Audience Research - Popular Genres

For our research it will be useful to explore how popular our chosen genre is in the charts to find out whether it has a chance of succeeding. I took screenshots from the Radio 1, MTV and iTunes charts which are three of the most reliable charts available.

Radio 1 UK Top 40

In 1st-place is Cheryl with I Don't Care which is a pop/dance song.
In 2nd-place is Ed Sheeran with Thinking Out Loud which is an R&B/soul/soft rock song.
In 3rd-place is Meghan Trainor with All About That Bass which is a pop/doo-wop/blue-eyed soul song.
In 4th-place is John Legend with All of Me which is an R&B song.
In 5th place is Taylor Swift with Shake it Off which is a pop song.

This chart shows that at the moment pop and R&B are the most popular genres for people in the UK with no indie rock songs within the top 5.

                   MTV 

This is a screenshot from http://www.mtv.co.uk/music/charts/the-official-uk-top-40-singles-chart that shows the top 5 most popular songs in the UK according to them as of the 9th of November, 2014.

In 1st-place is Cheryl with I Don't Care which is a pop/dance song.
In 2nd-place is Ed Sheeran with Thinking Out Loud which is an R&B/soul/soft rock song.
In 3rd-place is Meghan Trainor with All About That Bass which is a pop/doo-wop/blue-eyed soul song.
In 4th-place is John Legend with All of Me which is an R&B song.
In 5th-place is Taylor Swift with Shake it Off which is a pop song.

This chart is almost identical to the Radio 1 chart with the top 5 consisting of exactly the same artists with just the top 2 in a reshuffled order.

iTunes Top 100 Songs

Below is a screenshot from the iTunes top 100 songs list as of the 13th of November, 2014.

In 1st-place is One Direction with Girl Almighty which is a pop song.
In 2nd-place is Gareth Malone's All Star Choir with Wake Me Up which is a cover of Avicii's original song which is part of the EDM/soul/folktronica genres.
In 3rd-place is Ed Sheeran with Thinking Out Loud which is an R&B/soul/soft rock song.
In 4th-place is One Direction with 18 which is a pop song.
In 5th-place is One Direction with Steal My Girl which is a pop song.

This chart shows us some new artists but none from the indie rock genre either. The top 5 is made up generally of pop songs much like the two previous charts.

Conclusion

In general the most popular songs in the top 5 of each chart I have investigated are pop songs from pop artists. There are not any indie rock artists or indie rock songs within the upper levels of any of the charts. This shows how niche the indie rock scene is. There's a hardcore group of dedicated fans that may not be in as many numbers as the pop fans but they are just as, if not more, dedicated to the genre and supporting its artist's.