Now that it’s been quite a few years since I started listening to Top40 music, it’s a good time to reflect on how fleeting some musicians careers are. I don’t mean the one-hit wonders who are popular for two months, but the artists that were on top of the world for an extended period of time. Back in the late ’90s, some of those artists were Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore.

I envision that those artists were hoping to follow in the footsteps of Madonna and have a career that stretches 30+ years, but that never happened. I would say that none of them are known for their music anymore – Christina Aguilera is doing reality TV (albeit of the music variety), Jessica Simpson is promoting diet programs, Mandy Moore is out of the limelight and while Britney is still releasing albums, she’s not really successful and more of a robot than anything else now.

It’s likely that most artists just have a shelf life of 5 years, unless you are a generational talent like Madonna – but then there are artists like Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, and Jennifer Lopez who have had longer careers and weren’t as successful as Madonna. While Lopez peaked a bit later, she’s still going strong (although you might say she’s a generational talent for the Latino community).

It’s interesting to wonder who of the current crop of stars will fade into obscurity and who will still be popular? I’d think that Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo, Bruno Mars, Rhianna, Katy Perry will not last; but I’m not sure who will – it’s probably someone you don’t expect.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: celebrities, music