Female performers have eclipsed their male counterparts in the music industry over the past year, with a record number of weeks at the top of the singles chart.
New research by trade organization BPI reveals that female artists spent 34 weeks at the top of the hit songs chart, surpassing the previous record of 31 weeks, set the previous year.
This means that women’s songs were at number one for most of the year.
Female artists also made up half of the year’s top 20 albums for the first time, with big success for the likes of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX.
Women accounted for six of the year’s top ten albums, equaling last year’s record, with Swift’s Tortured Poets Department in first place.
Her album had more than 783,000 sales as of the end of December, the most in a calendar year for any artist release since 2017. Swift had four of her albums in the top 20 of the year.
Female performers have eclipsed their male counterparts in the music industry over the past year, with a record number of weeks at the top of the singles chart; In the photo, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter.
New research by trade organization BPI reveals that female artists spent 34 weeks at the top of the hit songs chart; In the photo Billie Ellish and Charli XCX.
Carpenter’s sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, was his third most popular. Three of their songs: Espresso, Please Please Please and Taste spent a combined 21 weeks at the top of the singles chart.
Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft was the fifth most popular album and Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess came in sixth.
British singer Charli Collins Dictionary chose ‘brat’ as word of the year.
It was one of 12 albums by female bands or solo artists to top the Official Albums Chart during the year, equaling the most in any calendar year. Other acts that reached the top spot were The Last Dinner Party, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande and Beyonce.
Fleetwood Mac also took a look with their 50 Years – Don’t Stop, the seventh most popular album.
The research indicated that women were responsible for a greater proportion of the top 10 weekly topics throughout the year than men. The BPI found that 44 percent of these songs were attributable to men, while 47 percent were attributed to women.
But while it was a strong year for female artists, it was Noah Kahan’s hit song Stick Season that topped the singles of the year chart, with another male singer, Benson Boone, in second place with Beautiful Things.
BIS research also showed that physical music sales showed positive year-on-year growth for the first time in two decades, driven by the 17th consecutive increase in vinyl album sales.
Female artists also landed half of the year’s top 20 albums for the first time, with big success for the likes of Taylor Swift (pictured).
12 albums by female bands or solo artists topped the Official Albums chart during the year, equaling the most in any calendar year. Other acts that reached the top spot were Dua Lipa (left), Ariana Grande and Beyoncé (right).
But while it was a strong year for female artists, it was Noah Kahan’s hit song Stick Season (pictured) that topped the singles of the year chart.
Vinyl is now at its highest point in three decades with sales up 9.1 percent to 6.7 million, and new releases are increasingly fueling this trend.
The BPI said seven of the 10 best-selling vinyl LPs were released in the calendar year, and Swift’s new album sold 111,000 on the format.
Fueled by the publicity surrounding their reunion, a 30th anniversary reissue of Oasis’ debut album Definitely Maybe was their second most popular on vinyl, with other bestsellers including The Cure, Charli XCX and Fontaines DC.
The music trade body also reported signs of “firming” in the CD market, with purchases falling 2.9 percent compared to a 19.4 percent drop in 2022. Coldplay’s Moon Music was the best-selling album in this format.
But the research revealed that UK artists were behind just nine of the top 40 tracks of 2024. The highest of these was Myles Smith’s Stargazing in twelfth place. This compares to five years ago, when 19 of the top 40 were British.
But the report said more than 20 British groups and solo artists had topped the album charts during the year.
Overall, the BIS said music consumption had increased by a tenth and the streaming market had increased by 11 percent.
BIS chief executive Dr Jo Twist, announcing the figures, warned of the threats artificial intelligence poses to the music industry.
She said: “UK creative output and human creativity are being put at risk by proposed changes to British copyright law, which would allow international tech giants to train AI models on artists’ work without payment or permission, and it would be the wrong way to realize the exciting potential of AI.”
Dr Jo Twist, chief executive of BPI, said: “We have seen another strong year benefiting from streaming and driven by era-defining women.”
He added: “From Coldplay and Charli XCX, to The Last Dinner Party and Myles Smith, there have been plenty of examples of British music success stories in 2024.”
The most popular music charts were compiled from data from the Official Charts Company. The BPI is a trade organization for the recorded music business in the United Kingdom.
Song popularity on music charts is calculated by analyzing both sales and streaming activity.