R&B and hip hop are biggest draws for fans
Rock is no longer the top dog in music. For the first time, R&B/ hip hop has surpassed rock to become the biggest music genre in the U.S. in terms of total consumption, according to Nielsen Music’s 2017 year-end report.
Eight of the 10 most listenedto artists of the year came from the R&B/hip-hop genre, led by Drake, with 4.8 million album equivalent units (combined album sales, song downloads and streams), and Kendrick Lamar (3.7 million). Rap also experienced the second-highest growth of any genre, spiking 25 per cent from 2016 and coming in just behind Latin music, which was up 30 per cent in total volume.
Hip hop dominated the charts in 2017, with viral hits such as Lil Uzi Vert’s XO Tour Llif3, Future’s Mask Off and Post Malone’s Congratulations ranking among the 10 bestselling tracks of last year, according to BuzzAngle Music and Mediabase.
Rap up-and-comers Cardi B (Bodak Yellow) and Migos (Bad and Boujee) each spent several weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 with their respective singles, while four of the five Grammy nominees for album of the year were R&B or hip-hop artists.
Album and song sales dropped 19 per cent last year against 2016. But streaming surged in their wake, growing 43 per cent with 400 billion streams total (compared with 252 billion in 2016).
Other insights from Nielsen about 2017 in music include: • Ed Sheeran’s Divide was the most popular album of the year with 2.8 million album equivalent units. It was followed by Kendrick Lamar’s Damn (2.7 million) and Taylor Swift’s Reputation (2.3 million). • Reputation was released in mid-November, but still sold 1.9 million copies in 2017, enough to make it the top-selling album of 2017. It’s one of only two albums to surpass one million in sales last year, along with Divide. • Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s summer anthem Despacito, featuring Justin Bieber, was the biggest song of the year in terms of total sales (2.7 million downloads) and streams (1.3 billion). • Streaming accounted for 54 per cent of all audio consumption, composing the majority of audio consumption for the first time. • Nineteen songs surpassed 500 million streams in 2017. Of those, 17 came from the R&B/hip-hop genre. • Despite rap’s dominance on streaming platforms, rock continues to be the biggest genre for album sales, accounting for 35 per cent of all albums sold. • Vinyl LP sales were up nine per cent from 2016 and now account for 14 per cent of all physical albums sold.