Peter Ruppert's Blog

November’s Top Movers and Shakers in Popscores

The biggest risers this month are all solo female artists and three of them can best be described as Divas.

Celine Dion, who recently visited the UK increased her PopScore by 3 points to a weighted average of 14 across all demographic groups. With 50-59 year old females she is particularly popular, commanding a PopScore of 40.

Whitney Houston retains a strong pull with UK consumers. A clip of her at Fashion Rocks in London a few weeks back made it quickly onto the UK’s most-viewed lists on YouTube. During the month her PopScore increased by 2 points to 20, driven mainly by a useful 2% point increase in her Love score to 11%.

As predicted in my previous blog, another big recovery story is Britney Spears. Her PopScore increased by 2 points (to an admittedly still lowly 5). The increase comes mostly from 20-29 and 40-49 year olds of both sexes although her key connection is with 20-29 year old females. These results come at the same time as her album goes in at number 2 in the UK.

Leona Lewis presented her new single Bleeding Love and yes it connected; the overall increase of 3 PopScore points is driven by 20-29 year olds where her score increased by a massive 10 points.

Amongst developing artists the most notable successes this month have been achieved by Plain White T’s, Scouting For Girls and Newton Faulkner. All three acts increased their informed awareness by over 10% (3%points). Awareness of the Plain White T’s grew markedly with teenage females while the growth in familiarity of Scouting For Girls and Newton Faulkner was more widespread perhaps reflecting their recent radio airplay.

The one notable change of direction this month is Amy Winehouse. Her PopScore declined by 3 points to 21 reflecting a 1 point drop in Love and 3 point increase in Negative scores. Males in general and 40-49 year olds in particular appear to be less enamoured with her of late although her PopScore remains usefully ahead of the average with every demographic group apart from teenage males.