What Heartbroken Americans
Actually Play
on Guitar After a Breakup (2026)
A study across 25 American cities reveals the songs broken hearts actually reach for on guitar when a relationship ends
Keywords Analyzed
American Cities
Heartbreak Songs
Monthly Searches
Key Findings
What Heartbroken Americans
Actually Revealed
St. Louis Scores 20.58 on the HGI Outpacing the Industry Giants
With a Heartbreak Guitar Index of 20.58, St. Louis ranks first in the country. Meanwhile, Nashville, famous for producing the world's heartbreak anthems, ranks only 13th, falling below the national average. The capital of writing heartbreak isn't the capital of playing through it.
97% of Heartbreak Guitar Searches Ignore Every Gen Z Song Ever Written
Drivers License, Traitor, and Kill Bill are three of the biggest heartbreak songs of the decade, yet combined they account for just 3% of every heartbreak guitar search in America. Yesterday by The Beatles, recorded in 1965, is still searched 4.4 times more than Kill Bill. When the heart breaks, it turns out, streaming popularity becomes irrelevant.
Americans Reach for Hope Before They Reach for Betrayal
Denial is the most searched emotional stage at 25.5% of all searches, while Betrayal sits at the very bottom with just 2.9%, a ratio of 8.7 to 1 between them. The guitar, it turns out, is not an instrument of betrayal. It is the sound of someone who still believes things might be okay.
Wonderwall Is the #1 Heartbreak Guitar Song in 22 Out of 25 American Cities
With 15,970 monthly searches, it accounts for 12.4% of every heartbreak guitar search in America. No other song comes close. Three chords, thirty years old, and still completely undefeated.
Introduction
Why People Pick Up a Guitar
After a Breakup
Heartbreak is loud. Not in the obvious way. In the way a house suddenly feels too quiet, a phone too heavy, a playlist too familiar. In the way, 3am arrives and there is nothing left to do except sit on the floor and feel it.
For millions of Americans, the answer to that moment is a guitar.
The guitar is the most emotionally honest instrument most people will ever touch. No music theory required. No expensive lessons needed. Just two hands, six strings, and something you desperately need to say.
America has always processed heartbreak through guitar strings. From the Mississippi Delta blues to Olivia Rodrigo speaking for an entire generation from her bedroom. The songs change. The instinct never does.
We analyzed 1500+ keyword searches across 25 American cities and 25 heartbreak songs using Google Keyword Planner, from March 2025 to March 2026, to find out exactly which songs heartbroken Americans reach for when they pick up a guitar.
“Picking up a guitar after a breakup is not a hobby decision. It is an act of quiet defiance. A decision, often made alone at midnight, to turn pain into something.”
The National Picture
America's Heartbreak
Guitar Playlist
Heartbreak Has a Soundtrack: The top 25 songs Americans search for after a breakup, ranked by total monthly searches across all 25 cities.
01
Wonderwall
Oasis · 1995
15,970
monthly searches
02
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd · 1975
13,410
searches
03
Iris
Goo Goo Dolls · 1998
12,150
searches
04
Landslide
Fleetwood Mac · 1975
11,250
searches
05
Blackbird
The Beatles · 1968
7,330
searches
4 songs are doing most of the heavy lifting. They account for 41% of every heartbreak guitar search in the country. The remaining 21 songs share whatever is left. And the heartbreak playlist has not been updated in decades. The average release year is 1990, making most of these songs older than the people learning them.
