According to sales figures released by the Official Charts Company, music by rock artists is failing to compete with other genres in the weekly singles race. So far this year, singles by guitar bands have sold 18% less than in 2009, compared with pop and urban music, which are continuing to rise.
Although bands such as Muse and Biffy Clyro have had Top 20 singles during 2010, Music Week magazine confirmed that of the 100 best-selling singles this year, only five were released by acts that are classed as rock. These included Florence and the Machine, Mumford and Sons and Pendulum. However, leading the way for rock music was Journey’s 1981 hit ‘Don’t Stop Believin’, which has received a great deal of recent success thanks to its appearance in the TV series ‘Glee’.
This news follows a report from earlier in the year, which suggested that pop artists were beginning to overtake their rock counterparts in the singles chart.
Speaking to the BBC, Elbow frontman Guy Garvey said he doesn’t consider the singles chart to be a good representation of rock music: “People who love it are buying albums or are going online and getting more than one track at once, so I don't think the singles chart reflects how popular guitar music still is."
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