For the first time ever a new study has found that, , hip-hop/R&B has surpassed rock music as the most consumed music genre in the US.
Findings from the Nielsen group – which provides “market research, insights and data about what people watch, listen to and buy” in the US – have created the data on the country’s yearly music consumption, with the group’s 2017 Year-End Report giving an indication of what Americans listened to previous year.
Hip-hop – along with R&B – account for eight of the 10 most popular artists based on total consumption, which takes into account album sales, track-equivalent albums and on-demand audio/video streaming-equivalent albums. The top 10 artists were led by Drake and Kendrick Lamar respectively, while the likes of Future, The Weeknd and Eminem also made the top 10.
The only non-hip-hop or R&B artists to break into the top 10 most-consumed artists chart were Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.
Hip-hop/R&B has also exceedingly contributed to a 59% rise in on-demand music streaming in the US, with artists from the two genres accounting for nine of the top 10 most-streamed acts in 2017.
In 2017 the best-performing rock artist was Metallica, whilst Imagine Dragons, The Beatles, Linkin Park and Twenty One Pilots made up the remainder of the top five.
At the beginning of this week, the BPI released the UK’s end-of-year sales figures for 2017– with the organisation hailing a “very bright future” for British music as a result of the findings.
> Shiuly Akter
