Was rummaging around Wikipedia when I came across something that sums up exactly how nichified and disposable our popular culture has become.
In 1971, B.B. King put out his landmark Live in Cook County Jail. It went to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for three weeks. So how many albums topped the R&B charts at some point in 1971? Only seven; the other six were Curtis Mayfield Curtis, Isaac Hayes …To Be Continued, The Jackson 5 Maybe Tomorrow, Aretha Franklin Live at Fillmore West, Marvin Gaye What’s Going On, and Isaac Hayes again with the Shaft soundtrack.
Fast forward to 2013, when a mere 26 different acts topped the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for at least a week. And the music market got even more divided
in 2014, when 33 artists topped the combined R&B/Hip-Hop album chart — and that further breaks down as 24 artists topping the R&B charts and 24 acts atop the Hip-Hop weekly album list at some point during the year.
And music now having a short shelf life most certainly isn’t just a black thing. In 1971, 11 different artists topped the Billboard 200 album list — as compared to 33 different albums topping the chart in 2014.
