Hip Hop emerged as an underdog. It was a voice for the voiceless and had the ability to affect positive change. Having grown from a grassroots cultural movement into a complex, multi-layered business that has birthed multi-millionaires (and almost a few billionaires) over the last 40 years, it’s interesting that it has just now (in 2017) become the dominant genre — edging out rock music for the first time in Nielsen Music history.
According to Forbes, Hip Hop and R&B (together) account for 25.1 percent of all music consumption in the U.S., while rock claims 23 percent. The combining of the two genres makes sense, as they intertwine to a degree that often makes them difficult to separate.
Rock still dominates tangible and digital album sales, and accounts for approximately 40 percent of all sales in the country, but that number is on a steady decline. Hip Hop and R&B account for 29 percent of all on-demand streams — a platform that is steadily growing. In fact, eight of the top 10 songs being streamed in the U.S. fall into the Hip Hop/R&B category.
These numbers offer similar insights as a Buzz Angle Music report HipHopDX featured earlier this month. In contrast to Nielsen, Buzz Angle suggests Hip Hop/Rap (not R&B) is the dominant genre. While the numbers don’t exactly line up due to their different methods of collecting data, the bottom line results are clear — urban music reigns supreme.
Find a partial Nielsen mid-year report here.
No surprise here. This culture that came from people of color yet we are still fighting for access and respect in other avenues of the entertainment business. Like jay said back in the day “Bullshit with rap if you want, m********s.”
Rock has been dead for so many years . Rock is underground . Who signs rock bands nobody . BS Rock died
Rock and Rap is black music! Respect deserved.
But at what cost. If you gotta sell out to win then you aint winnin shit. How much of those numbers apply to watered down pop bullshit. Not hatin just sayin its a hollow victory for any fan of rap or music in general for that matter.
Sellout? Rappers ain’t gave shit about selling out since the early 00’s…Plus who they ashamed to sellout to…the boogers shooting each other in the hood. Rap to get out the hood then forget that shit and leave it far behind, the hood ain’t never really helped anybody…black people succeed despite the hood, not becuz of it.
Yea the takeover is complete… Pop took over yet another genre and this time it’s called hip hop. Go fuck yourself with this “takeover”.
So can you rappers stop doing songs with Katy Perry and Taylor Swift now? Y’all number one stop making sellout songs.
Nielsen is probably counting many of those records as “Hip-Hop” if it has a “rapper” on it though..
If you can call most of the stuff played on radio hip hop or even rap since they just mumbling. What’s hot right now is far from that pic y’all put in the headlines.
So rock still wins in actual sales.. Hmm.. So Hip-Hop is disposable.. “Stream” it a few times and then move on to the next.. Sounds about right…. This is not an accomplishment. It shows the sad state that “Hip-Hop” is in..
Hiphop is #1 and New York hip-hop has been dead for years . So other regions made it #1 . Well ok then