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Survival of the Hippest: Life at the Top of the Hot 100

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Abstract

We analyze the survival characteristics of recordings that reached the number one spot on the U.S. popular music charts over the period 1955 to 2003. Our results show that there has been a statistically significant change in the time spent at number one since “album cuts” were included in the compilation of Billboard’s Hot 100. Survival time is significantly improved if the recording is by a female solo artist, or if it is an instrumental tune. We also find a significant “Elvis effect”.

Suggested Citation

  • David E. Giles, 2005. "Survival of the Hippest: Life at the Top of the Hot 100," Econometrics Working Papers 0507, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    • Handle: RePEc:vic:vicewp:0507
    Note: ISSN 1485-6441
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    1. Andrew Burke, 1996. "The dynamics of product differentiation in the British record industry," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 20(2), pages 145-164, June.
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    5. David Maddison, 2004. "Increasing returns to information and the survival of broadway theatre productions," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(10), pages 639-643.
    6. 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.
    7. De Vany, Arthur S & Walls, W David, 1997. "The Market for Motion Pictures: Rank, Revenue, and Survival," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 783-797, October.
    8. Paul Meier & Theodore Karrison & Rick Chappell & Hui Xie, 2004. "The Price of Kaplan-Meier," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 99, pages 890-896, January.
    9. Eric Strobl & Clive Tucker, 2000. "The Dynamics of Chart Success in the U.K. Pre-Recorded Popular Music Industry," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 24(2), pages 113-134, May.
    10. Jeffrey S. Simonoff, 2003. "An Empirical Study of Factors Relating to the Success of Broadway Shows," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(1), pages 135-150, January.
    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. 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.
    3. Ma del Pilar Muñoz Dueñas & Antonio Vaamonde Liste & Maria do Rosário Cabrita, 2020. "The Survival of Cultural Firms: A Study of Multiple Accounting Parameters in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Giles, David E., 2006. "Superstardom in the US popular music industry revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 68-74, July.
    5. Seo Bin Hong, 2012. "A comment on survival of the hippest: life at the top of the hot 100," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(11), pages 1101-1105, July.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Ruby Shih & David E. A. Giles, 2006. "Modelling the Duration of Interest Rate Spells Under Inflation Targeting in Canada," Econometrics Working Papers 0605, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    9. Daniel Kaimann & Ilka Tanneberg & Joe Cox, 2021. "“I will survive”: Online streaming and the chart survival of music tracks," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(1), pages 3-20, January.
    10. Michel Clement & Anke Hille & Bernd Lucke & Christina Schmidt-Stölting & Frank Sambeth, 2008. "Der Einfluss von Rankings auf den Absatz — Eine empirische Analyse der Wirkung von Bestsellerlisten und Rangpositionen auf den Erfolg von Büchern," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 60(8), pages 746-777, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Popular music; hit tunes; survival function; hazard function; duration model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C16 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Econometric and Statistical Methods; Specific Distributions
    • C49 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Other
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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