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

Abstract

IntroductionOn May 2, 2012, it was reported that pop music stars Jonas Brothers, a family trio who gained immense exposure on Disney Channel, were leaving their record label, Hollywood Records.1 Artists choose to leave record labels for many reasons, and sometimes they're involuntarily dropped from their contracts by company. The situation can be spun in many ways to press-or hardly mentioned. One might assume, though, that Hollywood Records did pre-negotiation math and other due diligence before letting go a band that had already sold seventeen million records.2 One can only speculate as to discussions. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note that band, whose most recent widely available studio album was at one point top-selling record in United States, could be parting with its label so soon after such success.The Jonas Brothers' first album to make national pop charts debuted in August of 2006.3 Their last appearance on charts prior to leaving Hollywood Records was in September, 2010.4 One can only speculate how much that 4.08-year chart career might extend as they release albums in future. A little more than four years doesn't seem like a long time. However, research shows if pop trio never had another top-selling album that amount of time on charts would be within an average range. A study focused specifically on Billboard album chart data from previous decades found length of time between an artist's entry and exit from those syndicated rankings to be on average between 3.39 and 6.16 years, depending on time frame utilized.5 Those figures are based on data for nearly 1,500 sample artists gathered from more than fifty years of popular music.Over that long period of time, though, those particular measurements of artists' success could have varied. So further analysis was conducted to take a deeper look from various perspectives regarding artists' chart careers and their ability to remain commercially popular among their con- temporaries. This particular investigation focused on annual data from 1955-2010 to identify trends relating to national album Have artists' length of time on those charts generally increased or decreased over last fifty-plus years?The Charts as MeasurementThere are many ways one might define success in music business, particularly as an artist. How musicians perceive success is entirely up to them, as is identifying 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 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 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 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 music industry trade publication Billboard.6 Along with its coverage of music industry, Billboard has published weekly rankings of commercially available music based on sales and popularity, determined through various means. …