Hip-Hop Is The Most Popular Music Genre For The First Time In US History

Hip Hop has become America’s favorite genre.

According to Nielsen Music’s mid-year report, the genre has nabbed the top spot for the first time in history, dethroning rock music.

Hip-hop and R&B, which are combined by the metric company, make up 25.1 percent of the music consumed in the US. Forbes attributes the rise of hip-hop’s popularity to streaming services, noting that while rock still leads with physical album sales, those numbers have started to decline. Physical album sales also aren’t exactly the best representation of how music is consumed today.

Still, all of this makes sense if you’re an avid music listener with their eye on streaming charts, which regularly features hip-hop and R&B acts in the top ten.

With streaming becoming the dominant form of music consumption, expect to see more monumental shifts in the music industry.