| # | Song | Genre | Emotional Stage | Avg Monthly | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Wonderwall Oasis | Rock | Denial | 15,970 |  |
| 02 | Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd | Classic Rock | Denial | 13,410 |  |
| 03 | Iris Goo Goo Dolls | Rock | Timeless Ache | 12,150 |  |
| 04 | Landslide Fleetwood Mac | Folk/Rock | Acceptance | 11,250 |  |
| 05 | Blackbird The Beatles | Folk/Rock | Timeless Ache | 7,330 |  |
| 06 | Good Riddance Green Day | Punk/Folk | Acceptance | 6,460 |  |
| 07 | Dust in the Wind Kansas | Classic Rock | Timeless Ache | 6,320 |  |
| 08 | Hallelujah Leonard Cohen | Folk | Grief | 6,070 | |
| 09 | Fast Car Tracy Chapman | Folk | Acceptance | 6,010 |  |
| 10 | Hurt Johnny Cash | Country/Rock | Longing | 4,940 |  |
| 11 | Someone Like You Adele | Pop | Grief | 4,570 | |
| 12 | Yesterday The Beatles | Pop/Folk | Longing | 4,490 | |
| 13 | Let Her Go Passenger | Folk/Pop | Longing | 4,170 | |
| 14 | Tears in Heaven Eric Clapton | Blues/Pop | Grief | 3,700 | |
| 15 | The Scientist Coldplay | Indie Pop | Denial | 3,530 | |
| 16 | Jolene Dolly Parton | Country | Acceptance | 3,200 | |
| 17 | Skinny Love Bon Iver | Indie Folk | Grief | 2,620 | |
| 18 | All Too Well Taylor Swift | Country/Pop | Timeless Ache | 2,450 | |
| 19 | The Night We Met Lord Huron | Indie Folk | Longing | 2,330 | |
| 20 | Gravity John Mayer | Blues/Pop | Timeless Ache | 2,270 | |
| 21 | drivers license Olivia Rodrigo | Pop | Grief | 1,530 | |
| 22 | Traitor Olivia Rodrigo | Pop | Betrayal | 1,390 | |
| 23 | Somebody That I… Gotye ft. Kimbra | Indie/Pop | Betrayal | 1,390 | |
| 24 | Kill Bill SZA | R&B/Pop | Betrayal | 1,010 | |
| 25 | I Can't Make You… Bonnie Raitt | Blues/Pop | Timeless Ache | 310 | |
Emotional Analysis
America Does Not Reach for Rage.
It Reaches for Hope.
Thirty years after its release, Wonderwall by Oasis remains the single most-searched heartbreak guitar song in America. With 15,970 monthly searches across 25 cities, it accounts for 12.4% of every heartbreak guitar search in the country. Not because it is the greatest song ever written. Because it captures something painfully specific: the feeling that things might still be okay. That is where most heartbreak begins.
Denial stage songs account for 25.5% of all 128,870 searches nationally, the highest of any emotional category. Betrayal accounts for just 2.9%. The ratio between them is 8.7 to 1. When a relationship ends, the first instinct is not destruction. It is the quiet, desperate hope that a three-chord song might make sense of everything.
Unexpected Rankings
The Two Songs Nobody
Expected at #2 and #3
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd was never written about a breakup. It is a song about absence, about missing someone who is gone in a way that cannot be explained. And yet it pulls 13,410 searches nationally, making it the 2nd most searched heartbreak guitar song in America. Maybe that is because heartbreak feels exactly like that.
Not rage. Not bitterness. Just the quiet, hollow feeling of someone no longer being there. Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls follows at number 3 with 12,150 searches. Together they account for 19.8% of everything. The top 4 songs alone own 41% of all heartbreak guitar searches. The remaining 21 songs share whatever is left.
Genre Analysis
Why Folk Dominates: The Sound
of Honest and Learnable
Folk guitar is the sound of American heartbreak, accounting for 47.6% of all searches. But the genre is not what matters here. What matters is this: 73% of all heartbreak guitar searches are for songs anyone can learn in a single evening. Wonderwall. Landslide. Fast Car. Hallelujah. Good Riddance.
Three chords. Sometimes four. No sheet music. No lessons. No experience needed. Just six strings and something desperate to say. When the pain hits and the room feels unbearable, nobody reaches for complexity. They reach for the simplest song they know and play it until something shifts.
