Saturday, January 28, 2017

R.E.M., Destiny's Child and Roy Orbison

We're just a little over one week away from the fanfare of The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era*, which is, like The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*, one of our signature music specials.

The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era* gets underway a week from Monday, February 6.  It's easy to remember because it starts the day after the Super Bowl.

We'll keep pointing this out during the special, but keep in mind that the artists in several parts of The Top 100* and just outside are very close to each other.  The difference between making the elite list and being on the outside looking in is about 2-3 big hits, or another 5 million albums sold or just a little more airplay.  I call this the error rate.

In the range from #95 to about #120, that little extra success is the difference, so for the artists in that range, the error rate is + or - 12.5.  The error rate represents the difference in how one weighs the factors that go into the rankings.  If you think hit songs are the most important thing, one artist might do better than they would have done in these rankings.  If you believe that album sales are about the only thing that matters, another artist might be placed above.

Again, we'll point that out throughout the special.  We factored in album sales, hit songs, other solid Top Tracks* on each album, concert sales, radio airplay and awards won.  We believe that by factoring in all of those categories, it fairly ranks each artist, whether they had "hit songs" or not.


In these last few weeks, we've been revealing some of the great artists just outside of The Top 100*.  R.E.M. certainly have had an amazing career--they are just shy of making the list.  As we get closer to next Monday, the artists are even closer to making the elite list.






Destiny's Child may have launched the solo career of BeyoncĂ©, but they were big stars in their own right.  They too are just outside of The Top 100*.







Roy Orbison was one of the stars early in the Rock Era and his solo work is also highly commendable.

Don't miss a day of The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era*, one of the cream of the crop of music specials, brought to you exclusively by Inside The Rock Era beginning February 6!

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