Nielsen reports hip-hop has surpassed rock as the most consumed music genre in the United States

Why it matters

July 17, 2017. Nielsen Music's mid-year report found that R&B/hip-hop had, for the first time in the agency's tracking history, surpassed rock as the most-consumed music genre in the United States. The numbers: 25.1% of total US music consumption for R&B/hip-hop, versus 23% for rock. The shift was driven almost entirely by streaming, where hip-hop had been dominant since the 2014 methodology change made streaming count. Of the year's top ten most-streamed songs in the US, eight were rap. The list included Migos's "Bad and Boujee," Kendrick's "HUMBLE.," Drake's "Passionfruit," Future's "Mask Off," Travis Scott's "goosebumps," and Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3." The report was not the moment hip-hop became the dominant genre; the cultural conversation had been treating hip-hop as the dominant genre for at least a decade. The Nielsen number was the moment commercial-music-industry tracking caught up with the cultural fact. You can argue the consequence was that rock-and-rap funding decisions at the major labels shifted irreversibly toward rap after 2017. The evidence supports the argument.