Rock overtakes pop as the UK's most popular album genre, according to chart data

Rock has overtaken pop as the UK's most popular genre, according to data from the Official UK Charts Company.

Pop had been the most popular selling album genre in 2011 and 2012, but in 2013 it was overtaken by rock music thanks to records like Arctic Monkeys' 'AM' and Jake Bugg's debut and 'Shangri La', reports The Guardian. 40 per cent of the 10,000 best selling albums in the UK in 2013 were classified as rock, however, the five best selling LPs were pop, including albums by Emeli Sandé and One Direction as well as three 'Now That's What I Call Music' compilations.

A spokesperson for the BPI, Gennaro Castaldo, said in a statement: "While the appeal of pop remains consistent, the popularity of rock music tends to ebb and flow a little more, reflecting as it does the excitement that can quickly build around new acts as they burst through. With Arctic Monkeys now taking on near-iconic status, and the likes of Jake Bugg and Bastille to name a few connecting with a new generation of fans, rock music looks set to enjoy another wonderfully vibrant period."

Pop music singles however outsold rock music singles last year in the UK, with 36.2 per cent of pop singles to 21.4 per cent for rock.

Strangely I have started to re-discover my own rock roots here in Australia. I have been buying albums from Aussie bands such as Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Rose Tattoo, The Angels and even Buffalo and Lobby Lloyd. These bands were the heavy side of Australian rock back in the 1970s.

Loving them. Sounds refreshing compared to most modern music.

Strangely I have started to re-discover my own rock roots here in Australia. I have been buying albums from Aussie bands such as Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Rose Tattoo, The Angels and even Buffalo and Lobby Lloyd. These bands were the heavy side of Australian rock back in the 1970s.

Loving them. Sounds refreshing compared to most modern music.

Arctic Monkeys are 'bigger than Lady Gaga', says Tumblr executive

Arctic Monkeys have surpassed Lady Gaga in popularity on Tumblr, according to the blogging platform's music expert.

Alex Turner and co. are currently riding the wave of one of their most successful years to date following the release of fourth album 'AM' in 2013. On Saturday (February 8), Arctic Monkeys headlined New York's Madison Square Garden, their largest headlining US gig of their career to date.

Speaking about Arctic Monkeys' international popularity to The Guardian, Tumblr's Nate Auerbach revealed that in a 30-day period earlier this year there were 57,000 posts tagged "Arctic Monkeys". "This is bigger than Lady Gaga on Tumblr right now," says Auerbach, who is now working on a case study for Tumblr about Arctic Monkeys because of their unprecedented success on the site.

Is (c)Rap considered part of pop, or a 3rd category that's currently lower on the sales food chain?

Rock sub-genres
Over half of all Rock music purchased in the UK last year was defined as Contemporary Rock (18.8 per cent out of the 33.8 per cent figure), while 7.1 per cent of the total was A.O.R (Adult Orientated Rock) and 6.8 per cent was categorised as Metal/Heavy. Progressive or 'Prog' Rock (0.8 per cent) and Punk (0.3 per cent) made up the rest of the Rock category.

Dance on the rise
Another riser in the genres 'charts' was Dance music, which, propelled by such acts as Rudimental (Home), Calvin Harris (18 Months) and Disclosure (Settle), accounted for 8.3 per cent of the albums market - the genre’s highest share since 2006. Whereas only five Dance titles made it into the list of the 100 best-selling albums of 2012, last year saw this figure increase to twelve.

Bublé and Robbie swing it for MOR/Easy Listening
Dance came in just ahead of MOR/Easy Listening, which was responsible for 8.1 per cent of all albums sales in 2013 thanks mainly to the combined efforts of Michael Bublé (To Be Loved) and, somewhat ironically given his ‘Prince of Pop’ mantle, Robbie Williams (Swings Both Ways). The genre was also boosted by the strong performance of the Les Misérables Motion Picture Cast Recording.

