Depressing Facts About Popular Music

29 thoughts on “Depressing Facts About Popular Music”

  1. You need to look at these in context, much like gross tickets sales for movies. Comparing one times sales to anothers cannot be done without adjustment. More appropriate comparisons would be done as a percentage of all record sales for a set time period- such as for all albums sold in a given year, this artist sold the most with X%. Then you could see if one of the classic artists sold 20% of all albums in a year versus 5% for one of the modern artists.

  2. Music is much more aggressively marketed today. Plus teens have more money. Plus you don’t remember all the crap music that was made in the past either.

  3. If Tik Tok is still being sung and played in 41 years, then I will give the first one to Ke$ha.

  4. That photo of Barbra must be 50 years old

  5. Who’s that female in the last picture?

  6. These will probably look a lot different is analyzed as a percentage of sales per time period. A digital download sale is far cheaper and far more effortless than a trip to the vinyl store. Plus, not everyone carried a record player in their back pocket in the 70s.
    All that having been said, Bob Marley’s music is monotonous and overrated.

  7. Don’t want to live in this planet anymore. ;_;
    On a side note, Katy Perry’s cleavage is amazing.

  8. My taste in music must be validated by popular opinion and it’s not! Why can’t my taste in music be more popular!
    Blah blah blah, whine whine whine. Why do you care so much what other people listen to? It doesn’t matter.

  9. Wheres all the country singers? More people cried into their beers over country songs over a longer period of time than any of them pretenders. Me and J.B. agree with Test1… that some amazing cleav.. cleev..Kleuv.. No, no, no. That Katy gal’s got some chest. WooBoy!
    BTW, that picture of that kid is a fake. It’s a combination of many kids PhotoShopped together. That kid don’t really exist.

  10. yeah besides in terms of population, the % of population should be counted not just per ‘sale’ or ‘unit’… I agree! these modern statistics seem to be missing a lot… however the last picture always will kill me… as I also cannot believe that THING exists

  11. So where are all those losses by piracy?

  12. If I may add, regarding time periods, one must take into consideration the vast difference of population and technology. The population has doubled since the last few decades and technology allows for easy purchasing through a multitude of media sources. The bottom line is one cannot compare today’s music sales to that of the non-internet/limited electronic past.

  13. If some of these songs are being played in 40-50 years on “Classic Whatever” radio stations then I’ll be impressed (if I’m still around). But as others have already said, you have to take into consideration the technology and the population has changed over that time and teens do have easier access to music on their smart phones. Before, you had to get mom or dad to buy you the album or the 45rpm or you had to do menial jobs/chores to earn the money to run to the record store to buy the album or 45 and the store had hours of operation, not 24/7 like today. Bottom line, it has to be put in context.

  14. I see multiple mentions of Canadians, some UK’sters and a Tennessean.
    I hate them all. Especially the Canadians.

  15. Chelsea Clinton ?

  16. Rock is dead. As the population grows dumber, the music will gravitate more towards rap, country and pop.

  17. ok.. but I barely know any modern singer yet alone song listed here.
    As for amounts – duh, Marketing has not sleeped for all this time. But I bet 1000 times outta 1000 if all those former stars emerged today, they would easily overpower these mdoern rivals.

  18. And, time changes and so does everything else. This will happen to modern music and the music after that, just what happens.

  19. There is no accounting for taste.

  20. Tik Tok isn’t even being played or sung this year.

  21. Yeah. The same was being said about the repetitive, loud rock music that was made for dumber (younger) people, unlike the more refined blues and jazz.

  22. The Cold War was a dismal era indeed. Even popular music wasn’t that popular back then.

  23. Who the **** are Tik Tok?

  24. Firstly, music doesn’t affect how intelligent someone is. Secondly, the population is actually getting smarter.

  25. People are getter smarter….

  26. Poor Justin Beiber catches a lot of hell from just about everyone. But like Liberace, he cries all the way to the bank.

  27. The fact that ANYBODY listens to most of the crap people call popular “music” is an indictment of current society.

  28. that last one made me choke and almost spit coke on my laptop. the best.

  29. 57 years ago

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