Are "one-hit wonders" a thing of the past?

dyl takes this thread home!

btw it's stagnation primarily at radio, not streaming, that has made it so difficult to break new artists in the states these days. i would argue that if radio had not decided to basically ignore the streaming charts around 2015 or whenever, they would probably have had a healthier turnover of hits in the past several years -- and gosh, maybe the top 40 format wouldn't be hemorrhaging younger listeners and declining in ratings every year for the past half-decade.

as it is now, as a new artist you have to break out with something as massive as like "mood" or "drivers license" in order for radio to get on-board in a remotely timely fashion -- hits big enough that a semi-successful followup is nearly assured. (btw, olivia rodrigo's new song is out today. i haven't heard it yet, but even if it sucks it'll probably do something.)

the ones screwed over by this arrangement are ppl like, idk, trevor daniel, who gain some mid-tier but respectable momentum arising from their social media (tiktok) + streaming virality but only reach medium rotation at radio like 5 months later after the pd bozos' audience research finally comes back and informs them that shocker, the hit song is indeed a hit song, and meanwhile the streaming kids have already moved on. followup single comes out and, oops, no one cares anymore. tate mcrae's "you broke me first" is at peak exposure on the radio right now when it should have been like three months ago if not even earlier. does she even have a chance at a semi-successful followup?

Was sceptical about this premise, but after looking at this list there may be a good point here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_one-hit_wonders_on_the_UK_Singles_Chart

This is quite a run of one-hit wonders in just two years, and nothing since then

Storm Queen 16 November 2013 "Look Right Through"
Sam Bailey 28 December 2013 "Skyscraper"
Route 94 15 March 2014 "My Love"
Borgeous 22 March 2014 "Tsunami (Jump)"
Magic! 9 August 2014 "Rude"
Nico & Vinz 16 August 2014 "Am I Wrong"
Lilly Wood 6 September 2014 "Prayer in C"
David Zowie 16 July 2015 "House Every Weekend"
Rachel Platten 3 September 2015 "Fight Song"

I think this might just be a side effect of less artists being in the charts, 2015 is (iirc) the time when streaming started to be significantly included in the figures and we went from having 45-or-so number ones per year to 15-or-so.

iHeart needs to die before airplay charts will feel adventurous again.

Which will probably take a while since the three labels seem pretty content with their current system of "career artist investment only."

There were a handful of one-album-wonders in the 2010s -- Fetty Wap comes to mind. But this is mostly a dead concept as well.

I've gotten the impression that Makonnen has been pretty prolific as a behind-the-scenes writer for others. And he did a record with Lil Peep.

And I feel like DRAM has a crossover fan base regardless of huge hits (between the Badu collab, Tiny Desk, etc).

I hate the assumption that having one giant hit confers a responsibility to continue having giant hits, and that it's somehow shameful if lightning doesn't strike twice.

Also I feel like streaming + algorithms has made it *more* likely to have one unrepeatable hit, since something can blow up on TikTok or whatever and listeners may have no interest in following an artist, or even know who the artist is. Everything's just a song on a playlist.

Also there are huge streaming hits with millions of plays that will never make radio.

The landscape just feels more adventurous and exciting when a handful of breakthrough artists can emerge every couple months in a way that hints at a broadly shared experience. Whether or not they can repeat their success shouldn't matter; if people like the music they'll continue listening.