Wondering what music Google Talk users are listening to? Me neither, frankly, but if I DO, I can find out at Google Music Trends at http://www.google.com/trends/music.

There are a whole series of popularity charts here, allowing you to break down popularity of music both by genre and country. Glancing at Heavy Metal in the US, I see that it’s topped by Ozzy Osbourne and dominated by the likes of Tool and Metallica. Moving out of the country, though, I see that Heavy Metal charts in the UK also have Ozzy but also offer up artists like Rob Zombie and… Creed?

Creed is heavy metal? I must have missed the memo. Anyway, the charts include artist name, song title, and the position on the trends chart over time (most of the ones I looked at were marked “new!”) Clicking on the artist name or title takes you to Google’s musical information offerings.

The first thing I wondered when I saw this is “How many people are contributing to the creation of these charts?” I know it’s Google Talk users, but how many? I still don’t know, but there’s an overview of the service at http://www.google.com/trends/music?where=help. That page also shows how you can participate in Google Music Trends when using Google Talk.

Interesting information. I just wish I knew how many people it covered.