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While the meme above is probably nothing new to you, it took its time reaching Japanese Internet audiences. But now that it has shown up on this side of the ocean, we’ve learned something a bit surprising about Japanese rock fans.

Which instrument do you think was the most liked according to a recent online survey? We’ll give you a hint: Without it, the Red Hot Chili Peppers wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to listen to!

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Of course, the original implication was that, in terms of popularity among fans, singers get the most attention, guitarists and drummers get a decent amount of attention, and no one really cares about bassists or keyboardists. Based on our very limited experience talking with bassists, there may very well be a lot of truth to this–bassists tend to be the most ignored band members to take the stage, with a few rare exceptions like Flea.

At least, that’s how things go in the western world. A recent online survey of members of popular Japanese blogging platform Ameba, though, found some surprising results. When asked, “What part do you like best in a band,” the number two answer was “vocalist,” while number three was “drummer,” and number four was “guitarist.” In the number one position was, shockingly enough, “bassist!”

Whether the popularity of bassists was a random happenstance of Ameba’s user demographic or a preference that Japanese people share in general isn’t really clear–though the bass did have a five percent lead on vocals. If allowed to speculate, we might guess that the low, sexy rumble of the rhythmic instrument appealed to the respondents. Though it could also be that bass is perceived as being the easiest instrument to play and then an easier way to get into a band. Of course, we’re not saying that it is–please don’t have Flea come beat us up–only that many people might think that it is!

▼Or maybe everyone just got done watching Doris Yeh being absolutely amazing.

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Still, we were also pretty surprised to see drums ranked higher than the guitar–which leads us to think that maybe Japanese people just really like the rhythm section. And, honestly, who doesn’t love a good, solid groove?

Unfortunately for all the keyboardists out there, we’re sad to say that the keyboard came in sixth, after “other instruments.” Don’t worry, we here at RocketNews24 love you all equally! We just happen to love shamisen players equally more!

Sources: Byoukan Sunday, Excite New
Images: Byoukan Sunday, Wikipedia