Cruise Control: America's Favorite Road Trip Tunes Revealed

Whether you're traveling to explore an exciting new city, traveling for a concert, or driving home for the holidays, a carefully curated playlist is just as essential to a successful road trip as having one of the top gas credit cards or the best car insurance possible.

To help travelers looking for inspiration or for anyone curious about which songs other drivers are playing on the highway, the FinanceBuzz team analyzed 50 popular road trip playlists on Spotify. We found the songs and artists that appear most frequently on top road trip playlists, when the most popular songs were released, and compiled our ultimate road trip playlist for your listening pleasure.

Key findings

• Toto's "Africa" is the top road trip song, appearing on more top road trip playlists than any other track.
• 77 different songs by Drake appear on at least one popular road trip playlist, the most of any band or artist.
• More than half of the most popular road trip songs, 55%, were released in the 2010s, the most of any decade.

How we conducted our analysis

We searched Spotify for popular playlists with words relating to road trips and driving in the title or description. To be included in this analysis, a playlist had to have been "saved" or liked by at least 4,000 Spotify users. We broke down the average number of songs in a playlist, how often different songs, artists, and albums appear on popular playlists, and more.

Most popular road trip songs

Certain songs just sound better blasting from a car's speakers. Those kinds of songs are the must-haves for any good road trip, along with affordable car insurance. These tunes will help ensure good vibes for road trip drivers and passengers alike.

In this regard, an all-time classic from the 80s reigns supreme. The song "Africa" by the band Toto hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983 and has been seen as a beloved classic ever since. It is so beloved that it was included on 34% of popular road trip playlists on Spotify, meaning that more than one out of every three top playlists for driving include the song, the highest inclusion rate of any song.

The song that came closest to matching "Africa" when it comes to road trip popularity is Miley Cyrus' anthem "Party in the U.S.A," which was included on a little under a third of playlists (32%). Three songs tied for third place after being included on 30% of playlists: "All Star" by Smash Mouth, "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, and "Time of Our Lives" by Pitbull and Ne-Yo.

Top road trip songs by decade

Good road trip music isn't limited to a specific time frame, as evidenced by the nearly 40-year gap between when the most popular road trip song was released (1982) and when the silver medal song hit the airwaves (2009).

More than half of the most popular road trip songs, 55%, were released in the 2010s — the most of any decade. The 2000s were second, with 21%, and the 1980s came in third at 14%. Interestingly, not a single song released in the 2020s ranks among the most popular driving tunes.

Most popular artists to listen to on road trips

Coming out with one or two road trip mega hits is one thing, while consistently producing multiple songs that listeners want to pump through their car stereos is another.

All told, more than 3,000 different music artists and more than 7,500 different songs appeared on at least one of the road trip playlists we analyzed, with one artist standing out from their peers when it comes to producing top road trip songs. When it comes to the number of unique songs that appear on at least one playlist, 77 different Drake tracks make the cut, nearly 30 more than any other artist.

Rihanna is second, with 48 unique songs appearing on playlists. While Drake has her beat when it comes to variety of road trip bangers, when you account for instances of the same song appearing on multiple different playlists, RiRi actually bests Drizzy (and every other music artist) when it comes to the total number of songs appearing across playlists. Including repeat appearances, Rihanna's songs can be found 171 times on popular road trip playlists on Spotify.

Listen to the ultimate road trip playlist

Finally, we decided to use everything we learned while performing this analysis to create the Ultimate Road Trip Playlist, featuring the 100 most popular songs (119 total, including ties) from the 50 playlists we evaluated. You can find a link to that playlist here or check out the embedded version below.

Tips for saving on your next road trip

• Get the best insurance coverage possible. Keeping yourself and your vehicle protected is important, so getting coverage through one of the best car insurance companies can go a long way towards giving you peace of mind.
• Know how to perform basic maintenance. If you don't know how to change a tire, you're not alone, as our recent study on car maintenance found. Consider brushing up on basic car maintenance or investing in roadside assistance.
• Make the most of your travel with the right card. No matter how you choose to travel, doing so with one of the top no-annual-fee travel credit cards can help save money that can be used toward your next travel adventure.

Methodology

For this analysis, we looked at 50 different publicly available Spotify playlists that mention road trips, cars, or driving in the title or description. To be included, a playlist needed to have at least 4,000 saves/likes. 12 of the included playlists were made by Spotify itself, eight were made by verified users or companies with Spotify accounts, and the remaining 30 were compiled by users.

We pulled data on each song and artist on every playlist, and also collected the length of each song. We also looked up the year each of the 25 most popular songs (including ties) was released.

Across the 50 playlists we evaluated, we discovered that the average road trip playlist is 206 songs long, with an average song length of 3 minutes and 43 seconds. That means the average road trip playlist lasts for just over 12 hours and 45 minutes, which is about the amount of time it takes to drive from Philadelphia to Atlanta.