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Pop most popular genre in UK in 2012

By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 14 January 2013

Pop remained the most popular type of music in the UK for the second year running in 2012, according to stats from the Official Charts Company and BPI released today.

The pop genre dominated in both the album and singles domain, accounting for 33.5% of album sales (down just slightly on 33.6% in 2011), and 38.5% of singles, its highest share for a decade. Though for those persisting with the “rock’s coming back, no really, it is, look, rock” thing, the rock genre did account for a bigger share of album sales in 2012 than in 2011 – 31.3% compared to 29.4%. Though still someway off 2006, when 41.5% of album sales came from rock releases.

Commenting on the stats, BPI boss Geoff Taylor told CMU: “British music fans’ love affair with pop music continued in 2012, fuelled by strong album releases from home-grown talent. But there is good news for rock fans too, with the genre fighting back to its strongest performance since 2008. In the singles market, pop grabbed its biggest share for ten years. The great range of digital music services in the UK, integrated into many mobile devices, is making it easy for younger music fans to get into buying music”.

Meanwhile OCC MD Martin Talbot added: “It is apt that, in the year that we celebrated 60 years of the Official Singles Chart, pop music remained as robust as ever in 2012 – through the likes of Emeli Sandé, Carly Rae Jepsen, Adele, One Direction, Olly Murs and Lana Del Rey, among others. But, with many commentators predicting that guitar music will return over the next couple of years, it is also notable that rock music in its broadest sense also rebounded with Coldplay, Mumford & Sons and Gotye enjoying very successful years in their own right. Green shoots which are destined to grow over the coming months, perhaps”.