Cultural Signifiers

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Bone-deep hatred for the Harry Potter series is an interesting example of a cultural signifier that someone is either hard left or hard right. You have to get into why they hate it to know which.

As to Sleater-Kinney, I know who they are and in many ways I guess I fit the profile of someone who "would" listen to them (upper-middle-class white leftist, lives in a heavily white-liberal area, LGBT and friends with mostly lesbians), but in practice I couldn't even name any of their songs for the life of me. Maybe Vampire Weekend is an example of a bougie "coalition of the ascendant" center-left-to-left band that I do listen to?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I think listening it certain kinds of music is a dead giveaway. For an obvious example, Sleater-Kinney’s fans are almost always left-leaning due to their politics and Carrie’s preferences towards women. The fact they are from the Pacific Northwest doubles down on this. Their fans tend to also be people who like other female indie musicians, middle to upper class, white, female, and often LGBTQ. Sleater-Kinney is also pro choice as well and supports black lives matter.   

Literally who the hell is Sleater-Kinney

Seriously?

I checked the name on Google after writing that, but I literally have never heard "Sleater-Kinney" anywhere else in my life.

(by the way, I am not sure musical acts are necessarily cultural signifiers, for example plenty of left-leaning people listen to Kanye)

I was kind of joking about Sleater-Kinney. They’re not exactly a household name but neither are they particularly obscure, but I understand that someone like yourself who (correct me if I’m wrong) is more into metal and prog hasn’t heard of them.

As to music, I think it can have some correlation to political views. Hip-hop suggests more liberal views, or at least more pro-Democrat, as the listener base is African-Americans and younger whites. Similarly alt rock/indie also leans left and country right. Classic rock is harder to pin down; it is most popular among white male boomers (a generally Republican group), but it does enjoy very wide and ubiqitous popularity.

Obviously it is lazy to assume someone’s political views based off of musical tastes and there are loads of exceptions, but there are some implications to be made both from demographics of listeners and the general attitude/philosophy of the music.

I think your analysis is correct.

In any case I am not actually into metal, I just have a massive Metallica crush. I am more into prog rock, though.

For music, the conservative equivalent is obviously country, especially since it's not just listened to in the South anymore.

For brands, I agree with Chick-fil-A as a proxy for the group that OP stated.  Living in perhaps the epicenter of those types of voters, you would be amazed at how long the lines at Chick-fil-A get (they often back up traffic on nearby streets).  Another cultural signifier I would add on the right is college football.  There's a reason that Trump has taken such an aggressive stance in favor of college football being played.  It might not get as much attention, but college football's fanbase is basically just as conservative as NASCAR's or golf's.

https://www.businessinsider.com/politics-sports-you-like-2013-3

Idk if college football's a cultural signifier for the right as much that's just a reflection of it being really popular in the South and no one in BosWash caring, which imo more reflects the history of sports and universities in both regions more than anything cultural.

"The history of sports and universities in both regions" very much is a cultural difference, though, it's just not "cultural" in the sense of being about sumptuary habits or tastes in media.