Ever since Nielsen Music has been collecting data on music sales, rock 'n' roll has been America's favorite genre. But in 2017, rock is no longer king.
According to a new report, R&B and Hip-Hop have become the country's new favorite genre. And yes, they lumped 'R&B and Hip-Hop' together.
Over the first half of 2017, R&B and Hip-Hop have claimed about 25.1% of the market. Rock is second with 23%.
Pop is third with 13.4%, followed by Country (8%), Latin (5.7%), Electronic (4%), Christian / Gospel (2.5%), and Children's Music (1.4%). Bringing up the rear are Jazz and Classical, which both claim just 1% of the market.
Of course, this isn't based on a survey of people's interests, it's based on actual sales data, and that DOES include streaming.
And streaming is the main reason R&B and Hip-Hop are #1. If you counted only ACTUAL music sales . . . involving old-school stuff like cash and CDs . . . Rock would still be #1 by a pretty wide margin. Rock accounts for 42.7% of physical album sales, compared to just 15.6% for R&B and Hip-Hop.