Which genre of music dominates the United States?
 

Just wanted to see what your opinions are on which genre dominates the US. I personally feel like top40s rap nearly controls over half of people in my age range (18-25). All it seems to focus on is blowinnn stacks on dahh shawwwtayy and babbling about nothing worth while to humanity. Kind of sucks because only a few decades ago the airwaves were filled with wholesome (not all) vibes from artists who actually were writing music to allow us to understand one another.

We'll see where this one goes.

thanks for your feedback a head of time.

It's really hard to get a consensus on this type of thing without looking at sales charts.

We all live in a variety of cities, some urban some rural, hang out with different groups of people, have our own tastes in music which may determine what we are exposed to, etc. Obviously top 40 dominates, but is it rap, rock, dance pop? I don't know.

As in live bands or album sales?

I'd say indie rock is pretty big right now, bands that commonly get to play on TV spots and huge gigs are traditionally the ones that are revered among the indie community. Bands like Fleet Foxes, Spoon, Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, the Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, etc etc etc.

It's an amalgamate of genres but it seems like Country has been getting really big.. sadly. Other than that it seems like Rap and Hip Hop are starting to combine with Dance and that, whatever you call it, is big now as well.

I have no idea though. I'll stick to my awesome genres

Most popular? Well, let me flip open my latest issue of Rolling Stone.
iTunes Top 10
1. Taio Cruz
2. B.O.B.
3. Rihanna
4. Train
5. Lady Gaga
6. Justin Bieber
7. Black Eyed Peas
8. Lady Antebellum
9. Timbaland
10. Kesha

Well... that just about says it all. However, my age group's chart is a lot more respectable.
College Radio Top 10 Albums
1. Gorillaz
2. Hot Chip
3. Yeasayer
4. Joanna Newsom
5. Broken Bells
6. Beach House
7. Spoon
8. Local Natives
9. Liars
10. Vampire Weekend

Yes! Indie is getting really big too.

I wish indie would stay right where it's at. It's been popular for so long already I hate to think of where it's going as it gains popularity. It cannot end well. It never does.

Unfortunately that includes some of the worst music going right now.

The National for example.

You mean you don't like this? :p:




Yeah, it's awful.

Yes it is. I think The National define everything wrong with contemporary indie and I'm 100% serious when I say that Creed are a better band.

Indie grows more handicapped as artists like Wavves not only emerge, but are accepted by the general populous.

I usually don't bash entire genres or movements... and I usually am pretty open-minded to mainstream stuff. But I couldn't agree more that mainstream hip-hop is in a very sad state. There are a couple of gems now and then, but the majority of it seems to be so-called RnB (which today means hip-hop without rapping) or... for lack of a better word.. hip-pop (yes I made a pun), which seems to fuse pop singing with modern hip hop production.

I call that pop-hop, and pop-hop is really, really big right now, Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga at it's forefront.

Wow you must really hate this band. :D I personally don't like them and find this song pretty boring, but I'd listen to it before Creed any day of the week.

I love creed. Wheatherd was a brilliant album.

Anyway, I'm not american so I don't know. I suppose looking at the charts is the only way to tell. It does seem like "Indie rock" and rap (hip-pop or whatever you want to call it) dominates the american music scene right now.

this question cannot be answered

it's like asking "what kind of food do europeans like?"

indie's going to be fine, but its going to get refined down to a few characteristics that will end up defining the genre like grunge did.

Or it should. The internet is making guesses harder.

And y the by, i happen like the national.

the odd thing by stating indie as a genre is that it in theory is not a genre.
what i am seeing the last 1.5 year mainly is that shoe-gaze/dream pop, garage and lo-fi is getting a ''revival''.(take lo-fi as broad as you can just as you could with indie).
I must admit i don't follow the charts so i could be wrong. and it's probably somewhat different here(i don't know what is living here since i don't listen to the radio or watch music channels here since we don't got decent ones)

Believe me, I fought this for years. But it actually has turned into a genre and a certain style. Can't fight it any more. That's why it's harder to categorize now...tons of bands used to be considered indie because they were on indie labels and sort of rooted in punk, now if they don't sound like typical indie, some people have a hard time calling them as such.

Mainstream hip hop is the most dominate right now and it's been that way since like 2002, but electropop is starting to gain lots of popularity here. Hopefully it'll supplant hip hop real soon.

I'd say mainstream pop music. You hear it everywhere.

Moody bland-pop is pretty big. Example: The Fray and all of their sound-a-likes.

