Latin, K-Pop, and Afrobeats and other World Music are among the fastest-growing genres in the U.S. since 2021, according to a report by Billboard Sales Tracker Luminate. In fact, the sales data company says there has been a noticeable decrease in the dominance of English-language music in the top 10,000 most-streamed songs, indicating a growing engagement with non-English music among American audiences.
57% of Millennials and 59% of Gen Z listeners (59%) are more inclined to listen to artists from other countries.
Among the popular foreign acts in the US is South African star Tyla, whose epiphanous debut album landed at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 chart after selling 24,000 equivalent units in streams and sales.
She occupies 6 spots on the Top 10 of the US Billboard Afrobeats Chart. She follows in the footsteps of Nigerian star Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido who has had several Billboard charting singles. The single “Jump” from the album featuring Skillibeng and Gunna enters the global Spotify chart at #186 with 1.207 million plays. This is Skillibeng’s first entry on the Global Spotify Chart.
Elsewhere K-Pop group ILLIT, a rising rookie group from BELIFT LAB under HYBE LABELS, made their debut at #2 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart with their lead single “Magnetic” released March 25, from their first Mini Album, ‘SUPER REAL ME.’
“Magnetic” movies up at No. 8 on the Billboard Global 200, this after ‘SUPER REAL ME’ became the best-selling debut album among female K-Pop artists with over 380,000 copies sold in its first week in their native Korea.
ILLIT’s popularity is tremendous on social media with the hashtag #illit gaining over 1.7 billion views on TikTok, and their single “Magnetic” featured in 250,000 TikTok and 160,000 Instagram Reels videos. Formed through the survival show ‘R U Next?’ in 2023, ILLIT consists of five members – YUNAH, MINJU, MOKA, WONHEE, and IROHA.
Latin superstar Karol G ranks at #1 on POLLSTAR Live 75 top of the artists with most avg. tickets sold per show in March. This is her first time topping the list. “MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO (BICHOTA SEASON),” her second mixtape is now certified 3x Latin Platinum in US for over 180,000 units sold.
Luminate says the trend towards non-English content is not confined to music alone as both television and film, has seen a wider acceptance of foreign language content. The example may be found in the groundbreaking numbers for Bob Marley: One Love biopic which had lead actors speaking in patois has surpassed grossed reciepts of $96.6 million in the U.S. and Canada as of Sunday (April 7), according to boxofficemojo.com.
The film is now Elton John’s 2018 biopic Rocketman as the fifth highest-grossing biopic of a musician in domestic box-office history according to Billboard.
“Parasite” winning Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards was a turning point according to Luminate, paving the way for the monumental success of Netflix’s “Squid Game” and other non-English language productions. Luminate Insights discovered that a significant portion of TV and movie viewers (39%) are now consuming subtitled foreign language content, showcasing a growing appetite for diverse narratives.
Global streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have played a pivotal role in spearheading the influx of foreign language content. In fact, foreign language programming has seen a consistent increase in premieres over the past five years, with 2023 marking a milestone as the first year where it surpassed all other genres in cumulative show premieres. This trend extends to film as well, with a notable 22% increase in foreign language releases in 2023, highlighting the growing diversity in cinematic offerings.