Decade Analysis
The Playlist Is Older Than
Most People Assume
The average heartbreak guitar song in this study was recorded in 1990, making it 37 years old in 2026. The 1990s account for 33.8% of all searches. The 1970s follow at 26.5%. The current decade manages just 3%. When the pain is real and the night is long, people do not search for something fresh.
They search for something that has been there before. The song that sat with someone else through the same sleepless nights, the same unanswered messages, the same empty side of the bed. Old songs do not win because they are old. They win because they have already proven they can hold the weight.
The Paradox
The Most Celebrated Song
Nobody Actually Learns
I Can't Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt sits at number 25. Dead last. 310 searches nationally. A song covered more than 200 times, cited endlessly as the definitive heartbreak recording, searched 51.5 times less than Wonderwall.
The most celebrated heartbreak song in American music history is the one heartbroken people actually skip. The world says it is perfect. Broken hearts reach for something else entirely.
Emotional Breakdown
America Does Not Reach for Rage.
It Reaches for Hope.
Generational Divide
Why Do Heartbroken Guitarists
Keep Ignoring Gen Z Songs?
Gen Z made the biggest breakup songs of the decade. Heartbroken Americans aren't learning them.
Drivers license broke streaming records. Traitor became a cultural moment. Kill Bill was inescapable. Combined, they account for just 3% of every heartbreak guitar search in America. Yesterday by The Beatles, recorded in 1965, is searched 4.4 times more than Kill Bill. A song older than the moon landing is still beating the most-streamed generation in music history.
52%
Classic Era
Songs released before 1995. Yesterday, Wish You Were Here, Blackbird, Hallelujah.
44.9%
Millennial Era
1995-2015. Wonderwall, Iris, Landslide, Fast Car, Good Riddance.
3%
Gen Z Era
2015-present. drivers license, Traitor, Kill Bill. Three iconic songs. 3% of searches.
Good Riddance alone, released by Green Day in 1997, generates 6,460 searches. More than drivers license, Traitor, and Kill Bill put together. Yesterday by The Beatles was recorded in 1965. It is searched 4.4× more than Kill Bill, released just three years ago.
Head-to-Head
| Classic or Millennial | Searches | vs | Gen Z | Searches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Wonderwall (1995) | 15,970 | vs | drivers license (2021) | 1,530 |
Yesterday (1965) | 4,490 | vs | Kill Bill (2022) | 1,010 |
Tears in Heaven (1992) | 3,700 | vs | Olivia Rodrigo combined | 2,920 |
Good Riddance (1997) | 6,460 | vs | All Gen Z songs combined | 3,930 |
The Scientist (2002) | 3,530 | vs | Traitor (2021) | 1,390 |
Source: Wiingy
The Older the Song, The More People Want to Learn It
America's Heartbreak Guitar Map
22 out of 25 American cities Play the
Same Song When Love Falls Apart
Different cities, different lives, different heartbreaks. When asked each one the same question: what song do you reach for when love falls apart? 22 times, the answer is Wonderwall. 3 cities said something different. St. Louis, Denver, and Portland chose Wish You Were Here, a song not about heartbreak at all, but about absence about missing something you cannot name. The heartbreak guitar map of America is not a music map. It's a map of one question. And for thirty years, one song keeps answering it.
Hope over absence
22
Wonderwall
Cities chose this
22 out of 25 cities
Absence over hope
3
Wish You Were Here
Cities chose this
3 out of 25 cities
The Three Rebels
St. Louis, Denver & Portland chose absence
St. Louis chose Wish You Were Here over Wonderwall by exactly 10 searches. Portland made the same call by exactly 10 searches. Denver chose absence by 20. Three cities. Three different margins. The map of American heartbreak is really a map of one question: hope or absence?
10
searches separated St. Louis & Portland from the majority
The Undecided
New Orleans is the only city that cannot choose
Wonderwall and Wish You Were Here are tied at exactly 210 searches each. For a city built on the intersection of joy and grief, that is not a data anomaly. That is a personality.
210:210
the only city too undecided to choose a side
88% Dominance
One song. One nation. Thirty years old.
