Hip Hop Sales May Be Down, But The Influence Of The Culture Remains The Same
Although originally formed in the inner-cities, hip-hop culture has crossed over into suburbia. More than half, or 57%, of Urban Youth, age 12 to 34, are white, although the proportion of African Americans and Hispanics who are Young Urban Consumers is greater within their own ethnic segments than is the case for non-Hispanic Whites.
This group is important to the U.S. economy. Aggregate income of these 37 million young urbanites will grow from $594 billion in 2007 to $684 billion in 2012, much of which will be spent on luxury items. At the core of the trendsetting power of Young Urban Consumers is their ability to influence the consumer choices of their friends. This demographic is among the first to try new things and spend their income on favorite product brands.
“Urban Youth shoppers put a high priority on brand loyalty, and brands achieving the greatest success have formed a connection with hip-hop artists,” comments Tatjana Meerman, Publisher of Packaged Facts. “Significant sales can be attributed to products prominently featured in lyrics, spontaneously embraced by the hip-hop world and products that appear to be genuinely used by an artist prior to the relationship.”
People want to call Hip Hop dead due to lower sales, but they fail to see how influential the culture is to consumers. Artists just need to learn how to use their influence to generate income outside of record sales. These ulterior avenues of income must be well thought out, you can’t just make a website or clothing line and think it will automatically be a success.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
yeah the music is just like an extra topping.. we wanna hear what u got we dont wanna buy it no more. But when it comes to gear we all in to get on our grind and get upgraded. You know how it is in the hood
April 29th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
fuck that….hip hop should first improve musically, the problem wit hip hop today is that everybody is tryin too hard to do shit OUTSIDE the music instead of just stickin wit the music and tryin to improve it…..hip hop shouldnt be about the money, it really should be bout the music and culture
April 29th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
When will people understand (RealTalkCA) that if artists don’t make money they won’t make music for too long. You know how much time goes into putting together a hot album and everything involved with the artist? A lot!! A lot of time….and you can’t put a lot of time into it if you have another full time job. Artist put everything into making a good album so that someone who doesn’t give a fuck can download it for free….What’s the problem with Hip Hop? Its fans….no support. And I don’t wanna hear nothing about the price of cds or the quality of the music…cause if you didn’t like it you wouldn’t listen to it….but everyone still does. But no one supports anymore cause it’s easier to download for free….
Of course Hip Hop is still influential……sales are down cause people download it for free, not cause they don’t follow Hip Hop anymore….come on.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
i understand yall but at the same time nobody wanna buy anything.. They only feed into classical R&B shit etc.. all the kids follow the fashion trends instead of buying albums
April 29th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
and again statistics blind you and you draw false conclusions. A lot of people download and share offline, so sales drop. There are less hip hop heads out there, true, but at the same time young people listen to more than just hip hop and would still say the mainly listen to hip hop. No more strict borders.
Plus a LOT of white brothers are sick and tired of the same old thug cliché, so they look for something new/different. Yeah, yeah, I know 50 sold much, alright, but y’all see how well non-thug rap sells.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
i think people are realizing the fake rappers arent who they claim to be, and the non-thug rappers are exactly what they claim to be. they are real. hiphop has crossed over into commercial success so much and its great but it has to lose so of its originality and authenticity in able to make those billions.
remember wu-wear. “aint what u want baby, its what u need, satisfaction gauranteed baby”
i had a wuwear shirt, it was lame but i liked it