Coldplay crowns Billboard’s year-end Prime Excursions chart. Not far eliminated, Bruce Springsteen & The E Road Band, The Rolling Stones, U2 and Metallica comply with within the high 10. Half of the rating’s higher tier is made up of rock acts, permitting the long-dominant style to have the most important piece of the Boxscore pie. Amongst all {dollars} earned by 2024’s high 100 touring acts, rock is liable for 36%, greater than every other style.
Rock’s rule is well defined by its 5 acts within the high 10. However amongst artists between Nos. 11-20 on Prime Excursions, there is only one extra title so as to add: Eagles at No. 19. Dominated by basic rock acts with chart-topping albums from the Sixties and ‘70s, the style’s towering lead on stage has shrunk significantly over the course of the twenty first century.
For yearly however one between 2000-2010, rock acts represented greater than 50% of Prime Excursions income, peaking at 68% in 2003. It’s solely managed that when within the years since, when U2, Weapons N’ Roses and Coldplay lined up at Nos. 1, 2, and three, respectively, in 2017. All through the 2010s and into the 2020s, rock’s share bumped up and down year-to-year, however usually shifted from the bulk to the mid-40% vary, and now to the mid-30% vary.
Watch the clip beneath to see how the style make-up of Billboard’s high 100 excursions has developed over the course of the twenty first century.
Rock’s share of the highest 100 excursions is definitely up from final yr, bumping from 32.4% to 36%. Nonetheless, it’s been beneath 40% for 4 of the final 5 years (excluding 2020 and 2021 due to venue closures as a result of COVID-19), off from a median of 57% all through the 2000s decade. The style’s reliance on legendary bands has left a spot as youthful acts from different kinds elevate to stadium standing.
Pop is subsequent in line, with 16.4% of 2024’s high 100 grosses. P!nk, Madonna and Olivia Rodrigo lead the cost, ticking up from final yr’s 15.8%. One main caveat is the absence of Taylor Swift and the gargantuan grosses of The Eras Tour. Whereas total tour figures have been revealed by The New York Instances, information was not submitted to Billboard Boxscore for chart eligibility, which implies that its earnings are excluded from this equation. It’s estimated that if this yr’s grosses have been reported, pop would reign supreme with 27-28%, sending rock into the 20percents in each 2023 and 2024.
Pop and rock have been the highest two touring genres for yearly this century, with the lone exception of 2003, when nation music narrowly out-paced pop, 13% to 12.2%. However whereas they continue to be on high, the unfold has turn into considerably extra even within the post-pandemic years.
Latin music and rap each posted document highs this yr, as much as 15.8% and 5.7%, respectively. The previous hit a brand new peak in 2022, when Dangerous Bunny had the yr’s greatest tour, changing into the primary artist who doesn’t primarily carry out in English to earn high year-end honors. Whereas no Latin act has reached these heights since, his stadium success is not an anomaly. Luis Miguel grossed $290.4 million this yr, and 4 different Spanish-speaking artists crossed the $100 million threshold. At 5.3% in 2019, Latin artists returned from the pandemic at 12.1% in 2022, then 11.5% in 2023, and now approaching 16% in 2024.
Rap artists have but to scale their touring enterprise to the extent of their streaming prowess, however this yr made fairly a dent. The style’s top-100 share shot from 2.7% to five.7%, greater than doubling its illustration and eclipsing its prior peak from 2019. 4 ladies helped push hip-hop’s boundaries, with Doja Cat, Missy Elliott, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj outnumbering male rappers on the Prime Excursions chart for the primary time. Plus, Travis Scott scores the style’s greatest year-end gross ever, at $168 million.
The oscillations of every style’s efficiency from one yr to the following typically comes all the way down to scheduling. Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour was impactful sufficient to shift R&B artists from 5.3% in 2022 to fifteen.2% in 2023 and again to five.9% in 2024. However the development from pop and rock proudly owning a mixed 78.5% in 2000 to 52% in 2024 is indicative of gradual progress from all kinds of various artists harnessing the facility of their world audiences.
