Next Big Sound (a/o May 16th):
Looks like gender inequality extends to superstar artists as well. After looking at the top-selling artists over the past few years, we found something fairly shocking: men have been outselling women by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
The breakdown works like this. We tracked the ten best-selling artists over the past five years (2006-2011), counted all of their album sales and compared male to female. Mixed gender groups like Black Eyed Peas were tossed from the dataset, and album sales are US-based as tracked and shared by Nielsen Soundscan.
The result? Out of nearly 128.5 million album sales from top-ranked artists every year, 82 million came from men. That's 65 percent, or nearly two out of every three albums sold.
Here's what an extremely 2008 and 2009 looked like, for example.
Of course, this goes far beyond the music, and the question is whether society subconsciously leands towards more masculine, male superstars. The epic superstars of modern times, from Frank Sinatra to Notorious B.I.G., could support that theory. Indeed, Taylor Swift was recently praised for scoring the best-selling debut-week download - for a female (Flo Rida holds the record).
But a look at recent years suggests that society might be shifting, with heavy-sellers like Swift, Adele and Lady Gaga ushering in a newer, gender-balanced era. Indeed, those superstars have helped to balance the inequality in the most recent years. All of which raises the question if these charts are indicative of a broader societal shift in progress.
duh Thursday, August 23, 2012
Easily more men putting out albums, so of course this is the case.
Manilow Marshmellow Thursday, August 23, 2012
More men also apply for:
universities, high-paying jobs, and political positions.
your point?
wallow-T Thursday, August 23, 2012
One might contemplate factoring Michael Jackson and The Beatles out of the 2009 results. Both of them were racking up current sales on work done decades earlier; they were essentially a nostalgia business not representing current culture. (2009 was the long-awaited remastering of the Beatles CDs, and Michael Jackson died.)
Remove MJ and The Fab Four, and the 2009 chart skews heavily female, for current work.
paul Friday, August 24, 2012
@wallow-T
"they were essentially a nostalgia business not representing current culture."
I think it's hard to selectively parse it out like that. Beatles and Michael Jackson fans aren't off on a separate island somewhere, they're part of mainstream culture in a major way. Can you just put them aside?
/paul
mdti Friday, August 24, 2012
does it mean that the buyers are tipycally girls ? (considering that the majority of buyers are teen ? if i am not wrong)... semi-joke intented (semi only)
@mananepo Friday, August 24, 2012
Bummer. I was hoping to take my "singing in the shower" series to the next level.
@universalindie Friday, August 24, 2012
Sorry ladies.
Sara Tiemogo Friday, August 24, 2012
As a female singer/songwriter that has done a lot of listening to female artists, I was a bit surprised to not see Beyonce or Rhianna on these lists. Anyone else surprised my the names missing?
Visitor Sunday, August 26, 2012
It's sad when a dead artist makes more money than living artists with actual bills..
@SoulRebelMusic Sunday, August 26, 2012
really??
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