Taylor Swift can perform miracles. She will probably be the only artist to take an album platinum this year, and David Letterman dubbed her "Mother Theresa" for her "1989" Secret Sessions. Her greatest accomplishment may be getting Democrats and Republicans to agree on at least one topic: their favorite musical act.
The "Shake It Off" singer fell squarely in the middle of Americans' taste for music on both sides of the political spectrum, according to a recent Facebook study. The social network gauged the cultural similarities and differences of Democrats and Republicans in five categories: musicians/bands, landmarks/destinations, authors, books and TV shows.
Elvis Presley as well as rock groups like Aerosmith, AC/DC, Bon Jovi and Metallica also brought the right and left together. More Republicans preferred country acts, while The Beatles, Bob Marley and Michael Jackson skewed far left.
Dems and the GOP watch most of the same primetime TV shows such as "Grey's Anatomy," "The Walking Dead," and "Two and a Half Men," but "Duck Dynasty" grabbed more Facebook likes from Republicans. No surprise, news programming split the viewing habits with more liberals watching "The Daily Show" and "The Rachel Maddow Show" while conservatives chose "The Kelly File" and "The Five," both on Fox News.
The crazy antics of the "Jersey Shore" kids didn't deter either party affiliation from naming the summer destination as their favorite retreat. Republicans tend not to travel up the coast to New York City though, especially the Empire State Building. They enjoy a trip to Elvis Presley's Graceland or George Washington's home at Mount Vernon.
Books and authors fell mostly to one side or the other. Democrats read more Maya Angelou and Neil deGrasse Tyson and name "The Great Gatsby," "The Color Purple" and "The Hobbit" as their favorite books. Republicans pick up books by conservative figure Ben Carson or 4-year-old Colton Burpo's first -hand account story entitled "Heaven Is for Real."
The two parties could agree on a James Patterson thriller, "The Old Farmer's Almanac," and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."
Facebook looked at its users' likes for campaign pages of any Democrat or Republican running for governor, U.S. Senate or U.S. House of Representatives. The social network then looked at other pages those people liked on Facebook. It analyzed which pages were "disproportionately liked by the supporters of one party versus the other," and those that were most balanced.
