2. Taylor Swift's switch to pop from country had a huge impact on the two genres' sales in 2014. The 0.1-percent increase in pop album sales was entirely due to Swift's 1989 -- the top album of 2014 with sales of 3.66 million -- being classified by SoundScan as pop rather than country. This helped make pop the only major genre to experience an increase in album sales last year.
Taylor Swift's '1989' Beats 'Frozen' As Top Selling Album of 2014
Without sales of 1989, pop album sales would have dropped 10.6 percent. Had 1989 been classified as a country album, that genre's album sales decline would have improved been only 7.5 percent instead of its actual figure of 16.6 percent. Of course, this is entirely hypothetical. The success of 1989 is at least partially attributed to Swift's musical shift. But it's safe to say the country genre -- not only sales but also radio and televised events -- is weaker without her.
