It was announced today that sales of albums that are considered “pop” overtook sales of those classified as rock last year for the first time since 1999. This is an interesting claim and shows a shift in the types of music the British public began listening to in 2014.

I was initially surprised to learn that rock albums had been selling more than pop records at all but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Fans of rock music have always been more in to supporting their favourite bands by purchasing their albums. Many modern rock albums tell a story in a way that your average pop album does not, so they were always going to sell better, until now that is. Pop artists tend to focus more on the power of the single and again, until now, even the best pop records contained filler tracks. That left many pop albums weak and it naturally made more sense for fans to simply download their favourite tracks rather than endure the whole album.

The change in the public’s buying habits indicates a rise in the quality of the pop album, increasing sales to a 34.5% share in the sales market compared to 33.2% for rock. The difference may not be vast but if the pattern continues then it could cement the emergence of the strong pop album.

Notable releases that helped achieve the figure last year were Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour, Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Ed Sheeran’s x. All three were hugely successful with Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith having the first and second top selling albums of 2014 respectively. Both male artists have received a number of awards for their efforts which shows that they are not only popular with the public but also technically appealing to people in the music business.

As well as performing well in the album charts, many of the pop artists who did well with their album s also had a number of hugely successful singles in 2014. This shows that the core of what is a successful pop song is still there but some artists are not compromising the quality of their albums and expecting the success of a few singles to be able to hold them up anymore.

2014 certainly set the bar high for upcoming pop artists and with a rise in quality, it will be interesting to see what the rest of 2015 has in store for the world of pop music.