Why do certain artists who were iconic have relatively low streaming numbers on Spotify?

Because most people on those platforms are on the younger side and they don't listen to older stuff all that much.

Umm… newsflash: the works of Thomas Middleton aren’t bestsellers now, either.

Donna Summers? She's that dead disco queen the gays 40 years ago liked right?

Some older artists do have great streaming numbers.....but others appear to be more forgotten

Summer died 11 years ago and her music was popular 45 years ago. I'm shocked she's fading into obscurity.

Because Donna Summer's last hit was 25 years ago. Because she's been dead for more than a decade. Because her commercial peak was 1975-1984, that's to say 40+ years ago (meaning that audiences who knew her peak years are themselves in their 60s or older.)

If kids today knew how Summer was ahead of the curve, they might sit up and take notice. When " I feel love "was being recorded this was a reaction: According to the singer David Bowie, during the recording of his Berlin Trilogy, his collaborator Brian Eno "came running in" and told him he had heard "the sound of the future". According to Bowie, Eno accurately predicted that "I Feel Love" would change the sound of club music for the next 15 years.(WIKI). I find younger folk very receptive to older music from the 70s/80 if you play it for them or direct them to a specific track.

Young people automatically rebel against the music of their parents and grandparents and think it's uncool. It's only when they get older that they smarten up.

"Iconic" is in the eye of the beholder.

It's interesting that some legacy artists do so well on streaming while others do poorly. Elton, MJ, Nirvana, GNR, The Beatles, etc. do amazingly while no 20th century female pop artists do well minus Mariah. But she only does well thanks to her Christmas stuff. Otherwise, she'd have the same spotify numbers as Madonna.

History of media or pop culture should be a bigger part of public education imo - call it art appreciation or music appreciation or whatever you want. You used to absorb all that information through osmosis from the tv and the magazine racks but not anymore. I think younger people just don't know about these old greats at all unless they go viral on tiktok (like fleetwood mac) or get a song put in a big hit show (like kate bush) or something.

Janet Jackson also only has 5 million monthly listeners I believe. You’d think she’d have more with the way people online advocate for her, especially whenever it’s time to drag Justin Timberlake.

R11, that is a great idea. When I was in middle school in the late 90s, I do remember we had a few pages in our textbook about certain musicians but we didn't even discuss those pages in our history class lol. But we really SHOULD be learning about these artists since they were an important part of pop culture and history.

R12, even more embarrassing are Janet's youtube numbers. They are atrocious. You would think she would have a few youtube videos with 100+ million views but she doesn't. She barely has 1. And that's bizarre because she is a music video icon. Madonna is similar but her numbers aren't on that level of bad. Madonna was the second biggest video star next to MJ but unlike him, she only has one video near 1 billion views.

R13 My AP US History gave us a great project where we were all assigned a decade in groups and had to put together a presentation of pop culture at the time that gave the class an impression of the cultural/political state of the times. Probably the most fun I ever had at school. Everyone was really engaged.

R4: How is Wham! in the Top 20 of most monthly listeners? The only other legacy act in the Top 20 is Elton John.

R16 if you see something like that it usually means they had a viral sound on tiktok recently

ROFL of course Bowie liked I Feel Love, it sounds exactly like his music. By which I mean, autistic as fuck. Whoever arranged it had to have been on the Spectrum.

Listen to Time:

And then listen to I Feel Love.

It’s the same song.

R15, that does sound like fun!

Although Eno was wrong, it did not change the sound of club music in the 80s, which was what? Blue Monday? Get Into the Groove?

It did, however, pave the way for Michael Jackson and Prince.

I stream on Apple Music not Spotify

[quote]History of media or pop culture should be a bigger part of public education imo - call it art appreciation or music appreciation or whatever you want. You used to absorb all that information through osmosis from the tv and the magazine racks but not anymore. I think younger people just don't know about these old greats at all

FFS, why? Pop culture education is nothing at all like.Art History or even art appreciation. But why is is it important (to anyone but you) that younger people "know.abputnthese old greats" of your generation?

When I was young I had little interest in Bill Halley, Brenda Lee, Buddy Holly, The Chantels, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, or The Everly Brothers, music of a generation before me. In time and years later I gained appreciation of some music from that period but in my own time and way, and others I dismissed as not translating well or simply of no interest.

Pop culture is fine as a subject for education. Teaching young people about their parents' generation of music.and why Donna Summer was important to some of them - that just sounds like an exercise in vanity to appease elders.

Stay ignorant

The Gen Zers love certain bands and artists from the past. Nirvana is huge. Queen is huge. MJ is huge. But other big time contemporaries of those acts are all but forgotten.

Donna, sadly, falls into the latter category.

Who knows why.

It seems most female artists from the 20th century are forgotten. It is fascinating that Time after Time and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun are more streamed than ANY Madonna song.

It's okay, R26. Madge is still the best selling female artist of all time.

FWIW, The Recording Academy is awarding Donna with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming ceremony.

P.S. - Do NOT tell Ms. Warwick (even though she received one in 2018)!

Giorgio Moroder had ENORMOUS influence on several waves of progressive club music. Perhaps this never trickled down to the popular dance crap played at gay clubs in tiny gay ghettos and on the fast food strips outside Flyoverstan towns.

I think this side of Four Seasons is STILL effective. In short, it's beyond fabulous for a true lover of club music. By the way, it's before my time in the clubs.

