NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe asks Associated Press music journalist Maria Sherman about new trends in global music consumption, including increased appetites among Americans for country and world music.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
And from the screen now to the speaker – or at least the earbud.
MARIA SHERMAN: Hip-hop and R&B have been the largest musical genres in popularity globally, dethroning rock music for a long time.
RASCOE: That’s Maria Sherman. She covers the music business for the Associated Press. She says the world surpassed 4 trillion streams last year. That’s trillion with a T. And it’s not just hip-hop and R&B stealing market share from rock. Here in the U.S., country music is in a new period of growth – driven not by the Grand Ole Opry or even tweens rediscovering Taylor Swift’s fiddly numbers from earlier in her career. Sherman points to tracks like this one – “You Proof” by Morgan Wallen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU PROOF”)
MORGAN WALLEN: (Singing) I need something you proof, something stronger than I’m used to. Yeah, I’ve been pouring 90 to a hundred, feel like nothing’s going to cut it. That’s the hard truth. Yeah, I need something you proof.
SHERMAN: You know, when I was driving my dad’s pickup truck, and I heard it on WACO 100 in Central Texas, I couldn’t believe it. Clearly, this is a young guy who listens to a lot of different type of music, including rap and hip-hop, and he’s weaving that into his songs. And it’s making him sort of quietly one of the most popular artists in the country right now.
RASCOE: So Americans are turning more and more to country. And America’s musical exports, which used to be dominated by rock ‘n’ roll, are now more hip-hop and R&B. How about the rest of the world’s influence on the U.S.? Is that relationship still very one-sided? Maria Sherman says, less than it used to be.
SHERMAN: We’ve seen that in America, music listeners are more and more open to non-English language music. It’s…
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