So the latest generation of pop music has not only come of age, but now starts to nudge the more long-standing and traditional icons of pop from their long held top spots.
Calvin Harris vs. Michael Jackson
Calvin Harris has managed an eighth top ten hit single from his album '18 Months'. That's now trumped
Michael Jackson's seven top ten singles from each of his albums Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1991).
But let's look a little closer. That new success is compounded if we look at the proportion of hits from those albums... So seven top ten singles from 11 tracks (64%) on Bad, and seven from 18 tracks (39%) on Dangerous. So eight top 10 hits from 15 tracks on '18 months' is 53%. So in the Harris-Jackson comparison, at 64% Jackson still holds the record for most productive album, with the largest percentage of tracks turned into top 10 singles from a single album. That's probably compounded by the fact that Harris also has a fair amount of help on '18 months', with 10 of those 15 tracks being collaborations featuring a range of successful artists in their own right...Rihanna, Example. Ellie Goulding, Tinie Tempah and Dizzee Rascal.
Emeli Sande vs The Beatles
It's taken 50 years, but the Beatles have now been knocked of their top spot of the album with the longest number of consecutive weeks in the top 10.
In fact 'Our Version of Events' is also the début album for Emeli Sande, and has now spent 63 consecutive weeks in the top 10, racking up 1.8 million sales and still counting. counting. In the first four months of 2013, it's still averaging over 100,000 sales a month. The Beatles have held the record since 1964 when their début album 'Please Please Me' remained a top 10 selling album for 62 weeks.
While there's a myriad of ways to measure music success, it's clear that the top 10 and single success from albums and length of stay in top 10 albums are fair ones. And that's probably especially so in light of the huge popularity and staying power of the previous record holders. There's also some influence of the download over physical media in there somewhere.
