Consumer profile figures for 2002 from the Recording Industry of America Association show that rock still dominates though hip hop is not far behind. Needless to say the figures show a further drop in record sales (down from $13.7 billion to $12.6 million) - but of more interest is the genre and demographic data.
Rock still has the biggest slice of the record sales pie - up slightly to 25% of the total. Hip hop is performing well at 13.8% of the total pie, up 2.4% from last year. R&B/Urban follows at 11.2%, up from 10.6%, while Country was at 10.7%, up .2% from last year. Falling down in share slightly are pop, jazz and classical.
Demographically the over 45s are the biggest buyers (25.5% of the market) - probably explaining the dominance of rock over pop and hip hop. Next up are 15-19 year olds, then 20-24, then 30-34.