If you’re in any
way depressed about the state of modern music then it might be time to look
away, change channels or simply go off-the-page. The end-of-year charts simply
back up what you already knew – guitar based rock or ‘indie’ music is very
firmly in decline.
While research commissioned by the BBC suggests that genres are of less importance to today’s music consumer the labels and media appear to be following an agenda that is predominantly urban, EDM or pop-led. In this instance the stats don’t lie.
UK Best selling singles of 2013
1. Robin Thicke feat TI and Pharrell - Blurred Lines
2. Daft Punk feat Pharrell - Get Lucky
3. Avicii - Wake Me Up
4. Passenger - Let Her Go
5. Naughty Boy feat Sam Smith - La La La
6. Katy Perry - Roar
7. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat Wanz - Thrift Shop
8. Pink feat Nate Ruess - Just Give Me A Reason
9. OneRepublic - Counting Stars
10. Justin Timberlake - Mirrors
The full forty is here in all its gory detail and, as I don’t subscribe to the theory that Passenger, Imagine Dragons or Bastille are even remotely identifiable as such, you’ll be searching in vain for an act that would be traditionally known as rock or indie.
As you might expect rock fares a little – but not much – better in the albums format.
UK Best selling albums of 2013
1. One Direction - Midnight Memories
2. Emeli Sandé - Our Version Of Events
3. Michael Bublé - To Be Loved
4. Robbie Williams - Swings Both Ways
5. Olly Murs - Right Place Right Time
6. Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox
7. Rod Stewart - Time
8. Arctic Monkeys - AM
9. Gary Barlow - Since I Saw You Last
10. Ellie Goulding - Halcyon
1. Arctic Monkeys
2. Bastille
3. Daft Punk
4. Eminem
5. One Direction
6. Imagine Dragons
7. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
8. Calvin Harris
9. Drake
10. Rihanna
Singles and album sales were slightly down on 2012, though singles had hit an all time high in that year and the slip is quite slight. Albums have been on a perpetual decline as the chart below proves.
While research commissioned by the BBC suggests that genres are of less importance to today’s music consumer the labels and media appear to be following an agenda that is predominantly urban, EDM or pop-led. In this instance the stats don’t lie.
UK Best selling singles of 2013
1. Robin Thicke feat TI and Pharrell - Blurred Lines
2. Daft Punk feat Pharrell - Get Lucky
3. Avicii - Wake Me Up
4. Passenger - Let Her Go
5. Naughty Boy feat Sam Smith - La La La
6. Katy Perry - Roar
7. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat Wanz - Thrift Shop
8. Pink feat Nate Ruess - Just Give Me A Reason
9. OneRepublic - Counting Stars
10. Justin Timberlake - Mirrors
The full forty is here in all its gory detail and, as I don’t subscribe to the theory that Passenger, Imagine Dragons or Bastille are even remotely identifiable as such, you’ll be searching in vain for an act that would be traditionally known as rock or indie.
As you might expect rock fares a little – but not much – better in the albums format.
UK Best selling albums of 2013
1. One Direction - Midnight Memories
2. Emeli Sandé - Our Version Of Events
3. Michael Bublé - To Be Loved
4. Robbie Williams - Swings Both Ways
5. Olly Murs - Right Place Right Time
6. Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox
7. Rod Stewart - Time
8. Arctic Monkeys - AM
9. Gary Barlow - Since I Saw You Last
10. Ellie Goulding - Halcyon
The top forty
has a few more glimmers of hope but not enough sparks to light a decent
bonfire. The streaming stats are
equally bleak for rockers everywhere with only the Arctic Monkeys making a
decent showing.
Most
streamed artists of 20131. Arctic Monkeys
2. Bastille
3. Daft Punk
4. Eminem
5. One Direction
6. Imagine Dragons
7. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
8. Calvin Harris
9. Drake
10. Rihanna
Singles and album sales were slightly down on 2012, though singles had hit an all time high in that year and the slip is quite slight. Albums have been on a perpetual decline as the chart below proves.
ALBUMS – UK MARKET VOLUMES BY FORMAT FOR THE PAST 5
YEARS: 2009 – 2013
|
Format
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2013 share %
|
2013 +/-
|
|
CD
|
112.5m
|
98.5m
|
86.2m
|
69.4m
|
60.6m
|
64.4%
|
-12.8%
|
|
LP
|
0.219m
|
0.234m
|
0.337m
|
0.389m
|
0.781m
|
0.8%
|
+100.8%
|
|
Digital
|
16.1m
|
21.0m
|
26.6m
|
30.5m
|
32.6m
|
34.7%
|
+6.8%
|
|
Other*
|
0.146m
|
0.104m
|
0.052m
|
0.147m
|
0.073m
|
0.1%
|
-50.5%
|
|
TOTAL
|
128.9m
|
119.9m
|
113.2m
|
100.5m
|
94.0m
|
100.0%
|
-6.4%
|
* 'Other' includes Cassette, MiniDisc, DVD Audio,
DVD Video, DMD and 7" box set albums.
All sales info © Official Charts Company
As in any popularity chart you can blame the consumer but it’s
not the only story. Record retailers had their own top ten
which is biased towards those people who shop at such outlets; at least they
seem to prefer rock music. The public
can only buy what is out there or what they’re aware of and the retailers seem
to recognise this, complaining that the labels release schedule was a little lacking.
The industry follows a trend as often as it creates one so
we shouldn’t expect much better for 2014. A genuine upsurge of guitar music –
and interest in guitar music – is needed in order for things to change much.
Rock is important to the wider industry because it tends to be a greater driver
of live which has become a greater source of revenue for artists of late. The
age of the mega track
is very evidently upon us, labels chase their tails rather than the long-tail
and it may never have been as tough to make it in a rock act as it is
currently.
The only way to rectify this is to return to great
song-writing and hard work, back to basics essentially. Good luck everyone it’s
clearly going to be another long, hard year.
Comments