139,666,000 rock albums sold in the USA during the past year, fuelled in part by AC/DC, Metallica and Kid Rock.
AC/DC was the biggest rock act of the year selling 3,418,000 albums in the past 12 months.While all genres were down in sales for 08, the rock categories fell the least.
Alternative sold 80,919,000 this past year while Metal albums accounted for 50,476,000 sales.
Neilsen SoundScan breaks genres into 12 categories.
The biggest selling genres were:
1. Rock (139,666,000)
2. Alternative (80,919,000)
3. R&B (77,014,000)
4. Metal (50,476,000)
5. Country (47,657,000)
6. Rap (33,410,000)
7. Christian (29,793,000)
8. Latin (25,125,000)
9. Soundtrack (20,847,000)
10. Classical (13,323,000)
11. Jazz (11,791,000)
12. New Age (2,942,000)
