[UK] Guitar Music Bigger Than Pop

It’s official, guitar music was bigger than pop in the UK last year.

Acts like Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and The Killers are figureheads of the recent surge in the popularity of guitar music.

Figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) show that guitar music has a 36% share of UK album sales, while pop has just a quarter. Better still, of the top ten selling guitar acts, seven of them are British, with Coldplay topping the list.BPI chairman Peter Jamieson told 6music: "Record companies support a hugely diverse range of genres. But ultimately it's the music fan who decides what's successful. Last year they decided by some margin that 2005 was predominantly a year of home-grown British rock bands."

The top ten selling guitar albums are as follows:

1 ‘X&Y’ - Coldplay

2 ‘Employment’ - Kaiser Chiefs

3 ‘Demon Days’ - Gorillaz

4 ‘Eye to the Telescope’ - KT Tunstall

5 ‘Hot Fuss’ – The Killers

6 ‘Don't Believe The Truth’ - Oasis

7 ‘American Idiot’ - Green Day

8 ‘Hopes and Fears’ - Keane

9 ‘Life in Slow Motion’ - David Gray

10 ‘In Your Honour’ - Foo Fighters