gods help you if you head out to do your holiday shopping, lest you be bombarded by saccharine holiday cheer. But is that sort of environment enough to drop what you’re buying and make you leave a store entirely?
According to a recent study conducted by Fractl for Coupon Follow, that’s the case for roughly 32% of metal fans, making them the third most-likely group to fuck off once they hear holiday music playing in a store. Only indie (34%) and alternative (33%) fans were more likely. Unsurprisingly, gospel (61%), classical (44%) and jazz (37%) fans said they’d enter or stay longer once the holiday music starts.
The findings are the result a survey of more than 1,000 Americans that sought to determine how their musical tastes fell in line with their holiday shopping habits.
But what about the shops that throw a middle finger to convention and continue playing whatever music they want during the holidays? If you’re a business owner and you actually want customers to shop in your store, apparently don’t listen to us metal fans. Researchers found that 40% of respondents said heavy metal would make them leave, so the feeling’s mutual, I guess.
When it comes to shopping, researchers suggest that metalheads are more definitive in their purchases, as only 19% of respondents that said they like metal said they experience buyer’s remorse. We’re also the most frugal, it turns out, as the top thing that influences metalheads while shopping is sales, with 86% of metal respondents saying as such.
As for the actual gift giving side of the holidays, the study found that metal fans were most likely to put band shirts on their wish list at 42%. Similarly, of the 1-in-8 Americans asking for music merchandise as a gift, 33% of them were metal fans.
So what do you say to these findings? Are they accurate? If you still need help finding gifts for your fellow metalhead, be sure to check out MetalSucks’ Holiday Gift Guide today!