Billboard Explains: How R&B/Hip-Hop Became the Biggest Genre in the U.S. (2024)

FAQs

Which genre of music did hip-hop overtake on the Billboard charts? ›

This is the first time this has happened since Nielsen has been tracking the numbers. Hip-hop overtook Rock music, which, according to Nielsen, still was the genre consumed the most until this year. This, in large part, is due to the rise of streaming.

Although long believed to be popular primarily with urban African American males, hip-hop became the best-selling genre of popular music in the United States in the late 1990s (at least partly by feeding the appetite of some white suburbanites for vicarious thrills).

Following the successful fusion between hip-hop and R&B in the '90s, the turn of the century marked the genre's commercial pinnacle with hits from Usher, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake's debut solo album, and Mariah Carey's song of the decade: “We Belong Together”.

The migration of African Americans to urban centers in the Northeast and Midwest during the early twentieth century helped to bring various regional styles of African American music together to influence one another. The migration also created new markets for these styles of music.

“In the eighties, we had DJs like Ron G, Kid Capri, Brucie B, and they would take R&B instrumentals – whether it was a Luther Vandross or something like that – and place them over [Hip-Hop] beats,” Seymour adds. “It really came out of DJ culture, party culture and radio culture.”

In the early 1990s, the "hip-hop/rap" genre exploded to become, by far, the most common genre of music on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two decades (see the graphs below).

Rap & Hip-Hop Music Statistics (Top Picks) Around 26% of music listeners worldwide listen to rap and hip-hop. Rap/hip-hop is already the most popular music genre in the US and UK, while on a global scale, it sits in 6th place.

The hip hop genre is so popular because it is more than just a genre, it is a culture that has influenced America since the 1970's. The culture of hip hop has four elements involved in it. The elements are mcing, djing, break dancing, and the art of graffiti. These four elements together make up what we call hip hop.

Rapping first gained popularity in the U.S. in the 1970s as a kind of street art, especially among African American teenagers. But it wasn't until 1979, when the Sugarhill Gang released their breakaway hit, "Rapper's Delight", that record producers took notice of this emerging musical genre.

Rhythm and blues (R&B), which combines soulful singing and a strong backbeat, was the most popular music created by and for African Americans between the end of World War II (1941-45) and the early 1960s.

When was R&B peak popularity? ›

In 2004, 80% of the songs that topped the R&B charts were also at the top of the Hot 100. That period was the all-time peak for R&B and hip hop on the Billboard Hot 100 and on Top 40 Radio. From about 2005 to 2013, R&B sales declined.

In the 1940s, R&B music exploded in urban centers like New York, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles—all of which had seen increased Black American presence due to the Great Migration.

R&B is a diverse genre with roots in jazz, the blues, and gospel music. R&B helped spread African American culture and popularized racial integration on the airwaves and in white society during the 1960s.

R&B Music came into prominence in the late 1940s with Cab Calloway, The Harlem Hamfats, Count Basie, Louis Jordan and others. "The term Rhythm & Blues" (R&B) was first coined in 1948 by music journalist turned record producer Jerry Wexler.

With its often relatable and passionate lyric content, R&B can strongly encourage moods, self-esteem and commitment. The strong sense of rhythm can feel comforting, and the confident vocals inject a feeling of determination into a regular workday.

Hip hop became a best-selling genre in the mid-1990s and the top-selling music genre by 1999. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the late 1990s to early-2000s "bling era" with hip hop influences increasingly finding their way into other genres of popular music, such as neo soul, nu metal, and R&B.

And on Nov. 3, 1990, rap cemented its finally unignorable mainstream influence with its first-ever No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100: Vanilla Ice's “Ice Ice Baby.”

For the first time ever, hip-hop surpassed rock as the most popular genre in the US in 2017, according to Nielsen's year-end report on the music industry.

Hip hop arose during the 1970s at block parties in New York City, at which the DJs began isolating the percussion breaks to hit funk, soul, R&B and disco songs. These songs were based on – "breakbeat" DJing. Early hip hop rhythms and (sampled) riffs were derived essentially from funk music.