Hip-Hop overtook Pop in 2022
+3.2pp from 2020-2026Hip-Hop became the largest genre in 2022 and has held the lead since. Drill, melodic rap, and global-language hip-hop scenes (UK, France, Brazil) drove the gains.
Open dataset
How 7 major music genres shifted in share of listener libraries between 2020 and 2026, based on Orphea's multi-platform AI analysis. Free for research and citation under CC BY 4.0.
Each cell is the share (%) of tracks classified into the named genre out of all tracks analyzed in user libraries that year. Genre tagging combines provider metadata (Spotify, Deezer) with Orphea's AI classifier for tracks lacking native tags. Years before 2025 are reconstructed from users' historical libraries; 2025 and 2026 use live analysis data.
License: CC BY 4.0. Attribution requested: "Source: Orphea (https://orphea.app/data/genre-evolution)".
| Year | Hip-Hop | Pop | Electronic | Indie | Lo-fi | K-Pop | Afrobeats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 19.2 | 21.8 | 11.5 | 6.4 | 1.1 | 2.4 | 1.7 |
| 2021 | 20.6 | 20.4 | 11.9 | 7.1 | 2 | 3 | 2.3 |
| 2022 | 21.4 | 19.7 | 12.1 | 7.8 | 2.6 | 3.6 | 2.9 |
| 2023 | 22 | 19 | 12.4 | 8 | 3 | 4.1 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 22.3 | 18.4 | 12.6 | 8.2 | 3.3 | 4.5 | 3.8 |
| 2025 | 22.4 | 18.2 | 12.7 | 8.3 | 3.5 | 4.7 | 4 |
| 2026 | 22.4 | 18.1 | 12.8 | 8.3 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 4.1 |
Hip-Hop became the largest genre in 2022 and has held the lead since. Drill, melodic rap, and global-language hip-hop scenes (UK, France, Brazil) drove the gains.
Lo-fi went from niche (1.1%) to mainstream (3.6%) — driven by YouTube live streams, Spotify mood-based playlisting, and study/work culture during and after the pandemic.
Mainstream Pop ceded share to Hip-Hop and globalized scenes (K-Pop, Latin, Afrobeats). Pop is still #2 but its share is shrinking annually.
K-Pop went from 2.4% to 4.9% of analyzed libraries. BTS, BLACKPINK, NewJeans, Stray Kids drove crossover into Western mood-based playlist ecosystems.
Afrobeats grew from 1.7% to 4.1% — Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tems, Asake, Davido leading the global breakthrough. Strongest in UK and US listener libraries.
Orphea (2026). Genre Evolution Dataset 2020-2026 (v1.0) [Open dataset].
https://orphea.app/data/genre-evolution
Licensed under CC BY 4.0.