[quote] It's okay, [R26]. Madge is still the best selling female artist of all time.

That’s nice. Emperor Marcus Aurelius may have been the most beloved ruler in history, but that means little today.

[quote] According to the singer David Bowie, during the recording of his Berlin Trilogy, his collaborator Brian Eno "came running in" and told him he had heard "the sound of the future". According to Bowie, Eno accurately predicted that "I Feel Love" would change the sound of club music for the next 15 years.

Who is David Bowie?

R32, Madge has had an outstanding career but you keep being petty and taking cheap shots at her. She's earned her place in the history of pop music, no matter what you say.

Fuck Madonna! She isn’t the only famous artist! You stupid crone!

R23 I'm not old, I know that pop culture history and art appreciation are two different things, and I'm not a Donna Summer fan. I was just spitballing because I think media literacy and knowledge about the history of art/media/pop culture is fading fast due to modern media atomization. "Pop culture is fine as a subject for education." is basically all I was trying to say. I'm sorry that I wasn't super careful with my words or whatever. Chill the fuck out dude.

You’re a godamned contrarian.

R37 me? Why, I just think it would be nice if kids learned more about the history of music and movies and stuff I don’t feel like that’s contrary to anything.

Aw, R35. Too bad the artists you admire don't measure up to Madonna, the best selling female artist of all time. It must really annoy you. It's tough admiring also-rans.

R27, Taylor Swift will overtake Madonna in five to ten years to become the best selling female artist of all time with Madonna in second.

R40, Swift has some awfully funny lyrics, eg. like a monster on a hill, lurching toward your favorite city. I have to chuckle when I hear that song. What a sense of humor Taylor has.

R41, I actualyl cannot stand her music. Was just stating facts regarding her success.

Sheena Easton had a ton of hits in the 80s but barely registers on streaming

Queen does really well on Spotify

Metallica, Bob Marley, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, ABBA, and AC/DC also do well

I read yesterday that Swift has sold 50 MILLION ALBUMS (well, album equivalent via streaming) since Midnights came out.

That's completely insane. In contrast, she sold 57 million album equivalent from 2010-2020. Which feels about right. She was very big. And then 50 in about a year. Sorry, but that feels so wrong and also like it tells an incomplete story.

I suggest they stop trying to covert today's consumption of media to single and album sales. Just make a clean break. It's silly to continue this.

R47 that's what I meant by an incomplete story.

I don't care how popular Taylor is. The biggest pop star in the world at their highest peak (Madonna, Gaga, Beyonce, Britney, whomever) never came close to selling 50 million albums in one year. Maybe 20? Maybe?

Doesn't take anything away from Swift. She's a force for sure. But come on.

Yeah, I don't think Thriller sold anywhere closed to 20 million copies in one year so I think that stat sounds very inflated for Taylor

[quote]I suggest they stop trying to covert today's consumption of media to single and album sales. Just make a clean break. It's silly to continue this.

In other words, Madonna's record will never be beaten. The End

I appreciate the old school way of an artist obtaining lofty chart stats as opposed to the modern way. Back in the day, you had to physically go to the record store to buy a single or an album, or call up the radio station to request a song in order to get that song or an album to #1. Artists like Michael, Janet, Madonna, Prince, Whitney, George, Tina, Bruce, etc., EARNED their chart stats. Fans of today’s artists can give their fave a #1 simply by swiping their smartphones.

R51, agreed, this is why I think it's silly to even use EAS (equivalent album sales) for streaming. Streaming serves as both a radio and a way to consume music, how do you tell what is being listened to as a radio hit or as the equivalent of an album or a single? It's probably impossible.

[quote] History of media or pop culture should be a bigger part of public education imo - call it art appreciation or music appreciation or whatever you want.

You just want them to study what was important to YOU personally when you were growing up.

If they had had such courses while you were young that made you listen to the dulcet tones of Rudy Vallee or the Boswell Sisters, you would have been disgusted.

Pop culture is disposable by its very nature.

R53, I'm not that poster but I think learning about what was popular in previous decades and tying those works to events going on at the time can be interesting. I love learning about popular entertianment from the 50s, 60s and 70s even though I was born in 1987. I'm sure there are many people who are the same.

[quote]I love learning about popular entertianment from the 50s, 60s and 70s even though I was born in 1987. I'm sure there are many people who are the same.

I'm all in favor of Art History, or Music History/Appreciation, or courses that examine popular culture as an aspect of History, but if you want to learn about music of near past generations, you could sit down as a teenager today and start watching the more informed YouTube videos until the day you died and never see the same video twice.

Why pretend that this is vital to any young person's education or that it need be built into curricula? There are plenty of avenues of discovery to anyone who wants to discover old music, including proper classroom courses.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes, Turn and face the stranger

Ch-ch-Changes, Don't want to be a richer one

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes, Turn and face the stranger

Ch-ch-Changes, Just gonna have to be a different one

Time may change me, but I can't trace time

I guess I should’ve just added Prince and Tina Turner to this discussion instead of making a separate thread.

R57 Prince only has 11 million and Tina only has 10.8 million atm. I guess I just expected more because they were such huge stars.

Prince has low streaming numbers which is surprising. I thought Purple Rain would be much bigger on Spotify and Youtube but Born to Run (the only album bigger than Purple Rain from 1984) does much better. Madonna also does poorly. Janet Jackson barely has a pulse on youtube or Spotify despite her own 2 decades of success.