Jamaican recording artist Bugle recently said that Afrobeats artists and music have a sales advantage over reggae and dancehall artists/music due to the population of the African continent vs that of Jamaica.
He told Zip 103 FM that, “It hard fi mek even da kinda comparison deh. Cause when yuh look pan di mount a people weh subscribe to Afrobeat music, is a continent yuh nuh.”
He continued that when compared to a country “with three million people”(Jamaica) there cannot be a legitimate comparison.
He said, “Dem automatically a guh drop a song weh a guh sell diamond and gold, an a go guh inna di Billboard and everything, based on di amount a people weh a subscribe to Afrobeat music, instantly.”
However, owing to the fact that music is not subjected to a region or country, reggae outpaces the relatively new genre ‘Afrobeats’ as the tenth most listened genre around the world according to IFPI’s Engaging With Music Report 2022. The music report from the globally respected music measurement organization is based on a survey of more than 33 thousand respondents from several countries.
The findings placed Reggae below genres like Country which comes in at No. 9 and Soundtracks which come in a No. 8.
Pop, Rock and Hip Hop took the top three positions respectively with Dance/Electronic , Latin, Classic/Opera , and R&B coming in at number 4,5,6 and 7 respectively.
Afrobeats did not make the global top ten most ‘listened list’ even as spin-off versions like Afro-fusion and Afro-pop genres gain popularity in the US with artist like Burna Boy, WIZKID and Tems making weekly appearances on the Billboard Afrobeats singles chart.
Over the same period MRC Data’s 2022 report on Africa shows that that even with the popularity of Burna Boy, Wizkid and Tems and others, the music coming from the continent makes up only .5% of global streaming consumption for 2021.
Artist from across the African continent are emerging at a rapid pace with pop collabs as well as solo projects. Wizkid’s “Made in Lagos”, the afrofusion album was certified gold by the RIAA as of August 25 in 2022.
Released October 30,2020, the P2J executive produced project becomes the first African album to be certified Gold in USA(500,000).
Burn Boy’s Love, Damini charted in several countries throughout the year and the global smash hit Last Last gave the African Giant his first top 20 UK Singles Chart hit. The song co-written by producers Off & Out (brothers Mikael and Samuel Haataja), Chopstix, MdS, and Ruuben is certified Gold in the US(500,000), as of November 7 by the RIAA, Platinum in Canada (80,000), and Platinum in the U.K.(600,000) as of December 2, 2022. It has also picked up Gold certifications in France (100,000) and New Zealand (15000).
His latest U.K. certification is “Own It” with Stormzy and Ed Sheeran which is now certified 3x Platinum in the U.K. for selling more than 1,800,000 units.
“Wait For U” samples Tem’s “Higher” which was released last July. The track is produced by Oddio and was one of the standouts on her 2020 EP, ‘For Broken Ears.’
Among the “key global African artists” in MRC Data’s report include Ckay from Nigeria, Aya Nakamura from Mali, Tamer Hosny from Egypt, Master KG from South Africa and more.
Afrobeats’ popularity in its home country Nigeria, places it at No. 1 among the most listened music in that country according to the IFPI.
Over 500 different genres were named by at least one person as the music they typically listen to with other non-popular genres mentioned like dangdut, disco polo and sertanejo.
Bob Marley continues to be the most popular reggae artist and his album Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley & The Wailers has been streamed more than 3.5 billion times in the US alone according to the latest 2022 data obtained by World Music Views from our correspondence at Billboard’s Sales Tracker Luminate.
Note: An IFPI representative told WMV after this article was published that Jamaica was not one of the countries surveyed for this report and currently where is “no data available for that market specifically.”
Dancehall King Sean Paul currently has more than 5 billion views on YouTube across his catalogue of songs including features. He is the only dancehall act with that many musical streams on any streaming platform.
In December the global music superstar made RIAA history as his Grammy winning sophomore album “Dutty Rock” was certified triple Platinum by the US. The album which is also 3x Platinum in Canada was released 20 years ago and becomes the first full dancehall project to reach that milestone. No other person has taken dancehall music to the heights of Sean Paul and he is currently nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 2023 Grammy awards.
With 94 music certifications globally, US Billboard hits, Canadian Hits, U.K. hits, more Spotify hits, and more YouTube hits than anyone in dancehall music, Sean Paul keeps putting up high numbers on various platforms.
