Insurance.com’s survey of the year’s most popular driving songs shows that most people get in touch with their inner disco dancer—with or without bell bottoms and platform shoes—while they’re on the road. “Dancing Queen” by ABBA shimmied its way into the top spot this year, knocking last year’s favorite, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, to fourth place.
This one-stop destination for expert advice on health, life and auto insurance asked drivers to name the best and worst road trip tunes, the genres most suited for driving, and the artists they’d rather not admit are on their playlist.
Find the complete survey results and detailed analysis on each category HERE.
Songs topping driving playlists this year include:
- ABBA – Dancing Queen – 26%
- Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ – 25%
- AC/DC – Highway to Hell – 23%
- Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody – 23%
- Carrie Underwood – Jesus Take the Wheel – 20%
Not surprisingly, “Dancing Queen” was most popular among drivers aged 45-54, who may be nostalgic about boogying the night away to the song years ago.
Survey participants also made predictions about what the next great classic road trip songs will be:
- Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk – 34%
- Taylor Swift – Shake it off – 27%
- Justin Timberlake – Can’t Stop the Feeling – 26%
- Florida Georgia Line – Cruise – 25%
- Billie Eilish – Bad guy – 20%
Although a disco song topped the list, the genre itself did not rank among drivers’ favorites for road trips. Instead, they prefer classic rock (15%), followed by country (12%) and ‘80s music (11%). Those who want to let Jesus take the wheel reported Christian gospel music is their favorite road trip genre (8%). Among the least popular genres—all with 1% popularity—were heavy metal, Latin, K-pop and indie/folk. Punk rock was dead last with 0%.
Survey respondents also listed some tunes and recording artists that they are unlikely to listen to with their windows down.
Some of the most popular artists in the “guilty pleasures” category are:
- Britney Spears – 16%
- Adele – 15%
- Bon Jovi – 12%
- Justin Bieber – 12%
- Celine Dion – 12%
“This is the third year we’ve conducted this light-hearted study,” explains Les Masterson, managing editor for Insurance.com. “It’s an opportunity to remind consumers that we spend a lot of time in our cars and it’s important to have the best possible car insurance coverage in the event that anything goes wrong.”
“While background music can be a nice way to help pass the time, it’s important that people maintain full attention on the road and avoid distracted driving,” Masterson adds.
This survey explores who controls the music during a road trip, how parents handle their children’s music choices, and what solo drivers are most likely to do when their favorite song comes on.
To gather these results, Insurance.com commissioned a survey of 1,000 drivers and asked them to choose the best and worst songs for driving, what song will be the next road-trip favorite, and which artists represent the biggest guilty driving pleasures.
