Artists Who Most Positively Impact Body Image Revealed

A new study showing the artists who make the most positive impact on our body image has been revealed.

Within Health gives clinically-superior continuous care to people with eating disorders and aims to cure all forms of eating disorders. In their new study, How Music Impacts Body Image, Within has used Spotify’s API to track down songs and artists who make up the bulk of body image playlists.

Compiling 2,544 playlists that had the following words in the titles: “confidence,” “feel good,” “body positivity,” “body image,” “feeling ugly,” and “bad body image,” Within sorted 165,559 songs that fall into positive and negative body image playlists. They also surveyed 1,009 participants and asked how music affects their body image.

Within found that Lizzo is the #1 artist listeners go to for a mega confidence boost. According to the study, rock music is the most listened-to genre for fans making body-positive playlists at 64%. Rock is followed by 90s music (54%), pop (53%), 80s (46%), and hip-hop/rap (43%). Other popular genres such as country are at 26% and indie rock at 25%, with folk and reggae at 18% and 17%, respectively.

Outside of pop, which is dominated by Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, Metallica is the top band making people feel confident in the metal sphere, followed by Tool, Nirvana, Five Finger Death Punch and Avenged Sevenfold. Carrie Underwood brings country music fans the most confidence, while Megan Thee Stallion does the same for hip-hop and rap listeners.

The top song on body-positive playlists is Confident by Demi Lovato, while the foot-stomping empowering march of Miley Cyrus’ Flowers comes second. SZA’s Kill Bill, Doja Cat’s Woman and Lizzo’s About Damn Time are all up there as well.

According to Within’s study, A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon and Motionless In White are the most common metal acts to appear on body-positive playlists. Avril Lavigne, the pop-punk queen, is up with Little Mix and Maroon 5 as one of the top pop artists on the majority of body-positive playlists.

Imagine Dragons, Queen and The Beatles snap up the most chosen rock artists, with Jason Aldean, Alan Jackson and Luke Bryan the most popular country artists on said playlists.

Some of the most common songs appearing on negative body image playlists include Jealousy, Jealousy by Olivia Rodrigo, idontwannabeyouanymore by Billie Eilish, Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara and Fat Funny Friend by Maddie Zahm, among others.

Indie stars Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski and Lana Del Rey are recognised as just some of the artists appearing on negative body image playlists alongside Tyler, The Creator and Lil Peep. You can check out the full study here.