Rock big winner in 2012

Rock was the biggest selling music genre of 2012 in the USA.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, 102,500,000 rock albums sold during the year, an increase of 2% on the previous year.

The Rock figure would be even bigger if it included Alternative. Alternative as a stand alone genre sold 52,200,000, down 4.3%.

Metal has its own category. 31,900,000 metal albums sold during 2012.

The Top 10 genres in the USA for 2012 were:

1. Rock (102,500,000)
2. Alternative 52,000,000)
3. R&B (49,700,000)
4. Country 44,600,000)
5. Metal (31,900,000)
6. Rap (24,200,000)
7. Christian/Gospel (22,900,000)
8. Soundtracks (12,300,000)
9. Latin (9,700,000)
10. Dance/Electronic (8,700,000)

Other categories were:

Jazz (8,100,000)
Classical (7,500,000)
New Age (1,700,000)