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Music charts: Rock sales hit bad note
Rock has hit a hard place - as guitar bands have started disappearing from the charts, new figures show.
Sales of rock tracks have dropped by almost 18% in the first eight months of this year, compared with the corresponding period in the previous year, analysis by Music Week reveals.
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Its study of sales compiled by the Official Charts Company shows just five of the 100 best-selling singles of the year so far were classed as rock.
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The biggest seller among these, Journey's Don't Stop Believin', was fuelled by its use in TV show Glee.
The analysis shows sales of urban tracks are up by a third with pop up 30% in that period.
The rest of the rock big-hitters for the period were two tracks by
Florence And The Machine, one by folkie quartet Mumford And Sons and the last by dance-rock act Pendulum.
Absolute Radio's head of music, James Curran, told the magazine: "It's very difficult to get a bona fide rock hit these days, even by some of the biggest bands."
So far this year, no rock act has made it into the top five, while even in 2008 the top end of the chart featured songs by Coldplay, Kings of Leon and Oasis.
The charts are now overwhelmingly powered by download sales with only a small proportion of sales on CD.
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