There’s no question that the way we consume music these days has changed drastically from the days of vinyl, cassette tapes, and even CDs. In fact, according to the Nielsen Music Mid-Year Report, streaming music has seen a 62% increase for the first six months of 2017 over the same period in 2016. Music streaming has resulted in fewer album sales, and for the first time ever Hip-Hop/R&B has overtaken Rock as the most popular music genre as far as consumption goes.
R&B/Hip-Hop has become the largest share of overall volume (Album + TEA (track equivalent album) + SEA (streaming equivalent album)), with 25.1% of the total volume coming from the R&B/Hip-Hop genre. Rock, which had always been the largest genre in the past, slips to second with 23% of the total volume.
The total volume doesn’t paint a full picture either as Rock did dominate Total Album Sales with 40.1% over 17% for Hip-Hop/R&B, but fell short for On-Demand Streams with only 16% while Hip-Hop/R&B captured 29.1% of that statistic.
In fact, no Rock artist or band was listed in the Top 10 Album Consumption chart, while Metallica’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct was the only album by a Rock group to hit the Top 10 Album Sales chart in the fifth spot. The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 compilation — made up of mostly rock tracks — made the list as well. That being said, artists of the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Drake, The Weeknd, and Future dominated the Top 10 charts. Given the popularity of Hip-Hop/R&B on the Top 100 charts, it’s quite possible that people listening to Top 100 lists helped the genre overtake Rock.
As one would expect, the ability to stream virtually any album or track that you want to listen to would affect album and song sales. Compared to the first six months of last year, digital album sales are down by 19.9%, digital track sales are down by 24%, while physical album sales are down by 17%.
What do you think about Hip-Hop/R&B overtaking Rock as the most popular music genre — a spot Rock has held for decades? Do you think Rock music can bounce back? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2017/us-music-mid-year-report-2017.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Neilsen[/button]
