Yes Paula Abdul had a similar fate she had some hits in the 1980's but was out of the spotlight for some time in the 1990's before she was big again the 2000's for American Idol.
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Artists that seem to "drop off."
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
I'm too old to be part of Justin Bieber's target audience and I'm not a fan of his genre of music, but I think he's a fine singer. I've never understood all the hate toward him.
I was not around during Frank Sinatra's halcyon years but I've heard several of his songs and IMHO he's a GREAT vocalist! As for his films, Mr. Sinatra won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor for his turn in 1954's "From Here To Eternity," so he must have done something right on at least one occasion.
People get distracted by both Bieber's and Sinatra's popularity. But in the case of Sinatra, he was a revolutionary singer in the way he could hold notes. He said he learned a breathing technique from horn players who did something called "circular breathing." It allowed them to get a breath while still exhaling. The effect was amazing at the time. No one in popular music had ever held notes that long. It was somewhat operatic, but he did it with popular orchestration. Being part of the Benny Goodman orchestra put him in front of a lot of people. Goodman also had a very popular radio show. So it wasn't long before Sinatra was able to go off on his own. He was able to outlive the teen phase because of the quality of his songs. He worked with some of the best songwriters in the country. Johnny Mercer and Sammy Cahn wrote a bunch of his biggest songs in the 50s. Then when it looked like his career was over, he started his own record label, and continued to work with great songwriters and orchestrators such as Nelson Riddle. So he was able to convert his youthful talent into a lifelong career. Not bad for a skinny kid from New Jersey.
Much, much more than 5 times a day. I think that the last time I heard a Top 40 station that played their powers 5 times a day, it was an automated station carrying the "TM Stereo Rock" format back in the eighties. Even 10 times a day is low by current standard for a CHR. Probably closer to 15 times a day is typical for that format.
The master at work in 1965.
It depends on the station. Z100 is 10-11 times a day. But yes, some are 120 times a week.
IIRC, back in the Good Old Days of Top 40, stations played the #1 song every 60-90 minutes. The jocks had to have been totally sick of some of them after a few weeks at #1.
Too many factors to describe this phenomenon. Generally populace too simplistic and has lack of interest after a smash hit. And generally smash hit artists have little staying power. This is part of “I want it now” mentality. Hate to simplify but I think this is where we are in ‘22.
More like every 90 minutes to 120 minutes for a couple of powers, and then various steps down in rotation for the lower tiers of the playlist.
It's hardly just a contemporary phenomenon. Plenty of "flash in the pan" artists and "one hit wonders" back in the day, whether that "day" for any of us was back in the sixties, seventies, eighties, or nineties.
Sinatra a bad singer? SMH. I suppose Elvis was a bad singer, too, then. And those four semi-talented hacks from the UK that came over here in February 1964. They were poor singers -- it doesn't matter that these three acts influenced everybody -- Sinatra had his imitators (many of them quite good), Elvis had his, and the Beatles had theirs -- and for a reason. They were all good.
We radio people, musicians (or non musicians), and music fans may not like all of what we hear that has been played on hit radio over the decades, but people in general aren't stupid. They may be swayed by fads and trends, but they're not stupid. They don't put down their cash to purchase music or buy expensive tickets to go see a singer or band because that musician or singer is crap. As anyone who has tried to make it -- whether locally or nationally -- can tell you, it takes tons of work on your craft to get heard.
Even if they're someone I don't care for, I still have to give them props for making it.
We radio people, musicians (or non musicians), and music fans may not like all of what we hear that has been played on hit radio over the decades, but people in general aren't stupid. They may be swayed by fads and trends, but they're not stupid. They don't put down their cash to purchase music or buy expensive tickets to go see a singer or band because that musician or singer is crap. As anyone who has tried to make it -- whether locally or nationally -- can tell you, it takes tons of work on your craft to get heard.
Even if they're someone I don't care for, I still have to give them props for making it.
Sinatra sang with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra, not Benny Goodman.
I can't recall the exact figure but it's startling just how short a time people will even listen to a track on Spotify before skipping it.
I'm not saying people should be made to listen to music they dislike but a lot of my favorite songs grew on me via airplay. In an on-demand culture, people's attention spans and openness to new things is getting worse, and that's a bad thing for artists. And I'd argue for culture as a whole. When everything is cheap and easily available, nothing is valued.
In the internet age -- which is where we are now -- we're all overloaded with "content", and that's what everything is: Content. Even books (a field I'm acquainted with, as I know some people who publish) are "content" now. Radio is content. TV is content. Sports are content. Video games are content. This affects music consumers more than it probably did even 30 years ago.
Back in the 80's and 90's, your music library was limited to what you heard on the radio (usually your favorite format consisted of 300-400 songs), including whatever back-catalogue a station played as recurrents or gold, and your own private music collection, of which most people's personal collections probably weren't all that extensive -- maybe 50-60 singles or a couple hundred CDs or LPs or cassettes.
Now I have easy access to potentially hundreds of thousands of songs and artists. All I have to do is click a mouse. And that's competing with the podcasts, the video-blogs, the movies and online TV shows, the social media content that you scroll through, the online games, and everything else.
So the fact that a lot of consumers have shorter attention spans isn't really all that remarkable. It's because there is so much to choose from. And in every content field? Competition is grueling, and consumers are fickle.
And your last sentence.... it's the truth.
Correct, he sang in the Dorsey band in the 30s. But it was his series of shows at the Paramount with Goodman in 1942 that created the legend. The screams for Sinatra were something Goodman had never heard before. He was still on stage, heard the screams, and shouted "What the hell is that?" And yes, at that time Sinatra was solo, but booked together on the same show.
Sinatra saw his main competition at the time as Bing Crosby. He wanted to sound different from Bing, and that's where the circular breathing came in. But the decision to go into movies was also inspired by Bing.
You mean because Bieber turned out to be a punk, and Sinatra was involved with the Mob?
Neither of which have anything to do with singing.
Not bad indeed to sing in front of a full, very loud orchestra which, thankfully, drowned him out.
Not exactly. There was sound reinforcement in the 1930s (although no monitors) so the voice was amplified over the orchestra. Plus the arrangements were done in such a way that the horns were either muted during the vocal parts, or given solos without vocal. By the 1940s, people were going to see Frank, not the band. Goodman opened for Sinatra at the Paramount.
Sinatra was a Bobby Sox sensation in the 40's but so far down the musical list of his contemporaries.
Elvis made his bones by dancing, not singing. He eventually outgrew his teenie bopper audience and did put out some very good music.
The Fab Four rode their hair along with the British Invasion (more teenie bopper admiration) until they learned to play real music. They might have one of the largest catalogs in modern music history but a lot of it is just noise. Their early stuff was just atrocious (but it sold so the industry loved it).
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