It’s a good year for big fish and cardboard boxes in the UK. The BPI has announced that 26.1% of the singles making the UK’s top 10 chart this year have been dance tracks. That’s up from 14.6% in the whole of 2021, and 9.3% in 2019.
“It moves the genre ahead of hip-hop/rap (21.7%) in generating Top 10 hits in 2022, with only pop (40.6%) having accumulated a greater share of Top 10 entries in the year to date,” noted the industry body, adding that more than half of these 2022 hits are by or feature UK artists.
Nine dance tracks have generated more than 50m audio streams in the UK so far in 2022, according to data from the Official Charts Company.
There’s some interesting discussion to be had around this about how the definition of ‘dance music’ is evolving.
“It’s fascinating to see how other genres such as hip-hop and pop are morphing into dance and to see dance music being embraced by global superstars including Drake and Beyoncé,” as BPI boss Geoff Taylor put it.
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