Rap Music Why has Hip Hop Music Sales Slumped

Rap Music Why has Hip Hop Music Sales Slumped

Quite recently, rap dominated album sales charts. Now, the music that has been a driving creative and commercial force in American culture is struggling to get its swagger back.

In the United States just a few years ago, hip hop music was huge. Sales even hit a record high of over 1.8 billion USD at one point in 2000. In terms of record sales, that was when Hip Hop R&B had overtaken all other genres of music. One has to rewind a little and understand how Hip Hop all started out to find out why Hip Hop music sales are slumping currently.

Before Hip Hop got accepted into the mainstream, many Hip Hop artists pretty much stayed underground to practice their art form. That hip hop would become such a big thing was not on anyone's mind.

The starting point of Hip Hop was in the streets. People who were disadvantaged, or were ostracized by the community started the movement. Ways of expressing themselves and their plight was what they were looking for. And they were able to express themselves.

Unlike other type of music, the Hip Hop community was far reaching in content and profanity in the lyrics. The market finds it refreshing to hear such profanity in the records. From the angry rebellious rap, to the happy party time songs, Hip Hop music took off like a bullet with as much variety in tone as there were people.

Hip-hop decline can be traced to a range of factors, including marketing strategies that have de-emphasized album sales in favor of selling less-lucrative single songs and short versions of those singles as ring tones for cell phones.

The success of the Hip Hop industry, unfortunately, has hit a turning point. Sales of Hip Hop music began to decline in a few short years and it continued to decline year after year. Some recording labels, once worth millions of dollars, are now near bankruptcy.

It is clear that the market has taken the time to learn about Hip Hop music and culture and have fully embraced it. What is the source of the decline in sales, after earning billions of dollars in the industry, and being widely accepted in the mainstream?

It is all due to the Internet, many will argue. Along with many new threats to the old industries, the new Internet age has brought about many new opportunities. It is easier than ever to commit piracy now and the record industry, unfortunately, has been resistant to change. Not willing to fully embrace what the Internet could really mean for them and remaining too stuck in the old mind frame and old distribution channels.

Listening to Hip Hop artists is now being done all over the world. The element of distribution channels or lag from the artist to the market is now no longer in existence. The Internet has made this to an immediate instance. To be able to acquire all of an artist's past works people had to wait for months or search relentlessly but such old walls have been broken down.

POST COMMENT

Dub Turbo Review: top beat maker for music enthusiasts Tips on How to Learn Bass Guitar Online Guitar Lessons for Kids: Searching the Right Online Guitar Lesson for Them How to Find Online Rock Guitar Lessons New poems:The piano chords/Between real and unreal/Between visible and invisible Best Music Shops in New York City Game Copy Wizard- Keep your video games, music, and movies safe New music along with the Mental Teaching Software Several Guidelines On How To Teach Yourself To Play Guitar Tips about how Guitar Strings Work Guitar bridge : Variations in Acoustic Guitar Bridge Young Person's Guide To Finding Good Music In SXSW 2011 How you can Play Popular Songs On Guitar?