US music industry executives despise rap and love Taylor Swift, reports surve

Taylor Swift … it’s official: everyone loves her. Official. Photograph: Frazer Harrison

US music industry executives despise rap and adore Taylor Swift, if a new survey by the trade magazine Billboard is to be believed. More than 50 “top executives” completed an anonymous survey for the magazine, and the initial results – while possibly unrepresentative – are startling.

Swift was named as the artist they would most like to sign if they were starting a label, with – surprisingly, perhaps – Lady Gaga in second and Adele in third, and 70% said yes when asked: “Do you root for Taylor Swift?”

More than half – 58% – said the industry is not fair to artists, and Lady Gaga was named as the person who should be running a record company but isn’t. Three questions looked at the digital world: 62% claimed they knew more about technology than the average 14 year old; 54% said they would work at Apple or Spotify if it offered the same money; and 71% said Jay Z’s streaming service, Tidal, would survive less than a year.

The oddest result, however – and one that suggests the sample of executives was skewed towards one demographic – came when people were asked which type of music they despised the most. Rap came top, with EDM in second and pop third.

Billboard’s survey – whose full results are due in September – has been the subject of enormous controversy over some of its questions, notable one that asked: “Who do you believe: (i) Kesha [or] (ii) Dr Luke.” Kesha is taking legal action against producer and songwriter Dr Luke, accusing him of rape. He has issued a countersuit claiming she is using extortion to try to break a contract.

Music manager Irving Azoff – who topped Billboard’s music power list in 2012 – condemned the publication. “If Billboard wants to survey the music industry, they should ask people in the biz what they think about their publication,” he told the New York Post. “Maybe then they’d understand how fully they’ve turned a formerly respected brand into an irrelevant joke.”

Billboard did not respond to the requests for comment on the survey made by several publications. It did, however, find time to issue a statement about Azoff: “We are aware of the personal grousings of Irving Azoff about Billboard and are sorry he won’t be filling out the survey.”