Three chords. Written in Manchester. When everything falls apart across 22 American cities, one song still sounds like maybe it does not have to stay that way.
88%
of cities chose hope over absence
Regional Deep-Dives
Regional Personality
Through Heartbreak Songs
5 regions, 25 cities. Each carries its own heartbreak signature, shaped by density, culture, weather, and the weight of music history.
Minneapolis follows at HGI 19.97, a city of long winters that has always known how to sit with something heavy. Chicago produces 7,950 searches but an HGI of just 4.74. Too vast for the heartbreak to surface. The smaller cities more than make up for it.
11.9
Avg HGI · 27,480 total searches
Seattle follows at HGI 14.37, the birthplace of grunge, still reaching for hope when love falls apart. Portland lands on the other side by exactly 10 searches, the smallest rebellion in the entire study. Los Angeles sits at HGI 2.34 with 5,600 searches and says nothing. Four million people. Every emotion imaginable. None of it is visible in the data.
11.3
Avg HGI · 25,650 total searches
New Orleans cannot choose between hope and absence, tied at 210 searches each. Memphis, the birthplace of blues guitar, ranks 19th. Some cities gave America the language of heartbreak. Others just lived it quietly and never searched for it at all.
8.6
Avg HGI · 33,750 total searches
Philadelphia follows at HGI 7.42, working class and unsentimental, feeling everything without making a performance of it. New York City generates 8,160 searches and ranks dead last at HGI 1.56. The city is heartbroken. It is just too big to notice.
9.8
Avg HGI · 23,890 total searches
San Antonio sits at HGI 3.19, the largest Latino-majority city in America, carrying the deepest guitar tradition in the region and the third lowest search intensity. Not everything that gets played gets searched. Some heartbreak lives entirely off the record.
8.7
Avg HGI · 18,340 total searches
Note: HGI stands for Heartbreak Guitar Index : a per-capita score that measures how intensely each city searches for heartbreak guitar songs relative to the national average. Know more →
The Cities That Were Supposed to Lead.
And the Ones That Actually Did.
The Saddest Cities in America Are Not the Ones That Sing About It
Everyone expected Nashville to hurt the most. It has the songs, the history, the identity. Austin had the stages and the music. But Nashville ranks 13th at HGI 9.64. Austin ranks 16th at HGI 6.72. Both sitting quietly below the national average. 12 cities feel it more than Nashville. 15 feel it more than Austin. The saddest cities in America are not the ones that sing about it.
13th
Nashville's national ranking. The "Heartbreak Capital" is ordinary.
The Most Heartbroken Region in America Is the Midwest
The region with the most heartbreak songs hurts the least. The South. 33,750 searches. The biggest musical identity in America. HGI 8.6. Last place. The region with no heartbreak songs, no music capital, no cultural identity built around loss, leads everything. The Midwest at HGI 11.9. St. Louis, Minneapolis, Detroit, Kansas City. All quietly sitting above the national average. The South sang about the pain. The Midwest just sat alone with it.
11.9
Midwest avg HGI : highest of any region.
Nashville Ranks 5th in Country Music Searches. In Its Own Genre.
Nashville ranks 5th in country music searches. In its own genre. Memphis beats it at 9.4%. New Orleans beats it at 8.3%. San Antonio beats it at 8.0%. The city that gave America Dolly Parton, that turned heartbreak into an industry, that built the most famous music street in the world, is being out-countried by 4 other cities. And when Nashville's heart finally breaks? It searches for Wonderwall. Not Jolene. Not Dolly. Wonderwall. The identity crisis nobody saw coming and nobody knows how to explain.
5th
Nashville's ranking in country searches, in its own genre.
Miami Is the 8th Most Heartbroken City in America
Miami, a city defined by sunshine and warm water, ranks 8th nationally at HGI 12.32. More heartbroken per person than Nashville, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. The city that looks the least like heartbreak is quietly feeling it more than almost everywhere else. The weather is perfect. The heartbreak is not.
