Wow. That is certainly an accomplishment especially since I am not familiar with Lil Wayne’s music but for a person as young as he is to beat “the King” there must be something to his music that is very popular.
And no fair Binging.
Big deal. Lil Wayne will never even come close to the Pop Cultural apotheosis that Elvis had.
Are people going to listen to his songs and impersonate him 30+ years after he’s dead? I don’t think so.
To be fair, Elvis was a singer. This other guy just bounces up and down while shooting off his mouth.
I am not saying everything Elvis did was great...but compared to the 24/7 dung factory that is “rap” or “hip hop” or whatever, Elvis was Mozart.
Has it been adjusted for population size?
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Besides, I don’t even know what a Lil’ Wayne is but I can guess.
Elvis is the king. Wayne is wayne-king.
Of course when Elvis became a star, NOBODY thought that was a sign of cultural degeneration.
First, you have to move many fewer units these days to get on the charts than you did back then.
Second, I would guess that a large percentage of Weezy's chart entries involve guest verses on other people's songs, whereas all of Elvis Presley's entries are likely either solo or duet entries, not guest appearances.
Quick! Name one Billboard Top 100 song since the year 2000.
I see all these hand-wringing, weepy articles about how current pop music is out-selling the classics and how that's proof that musical tastes have completely degenerated, etc... I say, "Pfft."
Some responses:
1) The population has grown a lot since the 50's; more customers to buy music
2) The market for American music, in particular, is now global. It wasn't in the 50's.
3) Teens have far more disposable income now than they did in the 50's.
4) It is much easier to find and buy music for anyone, living anywhere, than it was in the 50's
All these add up to some significant factors affecting current pop music sales as compared to the 50's.
Now, everyone quit crying about Elvis.
There’s good music and bad music. Rap/hip-hop is not music. Yes, this tattooed freak has set some sort of sales record; but I consider it to be in an entirely different field than music.
As I suspected, Lil Wayne has only 21 charting singles of his own, but has done more than 150 guest verses in the past five years or so with various artists.
Elvis has been dead for over 30 years and everyone still remembers him and the pilgrimage to Graceland is one of the hottest attractions of Tennessee.
Will people remember or even know who Lil’ Wayne is 20 years from now?
These are records that made the top ‘100’ charts, which is meaningless. Example: I have twenty top 100 chart records that in total sales sell three million records, and you have one ‘number one’ record, that sells 12 million copies... who sold the most records?
Lil who?
Yeah, but Zamfir outsold both Elvis and Lil Wayne.....in Romania.
Is it meaningful to compare incomprehensible tribal chants to actual music?
Elvis could actually sing and make music that was pleasant and enjoyable to listen to.
Never heard of her...