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120 Years Of Tracking One-Hit Wonders and Pop Longevity

waxy.org — One of the trickier questions I've been trying to visualize is how long pop songs are staying on the charts relative to the past. Are they staying on the charts longer than in the past? Using the Whitburn Project spreadsheet I've been trying to dig into some of the underlying trends.

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  • sterntastic223, on 05/18/2008, -14/+4A friend of mine is in a major label band and I sent him this. Really interesting stuff.
    • dweeb79, on 05/18/2008, -1/+9A friend with a name? No
      The name of the band? No
      The name of label the band is on? No

      I can't wait to tell all my friends of the NO NAME band that's on the NO NAME label.

      • curseoflou, on 05/18/2008, -1/+3that was pretty harsh dude, but it was a well deserved burn.
      • renegadeafk, on 05/18/2008, -4/+2dude sick burn
    • wiredDeath, on 05/18/2008, -0/+2No-one cares
  • PROMOpinion, on 05/18/2008, -6/+8As a big time music lover i love posts like this, digg for sure ;)
  • Stevanoski, on 05/18/2008, -0/+7In the early 70's there was an article that discussed how the top ten's all started on 3 up notes.
  • TheMachine1, on 05/18/2008, -5/+2"Looking at the very bottom of the chart, you can see that in the last couple years, it's become very common for a single to appear in the Top 50 and fall out of the Hot 100 within four weeks. Prior to the mid-1990s, this almost never happened."

    Piracy?

    • Reclinatron, on 05/18/2008, -0/+6The music sucks?
      • TheMachine1, on 05/18/2008, -1/+0But most of it always has sucked the grass was not greener in the past.
  • Ganja420, on 05/18/2008, -0/+222008 - 1900 = 120
  • firewound, on 05/18/2008, -1/+1hmm...some interesting trends
  • corruptivesum, on 05/18/2008, -11/+1http://tinyurl.com/5heb4l

    mirror anyone?
  • mciampa1214, on 05/18/2008, -1/+38Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' appears twice... 1987 and 2007
  • kickass911, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3well so far the 2000's have been pretty strong maybe more will appear within the last 2 years so far the music all sounds crap to me.
  • yunus, on 05/18/2008, -0/+5I would guess one hit wonders will be much more common in the 2000's. Due to the fact that you can buy just 1 song from Internet song outlets instead of the $15-20 album that people are unwilling to buy from 1 hit wonders.
    • gkwillie, on 05/18/2008, -3/+2It's cute that you think that everyone is still buying music these days.
    • yunus, on 05/18/2008, -1/+1It's idiots like you who give the RIAA justification for what they do. Most people were complaining that no source of music was available to download without DRM or other restrictions like subscription fees. Now there are sources available of high quality music DRM free individual song sales for a reasonable price, less than $1 per song.
      Also, songs become one hit wonders from both air play and sales. So people buying music really do have more of an effect on the charts than people who pirate.
    • Anifanatic, on 05/18/2008, -0/+0They use to sell SINGLES back in the day with every artist and only more recently forced them into complete albums so you have to buy 15 tracks you don't want, and only get the 1 that you do want.
  • buddamus, on 05/18/2008, -4/+32008 - the year of Rick Roll
  • bdbr, on 05/18/2008, -1/+3The music industry is far more "managed" than it was prior to the 1990s. What people buy (enough to make the top 50) is still primarily based on what they hear on the radio, and radio play is now primarily based on central corporate decisions.

    For example: notice the bold, flat line at 20 weeks (on the top 50 graph) that begins in the early 90s. This can't have gone on for 15 years just by coincidence.
  • Spacejack, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1A very interesting article, but I'm still searching for the explanation for why I have to hear "Sister Christian" every god-damned day at work in the year 2008.
  • kingmanic, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1It seems to be following demographic trends a bit. The 60's were the baby boomers prime years and thus had many artists int heir prime. We ought to see a resurgence soon as the echoboomers (Gen Y) hit their stride (most are approaching or just got into their 20's).
  • tinkertoy, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1One hit wonders will never bring back the revenue that record companies enjoyed in the '60s and '70s, nor will they inspire "concept" or "theme" albums that have longevity, like the albums of the Beatles, ELO, Eagles or any of Pink Floyd's work. Sad.
  • opensourcer, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1I think this phenomenon have something to do with the internet, mp3, ipod, and indie music. With more outlets to explore and sample new and different music, listeners will surely have the luxury to have their flavor of the week. I'm sure in 1991, the king of pop is slowly fading away and the music labels were competing to manufacture his replacement. They are just trying to crank "the next big thing" out consistently. This consistent equation can also be apply to their rate of being a one hit wonder and them vanishing. There will not be one song or one artist that can define this music era except maybe a superficial barbie doll and ken. It just feels like the transition from 70s to 80's again. We need a Cobain type artist that is talented and self-made to reverse this trend.
  • system5y, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1what was the highest one?
  • musicforus, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0Man, there really were a lot of one-hit wonders in the 1990's. Gotta love it.

    Never mind what I thought at the time, today's Top 40 makes the Spice Girls sound like pop genius.
  • douglasr007, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1I think I can see the big dot on the top right on the chart that represents "Soulja Boy" - why oh why
  • lavabeat, on 05/27/2008, -0/+0For nice music http://mp3leben.com
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