POP BACK ON TOP AS BRITAIN’S MUSIC BUYING TASTES REVEALED

A third of albums sold in 2011 were Pop – the genre’s biggest share since 1999
Rock’s album share falls below 30% for the first time since 2003
Pop outguns Rock on singles 2-1 having doubled its share

16 January 2012 – Big-selling albums by Adele, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga and Jessie J helped Pop overtake Rock for the first time in seven years as new Official Charts Company figures released by the BPI today revealed Britain’s music buying tastes during 2011.

Led by the unstoppable Adele’s 14-times platinum album 21, seven of the Official Top 10 albums of 2011 were classified as Pop, boosting its share from 30.9% to 33.6% year-on-year – the genre’s biggest slice of the market since 1999. See full Top 20 biggest-selling albums of 2011 here: http://bit.ly/rqKY8H.

By contrast, Rock’s portion of album sales in 2011 fell from 31.2% to 29.4%, the lowest tally for guitar bands since 2003 (29.2%) and a significant drop from this century’s high of 41.5% in 2004. However, it was a good year for Coldplay as Mylo Xyloto smashed records in October by becoming the fastest-selling digital album in Official Albums Charts history, shifting over 80,000 units in its first week. The album became the sixth biggest-selling album of the year: http://bit.ly/tv09dM. The only other Rock album to land in the year-end Top 20 was Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

It was a promising year for fans of folk, with albums by the BRIT Award-winning Laura Marling and Bellowhead helping propel the genre to 1.6% of album sales, the highest this century. Hugh Laurie’s Let Them Talk and Seasick Steve’s You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks also helped Blues to boost its tally from 0.6% to 0.9%.

The proportion of MOR / Easy Listening albums rose to 7.9%, with Michael Bublé delivering the two biggest selling albums in the genre, Christmas and Crazy Love. Becoming the UK’s Official Christmas Number 1 album, Christmas also became the fourth album of the year to pass the one million sales mark: http://bit.ly/twcxiw.

Although Pop’s share of singles sales fell slightly during 2011, from 38.3% to 36.0%, top sellers including Adele’s Someone Like You ensured the genre remained dominant by a wide margin. Pop sold double the number of singles achieved by Rock, where the genre – led by Coldplay’s Number 1 single Paradise – ended the year with an 18% share of the market. See full Top 20 biggest-selling singles of 2011 here: http://bit.ly/uXaqsh.

The fortunes of Dance improved during 2011 with hits such as LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem, the UK’s third biggest-seller of 2011, helping to increase its share from 12.6% to 13.8% overall.

Classical singles enjoyed a massive leap in popularity last year, driven by the 2011 Official Christmas Number 1 single by the Military Wives and Gareth Malone, Wherever You Are. http://bit.ly/twcxiw.

The charity single became the first ever classical track to top the Official Singles Chart. It also became the first ever recipient of the new Official Singles Chart Number 1 Award – launched to mark the start of the 60th anniversary of the Official Singles Chart in 2012. The award, created by the Official Charts Company, will be given to every new Number 1 single from now, in conjunction with BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart with Reggie Yates: http://bit.ly/uqLMfG.

BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said, “2011 was a vintage year for Pop albums so it is hardly surprising that the genre has elbowed Rock aside as the nation’s favourite. Although Rock’s share is the lowest for eight years, it still accounts for three in ten of every albums sold so recent reports of its demise are premature.”

“Pop has managed to double its share of singles sales in the space of five years and now outsells Rock by two-to-one. It’s no coincidence that over the same period dozens of vibrant, digital music services have launched in Britain, enabling younger music fans to buy and enjoy tracks online at pocket money prices.”

Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot said, “Anyone following the Official Singles Chart over the past year will have noticed just how poptastic the tastes of British music fans have become – and it is a trend which is likely to continue this year. Aside from with new albums from Madonna, Robbie Williams, Lady Gaga and Ting Tings on their way, new releases by the likes of Olly Murs, One Direction and Westlife will keep people’s pop tastebuds satisfied. ”

This week…

Genre Week at theofficialcharts.com

Throughout this week theofficialcharts.com team presents Official Charts Genre Week. From Monday 16th to Saturday 21st January the spotlight will be thrown on Genre to reveal 2011’s Top 20 singles and Top 20 albums of each category. View the weekly genre charts: http://bit.ly/cf0IBK.

ENDS

2011 SALES BY TYPE OF MUSIC – ALBUMS

This table wouldn't copy paste so popped the graph up here: https://twitter.com/#!/seaninsound/status/158960800093048833

HOW THE GENRES ARE CALCULATED

The sales by type of music analysis on these pages is based upon retail sales across all formats on any titles allocated a genre on the Official Charts Company database – some repercentaging is undertaken to discount any ungenred titles. The analysis covers thousands of titles, and on albums includes both artist and compilation albums.

About BPI
The BPI is the representative voice of the UK recorded music business. The BPI is a trade organisation funded by its members - which include hundreds of independent music companies and the UK’s four major record labels. The BPI’s members account for approximately 90% of all recorded music sold in the UK, and globally the UK's recorded music market is the fourth biggest.

The BPI also organises the annual BRIT Awards show as well as the Classical BRIT Awards show. The organising company BRIT Awards Limited, is a fully owned subsidiary of the BPI. Substantial proceeds from both shows go to the BRIT Trust, the charitable arm of the BPI that has donated almost £15m to charitable causes nationwide, since its foundation in 1989.

For further information, please contact [dedacted] @bpi.co.uk.

About the Official Charts Company
The Official Charts Company is a joint venture between record labels' body the BPI and ERA, the Entertainment Retailers Association. The Official Charts Company is responsible for the commissioning, marketing, distribution and management of the UK's industry standard music and video charts and is endorsed by the BVA (British Video Association).

The Official Charts Company compiles its charts from sales information gathered across all key distribution (or entertainment) channels including all major high street retail chains, independent stores, supermarkets, mail order internet retailers and digital music service providers. This market research sample equates to 99% of the total UK singles market; 98% of the total UK albums market and 90% of the total UK DVD market.

View the Official Charts
The Official Charts Company publishes the full Official Singles Chart and Official Albums Charts Top 100 and Genre charts online at http://www.theofficialcharts.com/music-charts/. You can also search our historical chart archive from the Access The Archive box on the home page, here you can search the Official Charts Company archive by date, artist, song or album title or keyword.

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