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Superstardom in the US popular music industry revisited

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  • Giles, David E.

Abstract

We provide empirical tests of the hypothesis that there were ‘superstars’ in the U.S. popular music industry between 1955 and 2003. Using different measures of artists’ successes, we reject a particular version of the superstar hypothesis. This contradicts earlier findings and indicates the sensitivity of the conclusions to the choice of ‘stardom’ measure.
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  • Giles, David E., 2006. "Superstardom in the US popular music industry revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 68-74, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:92:y:2006:i:1:p:68-74
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    as
    1. David Giles, 2007. "Survival of the hippest: life at the top of the hot 100," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(15), pages 1877-1887.
    2. Lex Borghans & Loek Groot, 1998. "Superstardom and Monopolistic Power: Why Media Stars Earn More Than Their Marginal Contribution to Welfare," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 154(3), pages 546-546, September.
    3. Chung, Kee H & Cox, Raymond A K, 1994. "A Stochastic Model of Superstardom: An Application of the Yule Distribution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(4), pages 771-775, November.
    4. David Giles, 2007. "Increasing returns to information in the US popular music industry," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 327-331.
    5. Connolly, Marie & Krueger, Alan B., 2006. "Rockonomics: The Economics of Popular Music," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 20, pages 667-719, Elsevier.
    6. De Vany, Arthur S. & Walls, W. David, 2004. "Motion picture profit, the stable Paretian hypothesis, and the curse of the superstar," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1035-1057, March.
    7. Hamlen, William A, Jr, 1991. "Superstardom in Popular Music: Empirical Evidence," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 729-733, November.
    8. Hamlen, William A, Jr, 1994. "Variety and Superstardom in Popular Music," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(3), pages 395-406, July.
    9. MacDonald, Glenn M, 1988. "The Economics of Rising Stars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 155-166, March.
    10. Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "The Economics of Superstars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 845-858, December.
    11. Marie Connolly & Alan Krueger, 2005. "Rockonomics: The Economics of Popular Music," Working Papers 878, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
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    Cited by:

    1. Ian C. Strachan, 2014. "Female Artists and the Digitization of Labor in the Music Industry," Business and Management Research, Business and Management Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(4), pages 51-60, December.
    2. Marc Bourreau & Michel Gensollen & François Moreau & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2013. "“Selling less of more?” The impact of digitization on record companies," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(3), pages 327-346, August.
    3. Nela Filimon & Jordi López-Sintas & Carlos Padrós-Reig, 2011. "A test of Rosen’s and Adler’s theories of superstars," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 35(2), pages 137-161, May.
    4. Beck, Jonathan, 2008. "Diderot´s rule," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Competition and Innovation SP II 2008-13, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    5. Budzinski, Oliver & Kohlschreiber, Marie & Kuchinke, Björn & Pannicke, Julia, 2019. "Does music quality matter for audience voters in a music contest?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 122, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    6. Aloys Prinz, 2017. "Rankings as coordination games: the Dutch Top 2000 pop song ranking," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 379-401, November.
    7. Hofmann, Julian & Schnittka, Oliver & Johnen, Marius & Kottemann, Pascal, 2021. "Talent or popularity: What drives market value and brand image for human brands?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 748-758.
    8. Laura Spierdijk & Mark Voorneveld, 2009. "Superstars without Talent? The Yule Distribution Controversy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(3), pages 648-652, August.
    9. Samuel Cameron, 2016. "Past, present and future: music economics at the crossroads," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 40(1), pages 1-12, February.
    10. Brinja Meiseberg, 2014. "Trust the artist versus trust the tale: performance implications of talent and self-marketing in folk music," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 9-42, February.
    11. Andrés González-Moralejo, S & Compés López, R, 2009. "Problemas contractuales y acuerdos de subcontratación: El caso de la logística frigorífica en la industria alimentaria valenciana/," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 27, pages 279(30á)-27, Abril.
    12. Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch, 2012. "Talent And/Or Popularity: What Does It Take To Be A Superstar?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 202-216, January.
    13. Luc Champarnaud, 2014. "Prices for superstars can flatten out," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(4), pages 369-384, November.
    14. Mehrafshan, Nima & Goerke, Björn & Clement, Michel, 2016. "The Effect of Unexpected Chart Positions on the Firm Value of Music Labels. An Event Study of Album Success," EconStor Preprints 142161, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    15. Joel Hellier, 2023. "Asymmetric Globalization, Top Performers’ Income and Inequality," Working Papers 634, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    16. Martínez-Rodríguez, A.M. & Sáez-Castillo, A.J. & Conde-Sánchez, A., 2011. "Modelling using an extended Yule distribution," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 863-873, January.
    17. Elmer Sterken, 2014. "Collective Memory and Nostalgia in The Dutch Radio2 Top2000 Chart 1999-2013," CESifo Working Paper Series 4632, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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