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Artists’ Chart Careers: A Study of How They’ve Changed Through the Years

2012; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.25101/12.6

1559-7334

Storm Gloor,

Diverse Musicological Studies

temporaries.This particular investigation focused on annual data from 1955-2010 to identify trends relating to the national album charts.Have artists' length of time on those charts generally increased or decreased over the last fifty-plus years?The Charts as MeasurementThere are many ways one might define success in the music business, particularly as an artist.How musicians perceive success is entirely up to them, as is identifying the moment at which they believe they have attained success.This research, however, is focused only on data that are actually measurable and which describe one particular achievement as an artist: appearing on syndicated music ranking reports also known as "the charts."These reports indicate how artists' recordings have performed commercially compared to those released by their peers.Essentially, this study is a macro-analysis of artists' chart careers.There was no assumption that placing an album on the charts is required for a successful long-term career as an artist.The research focused only on this particular perspective of one's recording career because chart positions are objective measurements that can be comparatively trended over time, as opposed to other more subjective measures of musical achievement (Grammy awards, for example).It was assumed that an artist's first appearance on the national charts was preceded by some amount of time dedicated to practice and hard work to earn local or regional notoriety.Moreover, once an artist's presence on the national charts had ceased there certainly could have been a period of time during which he or she continued to generate income or some measure of additional achievement as an artist or public figure.The most recognized publisher of popular music charts has for decades been the music industry trade publication Billboard. 6Along with its coverage of the music industry, Billboard has published weekly rankings of commercially available music based on sales and popularity, determined through various means.Sales of most all configurations of music releases, including LP records, 45 rpm "singles," compact discs, and digital downloads have been measured through various means by Billboard and its data providers in order to generate these syndicated reports. 7 Other metrics besides sales have also been utilized.The amount of radio airplay for recordings, for example, has also affected the rankings for some of the reports. 8 The amount of on-demand streaming for a song through internet