PopScores January Report - The Most Popular Acts in the UK 2007
In this report we have aggregated PopScores data from 2007 to identify the biggest growers and the most successful acts of the year.
There is a range of different music buying segments in the UK and with PopScores we define these core segments using age & gender demographics segmented by 10 year intervals from 13 to 59 years of age. That’s a powerful way of understanding how well or not acts connect and possibly unify one or more demographic groups
The most popular acts in the UK over the year were The Beatles and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Beatles’ success should come as no surprise because although they have very little connection with teenagers they remain massively popular with British adults. In fact, the Beatles break all records in terms of emotional connection with the over 50’s with almost one in two (45%) saying that they love them. To put this into context, the highest love score in any other age group was 30%.
The Chili Peppers’ strength comes from their continuing ability to unify the market and despite having been around for some considerable time they were the most popular artist with teen males during ‘07, a list that’s entirely made up of rock acts.
The overall Top 10 is entirely made up of groups and 8 of the 10 acts are rock. The other odd one out is the Scissor Sisters in 6th position. 4 of the Top 10 acts are relatively new – Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Scissor Sisters and Coldplay.
Female teens showed a lot of love for rock during ‘07 and also for solo female acts, the most popular of whom was Pink. Edgy pop is what best defines the twenty something female. Pink, Gwen Stefani and the Scissor Sisters lead the table. The rest of the table was dominated by rock bands with the sole exception of Nelly Furtado, who came in 10th place.
Twenty something males prefer rock bands again with not a single solo artist in this segment’s Top Ten. The “sound” of the 30+ female doesn’t appear to differ much from the twenty somethings, with the exception that this segment’s top 10 also features Kylie Minogue and Bon Jovi.
In the 40+ and 50+ segments there is little room for newer acts. The exceptions are the Kaiser Chiefs and Snow Patrol who built enough love in the 40+ segment to appear in the Top 10. The other big acts in these segments all had 10+ albums to build that strong connection.
In summary, each ten year segment has its own distinctive sound. There is some overlap between age segments but one could readily programme a radio station that reflects the preferred sound for each of the segments.
This exercise confirms again that whilst some artists like Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Chiefs manage to unify 20-50 year olds, the rule is that our music preferences stay with us for a long time while we grow our emotional connection with artists. The warning message to the music industry appears to be build acts with long term careers that can last a generation or today’s teens and twenty somethings will have a lot less passion for music when they’re older. A two album career simply isn’t enough to build a long term connection.
Top Ten Most Popular Acts in the UK
1. The Beatles
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers
3. Snow Patrol
4. Kaiser Chiefs
5. REM
6. U2
7. Scissor Sisters
8. Coldplay
9. Bon Jovi
10. The Police
Top Ten Most Popular Acts by Demo
13-19 Females
Pink
Snow Patrol
Christina Aguilera
Nelly Furtado
Gwen Stefani
Killers
Kaiser Chiefs
Kelly Clarkson
The Kooks
Maroon 5
13-19 Males
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Killers
Foo Fighters
Muse
Razorlight
Snow Patrol
Gorillaz
Arctic Monkeys
Kaiser Chiefs
The Zutons
20-29 Females
Pink
Gwen Stefani
Scissor Sisters
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Snow Patrol
Killers
Kaiser Chiefs
Bon Jovi
Green Day
Nelly Furtado
20-29 Males
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Foo Fighters
The Beatles
Snow Patrol
Oasis
Green Day
REM
Killers
Nirvana
Razorlight
30-39 Females
Scissor Sisters
Robbie Williams
Pink
Snow Patrol
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Kaiser Chiefs
Madonna
Kylie Minogue
Bon Jovi
Gwen Stefani
30-39 Males
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Kaiser Chiefs
U2
The Police
The Beatles
REM
Foo Fighters
Snow Patrol
Green Day
Killers
40-49 Females
Scissor Sisters
Robbie Williams
Annie Lennox
Take That
Meatloaf
Earth Wind & Fire
Genesis
Bon Jovi
Snow Patrol
Stevie Wonder
40-49 Males
REM
Annie Lennox
David Bowie
Genesis
Scissor Sisters
Meatloaf
U2
Kaiser Chiefs
Snow Patrol
The Police
50-59 Females
The Beatles
Simon & Garfunkel
Eric Clapton
Stevie Wonder
Genesis
Meatloaf
Elton John
Annie Lennox
Robbie Williams
Bryan Adams
50-59 Males
The Beatles
Simon & Garfunkel
Eric Clapton
Rolling Stones
Santana
Bob Dylan
Genesis
David Bowie
Annie Lennox
Diana Ross
The Top 10 most popular acts in the UK are a weighted result and reflect the population of the UK, i.e. larger population segments such as 40-49 year olds weight heavier than the much smaller population segment of teenagers
The Biggest Growers in 2007
The biggest growers during 2007 were The Klaxons, Amy Winehouse and The Fratellis. The Klaxons enjoyed their largest support with teen females but also with 40-49 year old males. Amy Winehouse had the strongest growth in emotional connection with 30-39 and 40-49 year old females and The Fratellis grew the most with 50+ men.
Other big gainers were Kanye West who secured considerable support from teen males and Fergie who grew strongly with 20-29 year old females and 30-39 year old males. Snow Patrol experienced the biggest increase with 50-59 year old females.
The Top Three Growers
1. The Klaxons +12 PopScore points
2. Amy Winehouse +10 points
3. The Fratellis + 9 points
The Biggest Growers By Demographic
13-19 Females: The Klaxons + 22 PopScore points
13-19 Males: Kanye West + 18 points
20-29 Females: Fergie + 20 points
20-29 Males: Klaxons + 16-points
30-39 Females: Amy Winehouse + 19 points
30-39 Males: Fergie + 15 points
40-49 Females: Amy Winehouse + 14 points
40-49 Males: Klaxons + 17 points
50-59 Females: Snow Patrol + 15 points
50-59 Males: The Fratellis + 17 points
Peter
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