Pop is the most listened to music genre in Germany. Followed by hip-hop music and rock music, these make up the top three of the most popular types of music. The ranking is also echoed among those who purchase music CDs, though a rising share of consumers don’t buy CDs at all.

In tune with the times

While German consumers will still buy music CDs, an increasing share of them is using streaming services to access music. Over a five-year period, the figure grew from 9 to 50 percent, indicating the changing trends in how listeners consume music and the ongoing rise of digitalization in this area. Spotify was the main source of music consumption in Germany.

Festival country

Based on various album charts, mainly German- and English-speaking music artists are popular among German listeners. Germany is also known for a variety of international rock festivals, catering to the many subgenres, as well as being one of the leading three countries in Europe hosting major music festivals in general.

As of October 2022, around 48 percent of consumers surveyed in Brazil said sertanejo – Brazil's equivalent to country music – was their favorite music genre. Approximately 44 percent of respondents mentioned Brazilian popular music, abbreviated in Portuguese as MPB. In 2022, the penetration rate of music streaming among internet users in Brazil stood at 73 percent.

Data on the distribution of streamed music consumption in the United States showed that rock music accounted for 17 percent of all on-demand audio and video streams in 2021. The leading genre by streams was, as is almost always the case, R&B and hip-hop.

Most streamed artists

The demand for streamed audio content is growing year by year, and in 2021, the number of paid music streaming subscribers in the United States exceeded 92 million. So which musicians are topping the digital charts? Based on the most recent data, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and Ed Sheeran were the top artists on Spotify based on monthly listeners in 2022. The top-10 ranking was visibly dominated by pop singers and bands that year, although Doja Cat and Eminem were the acts that amassed the largest monthly audience within the R&B and hip-hop genre.

Keeping it classical

A closer look at the distribution of music consumption in the U.S. by genre and format reveals that fans of jazz, rock, and classical music were among the most likely to listen to artists via physical formats. Between 13 and 27 percent of surveyed respondents stated that they listened to these genres via physical albums, which was above the industry average. One reason for this sense of audio nostalgia could be that these genres are particularly popular with listeners from older, less tech-savvy generations.

According to a study carried out by Deezer in May 2018, the most popular genre among Americans was rock music, with 56.8 percent of respondents stating that they were currently listening to music within this genre as of the date of survey. Pop and country music were the second and third most popular genres respectively, and 20.2 percent of respondents said they preferred jazz.

The appeal of rock and pop music

The broad appeal of rock and pop music can in part be attributed to how both genres often blend seamlessly into one another and influence other music styles. Heavy rock bands like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC are often more divisive than melodic rock groups like Bon Jovi or Genesis, just like pop music which strays into R&B territory or is better associated with hip hop or EDM. Each have their appeal to fans with different tastes, and the versatility of rock and pop (and music which combines the two) allows such music to reach adults of all ages and backgrounds.

Rock albums also account for the majority of vinyl album sales in the United States, with pop albums ranking second. However, although the resurgence of vinyl has to a certain extent been reliant on the rock genre, this is not the case when it comes to digital music consumption. Rap and hip hop accounted for 22.8 percent of music video streams in the U.S. in 2018, whereas for rock music videos the share was just 7.1 percent. Rock fared similarly when it came to audio streams, once again losing out to rap and hip hop. Taking such data into consideration, it would seem that rock music fans are generally more drawn to traditional formats and are less inclined to enjoy their music via streaming platforms.

According to a survey run in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2018, roughly 70 percent of British adults stated that they preferred to listen to pop music. R&B and dance were the second and third most listened to genres at 45 percent each, followed by rock and hip-hop.

Spotify dominates nationwide

When asked in the first quarter of 2020 to name the streaming services they used on a weekly basis, 64 percent of UK listeners listed Spotify. YouTube came in second, with a 39 percent listener share nationwide. Other services such as Amazon Music and Apple Music were used to a much lesser extent - by 27 and 11 percent of users respectively. Despite Spotify having the nationwide lead, when it comes to teenagers, it is a different story. YouTube emerged as the top music streaming service among UK teens in 2019, used by 57 percent of respondents in comparison to the 54 percent that used Spotify.

A new era of digital music?

In 2018, the UK brought in Europe’s second highest digital music revenue at 815.4 million US dollars. This figure outstripped France in third place by an impressive 343.9 million US dollars. Furthermore, revenue from digital music within the UK has been on the rise since 2011 while sales revenue from brick and mortar stores have continued to decline. In fact digital music revenue had more than tripled during this period, from 333 million British pounds in 2011 to over 1 billion British pounds in 2018. This was also reflected in consumer spending, which reached over 1 billion British pounds for digital music in 2019.

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2023, around 53 percent of respondents stated that one of their two favorite music genres was ballads. Other popular genres included dance/idol music (K-pop) and original soundtracks (OSTs) from movies and dramas. OSTs succeed alongside K-dramas hits With K-dramas gaining popularity worldwide in recent years, original soundtracks (OSTs) have become one of the most popular music genres for South Koreans. OSTs are usually used during intense or memorable scenes. As a drama becomes more popular, the OSTs used tend to become almost as popular, reminding people of their favorite scenes. In the same year K-drama “Business Proposal” reached over 120 million views, one of the drama’s OST ranked third among bestselling OSTs.

