On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:20:12 -0700, muzician21 wrote
(in article
):
Wonder if there's a clearly identifiable difference between the one-
hitters and those who have lengthier careers. It certainly isn't
always talent - think Madonna and Britney Spears.
------------------------------snip------------------------------
The other interesting stat: it's a rare musician or group who can sustain a
career for more than 4 or 5 years. Even more rare when an artist like Paul
McCartney, Cher, or Elton John (there's an interesting trilogy) who can keep
having a major music career for four decades or more.
These stats have been presented in Joel Whitburn's RECORD RESEARCH books for
many years:
http://www.recordresearch.com/
Note that this only accounts for the BILLBOARD statistics alone. There's a
lot of other ways to assess musical success or historical importance; for
example, artists like Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand still sell a lot of
albums and do well in live performances, but haven't had bona fide Top 40
hits in years. So the pop charts alone don't tell the whole story.
Note also that BILLBOARD magazine is in terrible trouble. I believe they
recently jettisoned a good chunk of their staff, including their editor and
publisher:
http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-...tor-out-other-
top-staffers-follow-36116
--MFW