I find this conversation interesting in that when I first read the thread title, I was thrown off. My initial reaction was to think...well duh... pop music.... it's POPULAR music... but as I thought this I realized that the term really has lost its meaning. Though I still think popular music reigns because it speaks to a broader age group than hip hop.
What's funny is that we discovered the same phenomena with indie music. Indie no longer means independent musicians but refers to a sound that has become so big, most "indie" musicians are on major labels.

Funny how words lose their meanings.

Synthetic drivel pop and it's hip hop derivatives.

I think personally, due to the Internet, EVERYTHING is getting bigger.

However, I'd say over the past few years the broadcast radio/MTV has certainly been pushing for more Hip-Hop and Pop. Rock, even of the most commercial variety, is fading out of that spectrum.

What I think is happening though is you're looking at music as three entirely different audiences.

A) Casual people who look to MTV to sustanance. This group will pretty much accept anything, and everything, shoveled into their mouth. They don't care what it is, but just get into it because everyone likes music.

B) Others who look to MTV but chose only to do it because they really don't have an alternative medium advertised. They will not listen to college radio or go out of their way to find their own niche, so they accept what's given to them and discern in that.

C) People who demand something specific in music. Will only listen to what they like, and will not allow MTV to sway them. These are the people who get into what was known as indy or alternative pre-Nirvana. This is where Punk/Underground culture came from.

In the 80s, pop was big. Pop was a genre that seemingly(even by namesake) was developed solely to sustain an audience quickly, and effectively. Of all musical traits, accessibility and mass producability are the end goals. This pleased audience A, and only slightly sustained audience B, and completely alienating audience C.

In the early 90s there was a shift to Alternative Rock. Why? Audience A will always be Audience A, but Audience B craved something slightly more. Being exposed to Audience C's music, Audience B demanded MTV shift a little more to their will as consumers. This could be described as a shift in dominant genre. Sure, Madonna was still releasing things, but definitely took a backseat to Pearl Jam. This is also the era where mainstream began to push more aggressive music like Rage Against The Machine, or Korn. (I mean, aggressive by mainstream standards)

Recently, we've noticed a shift back to the 80s pop first ideology. The only problem is, I don't believe this is a shift in dominant genre. What this is, actually, is a result of the invention of the Internet. I'd say that with the Internet, Audience B is becoming more specialized with an exposure to Audience C's music on a grander scale.

With Internet culture, Audience B has diversified. What was the very commercial grunge/alternative "rock" audience is now becoming too specialized to target. So, they're pushing forward Lady GaGa to appeal to Audience A, who want music that's specially accessibly, and can be forgotten in a week for something that's basically the same.

I don't think this makes "pop" the dominant genre. I think this is proof that in this day and age, genre itself is dissolving. If we're going for simply numbers, than pop rules the day. However, I believe it's much weaker than before, it's just that other genres have split into allowing a more customized view on music per person.

Then again, maybe I'm just an optimist.

Pop, basically what everyone else is saying. Whenever an album comes out that isn't pop, it makes the charts for like a week tops. But when a pop album comes out, it's there for weeks. Anything that gets significant play time on the radio gets pretty popular, generally rap or pop.

Seems to be that the most popular is either hip-hop, or all that really annoying poppy Alternative music like 3oh3 and Paramore for example (and don't take offence if you like those bands. Lol.)

Hip Hop (more like Pop Rap) was the dominate genre for a while, but Electropop is starting to take care of that.

Tbh i don't really follow music trends, but here's what I can observe judging from people from my school.

First you have the Top 40 crowd, basically sheep who follow every rnb, electropop, hip hop artist who is 'popular' atm.

Then you have the heavy rock people. People (usually guys) who listen to heavy metal, or rock, like AC/DC or Nirvana or Led Zeppelin. Some branch off into metal like Bullet For My Valentine, Slayer, Slipknot, etc.

Then you have the indie people. There are two groups. One is the emo/pop punk crowd who have bands like The Maine, You Me At Six, alexisonfire, etc. The second is the indie rock/brit pop, who listen to Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, Modest Mouse, etc. Often these two groups overlap.

And a smallish group are ravers, who listen to like Deadmau5 and Daft Punk. A nice bunch of people.

Oh, and the rappers. Who listen to old school rap.

There's a couple I kind think of. Synth-pop, Hip-hop, and like anti-war94, those bands that are like a mix of Alt. and pop (Which 30h3! doesn't really fit in. I was thinking more of things like Maroon5 or Neon Trees).

I personally think that pop-punk is making a comeback but in a bad way. Also the whole "Crunkcore" movement is pretty popular..like 3OH!3 and BrokenCYDE..which totally blow.