Trot, a beloved music style with a long history Trot, known for its repetitive style and two-beat rhythm, is one of South Korea’s most popular music genres. The word was influenced by the foxtrot, a formerly popular style of dancing in the United States. However, Korean trot music developed separately, with ups and downs in popularity since the early 20th century. Nowadays, it is especially favored by the middle-aged generation, between 50 and 70 years old. Multiple songs by famous young trot artist Lim Young Woong, who won the trot singer competition program ‘Mr. Trot’, were ranked in the top three by South Koreans over the age of 40 in 2023.

The most popular music genre among the Swedish population is Pop. This was the result of a 2020 survey. The second most popular one was rock, according to 45 percent of respondents. Traditional folk music, as well as contemporary and art music were less liked, with fewer than ten percent of respondents.

Pop music was the most popular music genre in China. About 72.3 percent of the Chinese music tracks streamed in China were pop music. Rap music was the second most beloved genre. In general, music produced by the artists from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan held over half of the market share.

According to a survey conducted in Japan in December 2020, almost 81 percent of the respondents liked Japanese pop, rock, or dance music. About one quarter of the respondents stated to like music that was related to anime, voice actors and actresses, video games, and vocaloids.

The most popular music genre among the Danish population is Pop. This was the result of a survey from 2020. Second most popular was rock, with 45 percent of the respondents selecting it as their favorite. Traditional folk music, punk and punk rock, schlager and traditional dance music, as well as contemporary and art music were less liked, by not even ten percent of the respondents.

Pop was the preferred genre of music for two thirds of Polish adults in 2021. The second most popular genre was 1990's music. Next came 1980's songs, followed by the rock music genre.

"Rock / alternative / indie music" and "Country music" are the top two answers among U.S. consumers in our survey on the subject of "Preferred digital audio by genre".Find this and more survey data on preferred digital audio by genre in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

This statistic displays the most popular music genres in Luxembourg in 2017. When asked which music genre they listen to the most, roughly one-quarter of the respondents from Luxembourg taking part in this survey said they listen most frequently to pop music. With over 25 percent of the votes, pop music was the most popular music genre in Luxembourg that year.

During an online survey conducted in 12 Latin American countries at the beginning of 2021, over one-third of respondents in most markets included Latin music among their favorite music genres. The exception was Brazil – the only Portuguese-speaking country in the region – where Latin music was the least popular of the five genres listed. In Mexico, pop music ranked first, mentioned by almost four out of ten responding internet users. In 2020, Brazil and Mexico altogether accounted for two-thirds of the music industry revenue in Latin America.

In 2020, the share of rock fans among Russian men was measured at approximately 35 percent. Women accounted for the largest share of pop and folk songs fans, exceeding 45 and 30 percent, respectively.

The most popular music genre among the Norwegian population is Pop. This was the result of a 2020 survey. The second most popular one was rock, according to roughly 40 percent of respondents. Traditional folk music, schlager and traditional dance music, as well as contemporary and art music were less liked, with fewer than ten percent of respondents.

In 2018, hip-hop and rap music accounted for 21.7 percent of total music consumption in the United States, more than double the percentage of R&B music sales. Other highly popular genres included pop and rock music, whereas just 1.1 percent of all music sold in the U.S. in 2018 was jazz.

Why are some genres more popular than others? 

Whilst music is a highly subjective medium in terms of the listener’s taste and preferences, the top genres in terms of consumption tend not to fluctuate heavily. The catchiness and familiarity of pop music is appealing to a wide range of music fans. Pop songs tend to be easy to listen to and remember, usually feature simple, snappy lyrics to avoid polarizing listeners, making pop overall less divisive than other genres because it is designed to generate mass appeal.

Conversely, religious music by its very nature is a niche genre in that it encompasses, describes or advocates certain beliefs, giving it the equal ability to alienate some listeners while appealing enormously to others, depending on their religious stance.

The hit genre of 2018 was hip-hop and rap, a music style notorious for its tendency to divide listeners. Singer Drake arguably influenced sales within the genre that year, with ‘Scorpion’ topping the list of best-selling albums in the United States based on total streams and ‘Scary Hours’ also making the top ten. Drake came tenth in the list of most successful music tours in North America, with revenue from his live concerts amounting to 79 million U.S. dollars, and second in the ranking was Jay-Z and Beyoncé with 166.4 million dollars in revenue, artists whose music is also strongly aligned with the rap and hip-hop genre.

Other artists in the genre who achieved significant influence in 2018 include Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Cardi B, Travis Scott and Post Malone, many of whom released songs that year which garnered hundreds of millions of audio streams. The sheer amount of hip-hop and rap music flooding the music industry has had a profound effect on the genre’s popularity, and musicians in the category tend to be prolific songwriters and active social media users. Equally, artists in the genre are arguably passionate about creating music which challenges social norms in a way that rock music has always been famous for.

During a 2020 study conducted in Colombia, 61.7 percent of respondents said they had listened to vallenato music throughout the week preceding the survey. This is a genre created in the Caribbean region of that South American country. Merengue and salsa ranked second, mentioned by nearly 56 percent of the interviewees.

During a 2017 survey, over 68 percent percent of respondents from Argentina stated that they listened to Argentine rock either regularly or from time to time. Second most popular genre was cumbia. Argentine music market is expected to generate 256 million U.S. dollars in revenue in 2021.