The RIAA began taking the survey in 1989 and Rock has been the top pick with U.S. fans since the very first survey.  This year rock’s popularity seemed to grow while Pop music dropped from 2nd place to third, being replaced by Rap/Hip-hop. 

Rock went from 24.4% last year to 24.7% this year. Rap/Hip-hop jumped almost 2.5 points to 13.5%, while the R&B/Urban genre came in third at 11.2%.  Country music made a jump from 10.6% to 11.2% but pop music took a nosedive from 12.1%  in 2001 to 9% this year. 

Other findings in this survey show that women inch out men when it comes to buying music as they account for 50.5% of the market. Surprisingly, the biggest age group for music isn’t the youngsters who are often referred to as “tweens” but the 45 and over crowd who made up 25.5% of the market.  Lagging far behind in second place at 13.3% is music consumers between the age of 15-19. 

What these results will mean in the market place is unknown but it does appear that the pop bubble has burst and rock is still king but look for even more focus on Rap/hip-hop and R&B/urban. With their rising popularity, record companies are sure to try and cash in. 
 

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