World Music, Latin Music Surge
World music (up 26.4%) and Latin both grew at a lightning-fast pace; Latin grew at such a rate (28.4%) that in absolute numbers only R&B/Hip-Hop grew more, edging out rock for second-biggest growth in raw units, up 6.6 million over the same period last year. It’s Latin’s second straight year of 20%-plus growth, taking it to 6.25% of the total market, up from 5.32% at this point last year; and world music’s second straight year of double-digit percentage growth, taking it to 2.2% of the market, up from 1.9% midway through 2021. (The “world music” classification is generally a catchall of non-Latin music genres that originated outside the contiguous United States, and includes K-Pop and Afrobeats, among others.) Though every measured core genre is up at least a little bit year-over-year, only Latin, world, children and new age are growing at a faster rate than the market overall (9.3%) — and the top four genres all dropped in percentage of the overall market.
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