United States

Hip-hop and R&B have been the most consumed genres in the United States since 2017, when they overtook rock in streaming and sales according to Nielsen and Luminate. Country is the most popular radio format, and pop stars such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dominate album sales. Rock remains the biggest catalogue genre.

Last reviewed: 2026-09

The blues emerged around 1900 in the Mississippi Delta from African American work songs, spirituals, and field hollers. Robert Johnson's 1936 and 1937 recordings became its most mythologised documents, and after the Great Migration, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf electrified it in Chicago. The blues is the root of rock and roll, soul, and much of jazz.

Hip-hop was born at block parties in the Bronx, New York, in the early 1970s. DJ Kool Herc is credited with isolating the breakbeat in 1973, Grandmaster Flash developed cutting and scratching, and the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight in 1979 became the first rap hit. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's The Message in 1982 showed that rap could carry social commentary.

Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson are generally cited as the best-selling American artists, each with sales estimated at 500 million records or more. Michael Jackson's Thriller remains the best-selling album in history. Among living artists, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé lead the streaming era, and Garth Brooks holds the record for most certified album sales by a solo artist in the United States.

Last reviewed: 2026-09

Techno was invented in Detroit and its suburbs in the early 1980s by Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, known as the Belleville Three. They fused Kraftwerk's electronics with funk and the industrial atmosphere of the Motor City, and Model 500's No UFO's and Rhythim Is Rhythim's Strings of Life became the genre's founding records. Detroit techno found its largest audience in Berlin and other European cities.