Hip-Hop Surpasses Rock To Become The Most Popular Genre In The U.S.

While many EDM listeners like to live in our own little bubbles of PLUR and drops, much of the rest of the country is listening to something else. Whether it’s rock, blues, hip hop or even bluegrass, there’s something for everyone… actually, I take some of that bad. A lot of people are listening to hip hop.

Nielsen Music reports on all type of audio consumption, from the top songs to the top genres. One of the most notable findings this year is that over a quarter of the U.S., 25.1% to be exact, now listens to hip hop. That alone is notable; however, taking it one step further, hip hop is now officially the most-listened to genre ahead of rock, which has fallen to just 23%. (Rock still makes up over 40% of album sales in the US, though. Rock on.)

Looking at some of the top songs of the year, this really shouldn’t come as a surprise. With tracks like “Bad and Boujee” and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN making their rounds, not to mention the ubiquitous popularity of artists like Drake, Jay Z, and Chance the Rapper, it makes total sense.

In other news, the report notes that “on-demand audio streams have reached over 184 billion streams so far in 2017, a considerable 62.4% increase over the same time period in 2016.” That’s massive. With services like SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music putting a tighter choke hold than every on the music industry, more and more people are now streaming their music exclusively, rather than downloading.

As for the report where dance music is concerned, we’ve already gone over how The Chainsmokers dominated everything. Big surprise.

The full Nielsen Music Report can be downloaded here.

Photo via The Holy Mountain for Insomniac