Hip Hop and R&B continued its dominance in terms of genre popularity across the globe, and especially in America. In one week in October the entire Billboard singles top ten was made up of hip hop / R&B tracks and the two best selling albums of the year in America - 50 Cent's 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and Outkast's 'Speakerboxx/The Love Below' - sold twice as many copies as the best selling rocks titles - Linkin Park's 'Meteora' and Evanescence's 'Fallen'.
That said, in the UK rock regained the dominance it lost to the dance scene in the late nineties. That rise was epitomised, of course, by The Darkness who went from being unknown and unsigned in January, to being one of the UK's most successful acts in December. So strong was the buzz around the band that Warner Music were forced to bring forward their American launch to capitalise on the growing hype.