What Is Radio's Biggest Music Genre?

OK, quick show of hands? Who thinks that electro-pop is the biggest radio Top 40 genre at the moment? Who thinks hip-hop? How about rock? You're all wrong - according to Nielsen, it's country music.

Country music's audience has grown wider and younger in recent years, and is now poised to dominate the radio airwaves like never before. And it's kicking butt on television as well, with the recent Academy of Country Music Awards receiving its largest viewing audience in 15 years, ABC's prime time Nashville also a hit, and numerous country-oriented reality shows in the works.

One of the reasons for the format's growth is that it has embraced younger artists like Taylor Swift, the Band Perry, and Hunter Hayes more readily than in the past, which has enabled its radio market share to rise dramitically even in the 12 to 15 year old bracket. To put it bluntly, it's no longer the music of 40 year old women like it once was.

While many say that today's country is just 70s rock with fiddle and steel guitar, there's a vibrancy to it that other music doesn't seem to have at the moment. Popular music is all about cycles, and perhaps we've not seen the peak of the this latest country cycle just yet.