Daniel Parris, the leader of the Substack publication Stat Significant, has examined the data about music stardom and discovered some interesting results about how long said stardom tends to last in today’s music landscape.
Today, the most successful pop stars are young and have been enjoying unexpected success with callbacks to classic eras of music, with Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter having breakout years with songs like Good Luck, Babe! and Espresso, respectively.
Stars who have held onto stardom in recent years, including Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Post Malone, and, more recently, Charli XCX, have found something that clicks with audiences. Swift is undoubtedly the most successful pop star of our time.
Other artists, while still household names—think Katy Perry, Camilla Cabello, or Lil Nas X—have experienced diminishing returns in terms of interest or chart impact. This makes you wonder, how long does stardom last? Does it only reign for one or two successful hits?
According to Billboard, which Parris drew data from, the period between an artist’s first and last day in the Billboard Top 40 over their career usually results in mainstream chart recognition in the US for less than a single year. 74.74% of artists have that very experience.
Using the folk-rock band Of Monsters And Men as an example, Parris found that their 2012 song, Little Talks, was all over the Billboard Top 40 for four months. However, after that song, the band practically faded into obscurity.
While the band have still hit the charts in their native Iceland and on the Billboard US Hot Rock 100, none of their other songs had the same impact. Parris surmised that most acts with time in the Top 40 often only maintain their hold on the chart for less than four months.
“So, to recap, stardom is typically achieved young, usually in an artist’s twenties, and then dissipates within a year (often within three to four months),” Parris wrote. You can check out the article—complete with statistical graphs—here.
