About half of musicians who reach the charts are one-hit wonders

Also, isn’t comparing 1955, to say 1970, to 2005 kind of apples and oranges? By that time, the structure of the industry had changed, consolidated, and fragmented again. Jukeboxes, radio, MTV, commercials, and filesharing all had an influence on how people consumed and related to music. The format on which people bought music also plays a role - from singles to LPs, CDs and MP3s. And then there are submarkets of the major market for popular music - the subculturing of popular music. Nor is there much about how the industry itself operates and how much the success of an artist depends on the strength of their label support, often times.

This article kind of reinforces many misconceptions about how popular music as a commodity functions.

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Hang on, since when were A-ha one hit wonders?

My thought exactly! I have BOTH their songs! :wink:

(and, since I was in the States then, and I depended wholly upon top 40 radio, that must have charted)

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What I find more surprising is that many of these one-hit wonders are still actively touring despite not seeing much in the way of similar success, and people are flocking to see them. Usually with the Nth round of band members outside the lead singer. Nostalgia?

I get it that many had some baseline of skill to get where they were - hell even Psy (Gangnam Style) could be considered talented on some level - but others? Vanilla Ice???

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It’s even more brilliant when you consider when it was released, and the milieu of music videos it emerged from.

Was that me? Was I singing?

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That was more or less my first though too. Well, second thought. It’s an interesting factoid, but I wonder if there are any noticeable trends over time. Sort of like this. (because by now there is an xkcd for everything.^)

^ which, I assume, is Rule 35.

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My favourite one-hit wonder is Tasmin Archer’s Sleeping Satellite. I remember hearing a street musician here in France singing it with just his guitar, years after it was a hit, and it was nifty. The guy was good, that’s for sure, but the fact that this song worked in such a simplified format is a credit to its quality.

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A job?

I’m doing more-or-less the same thing I’ve been doing for the last 20-mumble years. There was that one time I did something pretty great, but not many people - aside from me - remember that now. But folks still pay me to do my job, so I keep doing it.

Being a musician isn’t a binary [unlimited_wealth]/[abject_failure] proposition.

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So I guess “one-hit wonder” is a bit of a misnomer. But maybe “one-hit pretty typical musician” isn’t as catchy.

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Totally get it. Maybe I misspoke - but what surprises me is the following many one-hit wonders have, in some cases growing over time. This may be due to the fact they like the job, have talent, just got lucky, are fame whores - whatever.
More power to them, and anyone else in this industry to stick with it for the long haul. Even Vanilla Ice (shudder).

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If anyone really wonders what happened to Baha Men…

Or a number of other one-hit wonders, for that matter.

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I find your perplexity perplexing. There are many bands with plenty of fans that never make it to the charts. For such a band, hitting the charts once doesn’t necessarily change much of the fanbase, once the hype is over: it keeps on rolling as it used to.

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The Kaiser Chiefs are a prime example: Yours Truly, Angry Mob, their follow-up to the record that made them famous, Unemployment, saw a 55 percent decline in sales. Their third sold 75 percent less than their second. The fourth… who cares? Not enough to matter, that’s for sure.

Of course, their fifth album went to number 1 (in the UK). And even the “who cares” album was 10 in the UK, so probably kept the lads in pin money.

This Hollywood Walk of Shame includes the likes of…Psy (Gangnam Style,)

Psy has made the US Billboard chart 3 times since Gangnam Style (Gentelman was #5), so this article is at the very least really sloppy reporting.

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And Philip Jackson played the villain.

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They were also only one hit wonders in the US. They had 3 songs get into the UK top 40, and another 4 in the top 100.

But they would never have had the chance to throw a bucket of ice over John Prescott’s head (deputy prime minister at the time) if it hadn’t done well.

New Labour sold out the dockers
Just like they’ll sell out the rest of us

Chumbawamba - Brit Awards 1998

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What, didn’t you even see this?

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The dude from Ah-Ha just had his Google search alert go off, checked it, and said “Awwwwww man?”

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that’s so awesome

Yes, the binary between chart/non-chart is such a pox on music. Many bands have a great following, and write music that they, and their loyal fans love. That hit they had? That’s also the song all the die hard fans hate, because it brings in noob fans, but also because it usually is a different sound from the rest of the catalogue.

There was a good episode of Planet Money a while back that explored the question of internet musicians, specifically Jonathan Colton. They kept returning to the most idiotic question though “but can this new model create the next Justin Bieber?” The answer should be a respunding “No. For good reason.”

We shouldn’t mourn the lowest-common-denominator, factory-pressed, hits-bought-from-pro-songwriters-for-million$, production-teams-bigger-than-dreamworks style musicians. Especially if a new system can give us a lot of great middle class musicians who play exactly what they and their fans want.

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Literal Videos, FTW.

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