Do you ever wonder why a particular song becomes a hit? Or a best selling book, blockbuster movie, or why a newly emerged visual artist will have work on display or one person shows at major museums all around the world at the same time? As you might guess people have studied that phenomenon.

If you are going to study creative success, music is a good place to begin and we will look at a recent study that did just that. There are a known number of record companies that have produced hits. There are databases like Discogs that list virtually ever record and CD ever made, and of course Billboard magazine quantifies hits each week with the Hot 100 as well as Jazz, R&B, Easy Listening and Country Western songs on dedicated charts. Originally using record store sales, radio and jukebox plays, these days downloads and streaming are added to the mix. Although getting on the top 100 matters a lot and makes it a hit. People following Billboard look even closer at the top 30 and that all important top 10. If you are in the top ten you have made it to the big time. You are in that rarefied world where only the top 20% of hits go.

It is not uncommon for a song to “cross over” from one chart to another. So it may be a hit on the Country chart and also the Hot 100 popular chart. But rarely does it place as high on the second chart. It is very rare indeed, but sometimes you get a Jazz record that crosses over to R&B and also the Hot 100. The Ramsey Lewis Trio did just that by covering a successful R&B record and actually made it into an even bigger hit.

Copyright Notice: All of the music samples used in this podcast series are used under Fair Use provisions of the US Copyright Law which states: “it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports.”

The copyright of all music in this podcast series is held by the individual holders. The theme and end songs are licensed from Fresh Music Library. All commentary is copyright by David Husom. All rights are reserved. Contact the author for educational use of this material.