Music Popularity by Genre: US
Music is a constantly fluctuating medium. The genre that dominates the market today is likely a different genre than what was popular when your parents were your age.
There are many different ways to dissect the music industry. Each state has their own interests, each demographic has their own interests. In reality, music taste is up to the individual. Statistics and data are just a generalization. With that being said there is still information that can be collected by reviewing data and record sales.
In the past, record sales were the reference point of an artist’s success and their paycheck. Now physical and digital record sales make up for barely 18% of all music revenue. Everyone has started streaming their music on applications such as Spotify and Pandora. Streaming makes up 79% of the music industry’s revenue now. (RIAA)
According the graphic above, rap was the top music genre of 2018, followed closely by pop. Rap drew in 21% of the total monetary income. Pop had 20%. This likely comes as no surprise. The music industry has been dominated by pop and rap for decades.
The most surprising statistic is the popularity of Latin music the US. Music is the universal language that anyone can understand. This is reflected by the fact that Latin is the 5th most popular genre of music in the states.
Even though rock is no longer the most popular genre of music there is something to be said about its longevity. Rock was in its golden age generations ago in the 70s and 80s. Even after 40–50 years rock is still the 3rd most listened to genre in the United States.
EDM is surprisingly unpopular. Clubs and young adults across America play EDM music regularly. EDM is likely too niche, music can’t dominate the market based off parties and clubs exclusively. To see the whole picture of the success of certain music genres you need to take a look at where these songs are being played most frequently.
The first thing that can be clearly seen on this map is that rap isn’t even mentioned. This could be attributed to how rap is distributed among the states. Almost everyone listens to rap occasionally but the residents of these states likely listen to their local top genre more frequently. Rap is likely moderately popular in all states instead of being super popular in any single state.
Based off the map above you’d be led to believe that country is the most widespread music in the US even though it’s the number 6 genre. This can be attributed to population density. Country is successful in a lot of states but those states are more sparsely populated therefore the impact of that success isn’t so great.
Also this map shows why EDM isn’t on top right now. EDM is only the most popular in one state. That state is Nevada, people go to Nevada to party in Vegas, its the optimal place for EDM to thrive. However the US isn’t all partying and clubs like Vegas, therefore its success is limited.
Sources:
BuzzMusic: https://www.statista.com/statistics/442354/music-genres-preferred-consumers-usa/
RIAA: https://www.riaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/RIAA-2019-Year-End-Music-Industry-Revenue-Report.pdf
G. Rose: https://grizzlyrose.com/most-popular-music-genre-by-state/