Contemporary Urban: R&B and Hip Hop
R&B, which in recent years has been averaging a double-digit share, accounted for only 5.7 per cent of the albums market in 2013 – its lowest figure since 1995. This translated to just five titles in the list of 100 best-selling titles last year. Hip Hop fared little better, with just 3.6 per cent share of the market – albeit fractionally up on 2012 thanks to the strong performance of Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP 2 album. Tastes in music tend to be cyclical, but one further explanation for this dip may be that a number of artists whose heritage lies in Urban music have 'crossed over' into more mainstream Pop or even Dance in recent years.

Speciality genres
Heading the ‘Speciality’ genres is Classical music, which remains steady at 3.2 per cent of the albums market, ahead of Country (1.7 per cent), Jazz (1.3 per cent), Folk (1.2 per cent) and Blues (0.9 per cent). Reggae has a 0.7 per cent share of albums sales, with the remainder of the list made up by Children’s (0.2 per cent), World Music (0.2 per cent), Spoken Word (0.1 per cent) and New Age (0.1 per cent).

ahead of Country (1.7 per cent)

Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner uses Brit Awards acceptance speech to say 'Rock'n'roll will never die'

Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner used his acceptance speech at this evening's Brit Awards (February 19) to insist that "rock'n'roll will never die".

The Sheffield band won two awards at the ceremony at London's O2 Arena, taking home the gongs for British Group and British Album. "There's that 15 quid we put on One Direction to win down the drain," quipped Turner after he and his bandmates collected the first prize but, when picking up the award for British Album for last year's 'AM', he said: "That rock 'n'roll, eh? That rock'n'roll, it just won't go away. It might hibernate from time to time, sink back into the swamp. I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands that acquiesce to some of its rules.

"But it's always waiting there, just around the corner," he added. "Ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever. Yeah, that rock'n'roll, it seems like it's faded away sometimes, but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it." He then told organisers to "invoice me for the microphone if you wanna" before dropping it on the floor.

Have you heard a band from Down Under called Electric Mary? I first saw them at Experience PRS a few years ago and was totally blown away - they sounded to me like AC/DC but with a kick. There's not a ton of info that I've found online, but it looks like they've switched one guitarist since then. Worth a listen if you like that kind of stuff.

Lobby Loyde's album Obsecration is a masterpiece - a lot of this stuff has been remastered too; comes in these cardboard sleeves with reproduced artwork, liner notes and so on, from the original vinyl releases (Aztec Records).

http://www.aztecrecords.com.au/collections/aztec-music

Alex Turner: 'Brits speech was for people in the room who've never heard the term rock'n'roll'

Alex Turner has said that his Brit Awards speech was his attempt at teaching people about the importance of rock music.

The Arctic Monkeys frontman declared that rock 'n' roll would never die at the annual awards ceremony, hosted by Gavin and Stacey actor James Corden last month (February 19).

Collecting the Best Album award, Turner told the O2 audience: "Yeah, that rock'n'roll, it seems like it's faded away sometimes, but it will never die. And there's nothing you can do about it."

Speaking about the speech in this week's NME, which is on newsstands today (March 5) and available digitally, Turner explained the meaning behind his soapbox moment: "It's not aggressive," he says. "It's just about presenting an option that people may or may not know exists. It occurred to me that in that room, or certainly watching it on TV, were people who'd never heard the term 'rock 'n' roll' other than to describe a zip on a Topman jacket."

Speaking at the NME Awards 2014 with Austin, Texas, Turner continued: "I don't see it as a personal victory, but it seems in some way a victory for bands and the idea that you can start a band with your mates and eventually go on to move people or whatever you wanna call it. Using rock'n'roll as the most direct way of illustrating that was kinda what I was trying to do."

Arctic Monkeys won two Brit Awards, taking home British Group and British Album. The band collected five prizes at the NME Awards 2014 with Austin, Texas, including Best Album and Best British Band.

At the risk of being crucified, I have to ask---what is the difference between "rock" and "pop"?