8th
Miami's HGI ranking. Heartbreak does not care about the weather.
New Orleans Is the Only City That Cannot Choose
New Orleans has never chosen between joy and grief. It has always held both at once. Wonderwall and Wish You Were Here sit tied at exactly 210 searches each. Iris follows at 200, just 10 searches behind. Three songs separated by the narrowest possible margin in a city of 362,000 people, unable to choose between hope and absence. For New Orleans that is not a coincidence. That is a character trait.
Tied
210 vs 210. The only city too undecided to choose a side.
The City That Started It All Is Still Holding Every Version of Heartbreak Equally
Memphis has seen every version of heartbreak there is. The blues. The country. The pop. And now Gen Z. And it still cannot choose between them. Jolene gets 90 searches. Every Gen Z heartbreak song combined gets 90 searches. A perfect tie in the city that invented guitar grief. Some places pick a side. Memphis just holds all of it.
90:90
Gen Z searches vs Jolene searches. A perfect dead heat.
How People Search
What Heartbroken Americans Are Really Looking For
The search data does not just show which songs people learn after heartbreak. It shows what kind of person is doing the searching. And what they reveal about themselves is more interesting than any ranking.
46.3%
Chord Searches
The most searched keyword across all 25 cities is "wonderwall guitar chords" with 10,460 searches. This is not someone starting a guitar journey. This is someone reaching for one specific song on one specific night. The chord chart is the prescription.
32×
Chords over Fingerpicking
Heartbreak does not advance guitar technique. It freezes development at the most emotionally accessible level. People in pain do not practice. They reach for the one thing they can play tonight and stop there. Chords tonight. Everything else later. Maybe never.
53%
NYC & SF Go Straight for Chords
Big city heartbreak is impatient. New York and San Francisco chord searches hit 53–54%. Memphis and New Orleans search for tutorials at 37–41%. Small city heartbreak wants to actually understand.
73%
Beginner-Accessible Songs
73% of all heartbreak guitar searches are for songs a beginner can learn in a single evening. When the pain is fresh, nobody reaches for ambition. They reach for something they can actually play tonight.
Conclusion
What 128,870 Heartbreak Searches Actually Told Us
128,870 searches across 25 cities and 25 songs. Every single one of them was made at a moment when someone needed something to hold on to.
This study set out to map what heartbroken Americans reach for when they pick up a guitar. What it found instead is a portrait of how people actually survive pain. Not through therapy or time or talking about it. Through three chords and a song that someone else wrote about the exact feeling sitting in their chest right now.
The surprises are everywhere. The most heartbroken region in America is the Midwest, the place least expected to show its feelings. The most intense city is St. Louis, population 279,695, a city nobody put on any list. Miami ranks above Chicago. Memphis, where the blues guitar was born, now sits quietly near the bottom. Some things are better lived than searched.
And through all of it, one song sits at number 1 in 22 out of 25 American cities. Thirty years old. Three chords. Written by a band from Manchester about a feeling that has no clean translation.
"Not because it is the greatest heartbreak song ever written. Because when everything falls apart, Wonderwall still sounds like maybe it does not have to stay that way. That is not a music finding. That is a human one."
Methodology & Limitations
How We Followed the Broken Hearts
Across 25 Cities
We analyzed guitar-related search behavior across 25 U.S. cities for 25 heartbreak songs, tracking over 1,500 keywords between March 2025 and March 2026.
Data & Selection
Song Selection
The 25 songs were identified through a systematic review of Reddit threads, published articles, guitar community forums, country music communities, Gen Z cultural references, and widely cited heartbreak guitar lists. Songs were selected based on consistent cross-source citation as songs people reach for during or after a breakup.
City Selection
Cities were chosen for music genre diversity, demographic spread across all major US regions, guitar retail and school density as a proxy for learning activity, college town presence for younger demographics, and a balance of major metro, mid-size, and small city types.
