Patrick Ryan of USA Today reports:
Rock is no longer the top dog in music.
For the first time ever, R&B/hip-hop has surpassed rock to become the biggest music genre in the U.S. in terms of total consumption, according to Nielsen Music’s 2017 year-end report.
Eight of the 10 most listened-to artists of the year came from the R&B/hip-hop genre, led by Drake, with 4.8 million album equivalent units (combined album sales, song downloads and streams), and Kendrick Lamar (3.7 million). Rap also experienced the second-highest growth of any genre, spiking 25% over 2016 and coming in just behind Latin music, which was up 30% in total volume.
Hip-hop dominated the charts in 2017, with viral hits such as Lil Uzi Vert’s XO Tour Llif3, Future’s Mask Off and Post Malone’s Congratulations ranking among the 10 best-selling tracks of last year, according to BuzzAngle Music and Mediabase. Rap up-and-comers Cardi B (Bodak Yellow) and Migos (Bad and Boujee) each spent multiple weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with their respective singles, while four of the five Grammy nominees for album of the year were R&B or hip-hop artists.
More insights from Nielsen about the year in music:
* Streaming now accounts for 54% of total audio consumption, composing the majority of audio consumption for the first time ever. (For comparison, streams accounted for 38% of total audio consumption in 2016 and a mere 22% in 2015.)
* 19 songs surpassed 500 million streams in 2017; of those, 17 came from the R&B/hip-hop genre.
* Despite rap’s dominance on streaming platforms, rock continues to be the biggest genre for album sales, accounting for 35% of all albums sold.
* Vinyl LP sales were up 9% from 2016 and now account for 14% of all physical albums sold. The most popular? The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, thanks in part to a deluxe anniversary reissue on vinyl.
Read more at USA Today.
source: usatoday.com
41 Responses
Oh, excuse me Dana for not making it clear that I understood the example you provided.I was attempting to be funny/sarcastic and clearly didn’t get that across. I always enjoy your comments, and loved the sad example of what makes a hit today. ;o) Hard to call that music…I’m sure it’ll beat Maiden into the RRHOF.
Thanks for posting this stuff.
Cheers, Brent T
Oh Bret,
I got your sarcasm, but felt I had to apologize anyway. 😉
D 🙂
You’re a sweetheart…my God that was bad, though. \mm/
I know it is bad, and this is what passes for musical talent these days? Ugh. Again, so sorry. 🙁
dana, what do I win for watching the whole video? there’s 4 minutes i’ll never get back.
You win the distinct honor of bravery. Sorry about those four minutes.
D
Totally agree with the posts on this one. I’ve never seen the appeal of Rap/ Hip Hop “music”. Just because someone can string together some words that may rhyme, and speak these words over some pre-recorded (and usually sampled) back beat, we have to call it music? You don’t have to learn to play an instrument, you don’t have to learn how to sing. Where is the talent in that?!! The lyrics to most of these rap songs are also usually about the same crap – “I’m the baddest thug, with the most money, and I’m gonna have sex with the most women!” The songs back in the 80’s that the PMRC was so up in arms about have NOTHING on most of the rap songs, when it comes to filthy or violent lyrics! I mean, I know I’m getting old. And I probably sound a lot like my father back in the day when he talked about the music that I was listening to. But I am so glad the my son is not a fan of this stuff.
I tapped out after 36 seconds.
its really awful that this genre if you can call it that has overtaken real music made by real musicians –
this is a problem that has a lot of layers to it , this is my opinion only – rock started to decline when file sharing began, and I think a lot of us as fans have to take part of the blame , when you can listen for free to pretty much everything you want with a click well …we are all guilty of it – rock started to lose its importance in the social consciousness’ a bit – and the newer rock bands sound very derivative they are not bringing a lot of originality to the table – also the older established hard rock bands from the 70’s 80’s and 90’s are not helping -their new music sounds very dated for the most part and they continue to cling to their old tired rock look and clothes that look foolish on men in their 50’s and 60s – example, I love rival sons and greta van fleet but while they are really great players they sound too much like zeppelin – I think the rock genre needs a serious makeover and needs an injection of new blood that can bring something new and can really try to reinvent rock and get young people interested again – rock is not dead but it is pretty sick – would love to hear everyone’s thoughts –
I think the reason rock is on a decline, is a combination of a sign of the times, and what the PR machine pushes down the consumer’s throat.