R+P Post 6: Current trends in popular music

To broaden the reach and appeal of our music video, we decided to investigate the current trends in the music industry to see which genres of music are having the most success.

On the UK music charts, half of the songs in the top 10 were pop songs or sub genres of pop. There were no rock songs on the top 10, which made me question how suitable a rock song would be for our music video. However, further research led me to discover this article which suggests that rock music has stronger album sales rather than single sales: rock music holds a third (33.2%) of all album sales, just behind the sales for pop music at 34.5%. 

The BFI also states that George Ezra's song "Budapest" helped rock music to claim "its biggest share of the singles market in four years." This is important as the music video for Budapest is a hybrid of concept and performance. As we are planning to make a video in a similar style, it is reassuring to see that this structure has had recent success.

My research into the music industry eventually led me to the BPI, where I found some information regarding their Music Market guide. Over 13% of music consumed worldwide is produced by British artists: a considerable amount when you look at it comparatively. Furthermore, British music has a respectable marketshare in several different countries including the US, Canada and Australia. This has made us consider how far we shall present our band with its British identity in order to take advantage of these trends in music consumption.