There’s long been a debate about whether guitar music is dead but a new survey is declaring that rock music, as a whole genre, may be fading in popularity.
As Forbes report, Nielsen Music‘s annual mid-year report has looked at music consumption in the US and for the first time ever, hip-hop/R&B is the dominant genre.
It’s knocked rock from the top position with the genre now accounting for 23 per cent of all music consumption, while hip-hop/R&B accounts for 25 per cent.
It’s not all bad news for rock music though. It still accounts for 40 per cent of all album sales in the US. Hip-hop/R&B, however, is more popular on Spotify and Apple Music than both pop and rock combined, accounting for over 29 per cent – a figure that is reportedly growing fast.
Of the 10 most streamed songs in the US this year, at least eight fit into the hip-hop/R&B genre including Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Humble’, Future’s ‘Mask Off’ and Migos’ ‘Bad And Boujee’.
Australia is less inclined to listen to hip-hop/R&B. The Aussie Spotify charts right now feature three songs from the genre in the top 10.
It’s also interesting to note that hip-hop has had some big artists release music this year including Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
Some of rocks biggest acts are still to release albums this year including Foo Fighters and Queens Of The Stone Age.
