>As far as both this and the earlier topic are concerned, the
>market research seems to be, from what I've been able to
>find whenever I've looked this info up over the past 5
>years, controlled and done by the record companies
>themselves for their own uses. That's how it appears, at
>least; or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.

So basically you can't find anything that really looks @ who buys what albums?

>It's simply a system used to keep track of record sales
>using data calculated using barcode swipes.

So last time you bought some merry melodies, did the cashier scan your driver's license to correlate your race with your purchase?

Have you ever seen anyone doing this type of research?
Ever fill out a survey about your record choices and your race?
Ever get a call from a polling service about what kind of music you listen to?

Well the answer is obviously no.

So how else could they figure out who is buying what?

Statistical analysis?

The sound scan reports that I've seen don't actually break down the #'s store by store. (they tend to do it by region) But let's just assume that they can do that.

You'll notice that the majority of rap music sales are in the cities. But you'll also notice that most black folks live in the city. And there are a fair amount of black folks living in the burbs. (over 60% of black folks are in the middle class)

Add that to the fact that a good portion of rap sales goes is in the "mom and pop" shops in black neighbhorhoods which don't carry sound scan...

Well what does that tell you?

Well, white folks make up 70% of the national population, so there fore they must buy 70% of the music. The RIAA has said that the record buying public was 70% white.

So ask yourself
- are 70% of the R&B cd's going to white folks?
- Black Gospel?
- Bacchata?
- Reggae?
- Salsa?
- Merengue?
- Tejano?
- Norteno?

I can see Becky right now, "Hey Chet, this Los Tigres Del Norte is peachy keen. Let's watch the Gilmore girls."

But hip hop is a special case because....?

Even in your examples, the 2 that say 70% don't have any real stats (maj of sources seem to say), and the one that does have real stats, say black people are the majority of the listeners.