So, Tennessee Loves the '80s and Whitney Houston

If you've ever wondered what was being done with the reams of personal data you generate when you use social media, we've got at least one answer for you. Real estate listings aggregator/organizer Estately.com

from Facebook to learn about cultural touchstones across the country — specifically, about strength of nostalgia for the 1980s, the birth decade of a big hunk of the current and upcoming generation of home buyers. Estately tracked online mentions of 15 cultural icons from the '80s — from Madonna to Mr. T — which told them 1) which state mentioned a given icon the most and 2) which state mentioned the most icons overall. (HT to the Scene's onetime music editor Tracy Moore.)

The results indicate that The Bluegrass State misses the Me Decade the most, showing strong support for Dirty Dancing, Dallas and Reagan; even though Kentucky didn't rank Number 1 for mentions of any particular icon, their average of high rankings puts them at the peak. Though Hawaii has more mentions of Atari than any other state in the union, they're unimpressed by Van Halen, Mr. T and Golden Girls.

"But what about us?" you might ask. Not only do we rank Number 2 in overall '80s references, right behind Kentucky, but we apparently love the late Whitney Houston more than anyone else. Our closest competitors in that regard are Louisiana and Mississippi, which rank 19th and 37th, respectively, in the overall numbers. Total posers, I say. Couldn't tell a slap bracelet from a Garbage Pail Kid. Louisiana does mention The Cosby Show more than anyone else, so they get some bonus props from me.

Anyway, why are we so into Whitney? As Scene/Cream staffer Adam Gold wonders — is it our overabundance of trained vocalists? As Scene editor-in-chief Jim Ridley posits, do we suffer from "a fatal genetic susceptibility to melisma"? Is it a predisposition to like anything related to Dolly Parton?

Let us know what you think in the comments. Need some inspiration? Spin a few choice Whitney clips after the jump.

I always thought this would make a cool ringtone.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" — yeah, it's partly the inspiration for this, but it definitely doesn't belong here.

Just shoopin' around.