Keywords
For each of the 25 songs, keywords were built across four intent categories: basic tutorials, chord and beginner searches, advanced technique (fingerpicking, strumming patterns), and reference searches (YouTube, Ultimate Guitar, sheet music, covers). This produced 1,500+ unique keywords.
Data Source
All search volume data was collected via Google Keyword Planner, covering the period March 2025 to March 2026. Data reflects average monthly searches for each keyword within each city's geographic boundary.
Scoring Explained
To compare heartbreak guitar search intensity fairly across cities of very different sizes, we created two custom metrics: the Heartbreak Guitar Score (HGS) and the Heartbreak Guitar Index (HGI).
The Heartbreak Guitar Score (HGS) is a per-capita measure. It takes the average monthly searches for all heartbreak guitar keywords in a given city and divides that by the city's population, then scales the result per 100,000 residents. This means a smaller city like St. Louis can be compared on equal footing with a larger city like Chicago, without raw search volume alone deciding the outcome.
The Heartbreak Guitar Index (HGI) then benchmarks each city's HGS against the national average across all 25 cities in the study. A city with an HGI of 10 sits exactly at the national average. A city above 10 searches for heartbreak guitar songs more intensely than average. A city below 10 searches for them less. The higher the score, the more that city's residents are reaching for a guitar when love falls apart.
Scoring Formula
Step 1
HGS = (Avg Monthly Searches ÷ City Population) × 100,000
Step 2
HGI = (City HGS ÷ Avg HGS across all 25 cities) × 10
= 10
National Average
> 10
Above Average More Heartbroken
< 10
Below Average Less Heartbroken
Limitations
- This study measures search intent, not confirmed guitar playing. A search indicates an intention to learn, not a completed lesson or sustained practice.
- Google Keyword Planner rounds search volumes at lower numbers. Figures below 100 monthly searches should be treated as directional rather than exact.
- The study covers 25 cities and does not represent the entirety of the United States. Rural areas and smaller cities not included in the selection are not captured.
- Search volumes reflect English-language queries only. In cities with large Spanish-speaking populations such as San Antonio, Miami, and Houston, Spanish-language searches are not captured and may affect city-level totals.
- Population figures are based on city proper populations, not metropolitan statistical areas. Metro-level populations would produce different HGI scores, though relative rankings would remain largely consistent.
- Song selection relied on publicly available community sources. Songs with strong guitar learning communities not represented in English-language forums may be underrepresented.
The People Behind the Data
Wiingy Research Team
The Wiingy Research Team includes Shifa as the Lead Researcher, along with Research Analyst Sharanya. Together, they focus on data-driven studies that uncover emerging trends and meaningful insights. Their collaborative research plays a key role in guiding Wiingy's innovation and strategy.
Each member brings unique expertise, curiosity, and analytical thinking to the team. Through their work, the team continues to strengthen Wiingy's research foundation and impact.
Their insights drive the development of new initiatives and inform data-backed decisions that shape Wiingy's future. By staying ahead of industry trends, they ensure Wiingy remains a leader in the evolving education landscape.
Research Team
Shifa
Lead Researcher
Research Team
Sharanya
Research Analyst
About Wiingy
Wiingy is a top-rated tutoring marketplace that connects school students, college students, and young adults with over 4,500 expert-vetted tutors for 350+ subjects, including coding, math, science, computer science, AP, test prep, language learning, and music. Wiingy's CoTutor AI application also turns live lessons into engaging podcasts and review tools.
We are committed to providing our students with the highest quality education possible. We vet each tutor meticulously — our tutors are highly qualified, experienced, and, most importantly, passionate about helping students learn. Students and parents have continuously rated the teaching experience 4.8/5 and above.
In addition to our paid lessons, we also offer a number of free resources, including web tutorials, practice problems, and study guides. We believe that everyone should have access to high-quality education, regardless of their financial situation. Since our inception, we have helped over 20,000 students across 50+ countries reach their learning goals.
Find out more at Wiingy.com