cripes. what about the immense popularity of nickelback? and bands like my chemical romance? this is all billboard top 10 material. and, regardless of whether or not you think it merits the title, it IS rock music! rock per se has not lost its mainstream credentials.
also, 'rock' is able to refer to an almost indefinite number of sub-genres including all those little movements within 'indie'/alternative, which are really quite trendy these days.
it's RAP music that has lost a huge amount of its mainstream credibility in recent years. sales have plummeted, and there are FAR FAR less names making it big.
let's take a real look at the billboard top 10 right now:
two beyonce songs (not rap), two TI songs (neither are really rap and the main focus in both is on the sung vocals), two kanye west songs (neither of which are rap!), lady gaga, taylor swift, kate perry and britney spears (yeah - um... not rap!).
further down in 11-20 we have another britney spears song, a song by Pink, Ne-Yo, Akon, a couple of Rihanna songs... hell, even a song by Nickelback. A few rap tracks here and there, but it is NOT the dominant popular format by any stretch of the imagination.
So then, what is the dominant format? I'll tell ya: easy-listening pop. just like it always has been. if you think that billboard has ever been dominated by rock music at any point since the 1980s then sorry but you are sorely mistaken. take a look at a top ten from the 80s and you'll find much the same facts as those we see today. even in the early nineties, urban contemp. music was always more popular in the mainstream than rock. and has continued to be more popular for the last 15 years than rap, too.
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