The last 10 years have shown a shift in the music industry in many aspects.  How we consume our music, the formats that we aquire, the way money is earned, and so much more.  Another aspect I’ve noticed is the general age of artists and the way they are marketed. Justin Beiber, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and so many more that pop up here and there.  Some to stay, others to fade into the musical folds of time.

At the time of this writing, I am 27 years old.  I’m finding more and more often that musical artists that are charting with hit songs are under the age of 21.  Is it because kids are getting better at singing?  Or is it because the industry and major labels are pushing artists of that age group more because the music consumer base consists largely of teenage girls between the ages of 10-19 years old?  There is also a huge bump in sales from people over the age of 45 years old.  Is this because they have teenage children that they’re buying music for?  Just a thought to ponder.  I would suggest that teenage girls are the target audience of the major labels.

Anyway, on to the research!  I got curious and decided to dig up the chart toppers from every year, starting with 1960.  Here are a couple of my own charts based on year-end #1 artists.  (Data gathered from http://longboredsurfer.com/charts/, http://www.billboard.com and http://www.wikipedia.com)

We’ve all heard of the Billboard Charts.  The charts that layout who is at the top of the music game.  Billboard publishes charts in varying frequencies in different genres of music.  They also publish year-end charts.  Year by year, it looks pretty random.  And by decade, it’s just too little data at this point.

But does that mean that the labels aren’t pushing younger artists more and more?  Is there more money to be made by promoting a teen pop star? Is it possibly due to the fact that they’re younger, thereby giving them a potentially longer ROI?  Or could it be because we’re increasingly seeing more artists crossing over to acting and vice versa?

These are just some things to think about.  I would venture to say that the major record labels aren’t making great decisions and putting out the music they’re putting out because they really think it’s ground shattering talent.  It’s all about the Benjamins, after all.

So, where does the data leave us?  Conclusivly, I don’t think we can say that the #1 artists are consistenly getting younger.  However, based on what I see and hear in marketing and advertising campaigns, (not to mention what I see teens carrying around or blasting from their iPods), it is safe to say that the labels spend a large amount of their marketing budgets on younger artists as opposed to the older artists.

Thoughts?  Opinions?