Which Music Stars are Being Forgotten the Fastest?

Because Father Time shows no mercy

Over the last few months, I’ve often opened this newsletter with a sentence like, “Welcome back to Can’t Get Much Higher, where music and data meet.” Even so, the last few editions haven’t involved that much data. We’ll buck that trend today as we return to our data-driven roots in order to measure the artists that we are forgetting the fastest.

If you want more music and data, consider ordering a copy of my book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. It’s a data-driven history of popular music covering the period from 1958 to 2025.

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Which Music Stars are Being Forgotten the Fastest?

By Chris Dalla Riva

Last week, people got angry at me on TikTok when I said that I never understood people who claimed not to like The Beatles. And this isn’t just because I love The Beatles. I also love AC/DC, but I could understand why somebody wouldn’t like them. AC/DC has a pretty consistent sound. If you don’t like a few of their songs, you probably won’t like any of them.

The Beatles aren’t like this, though. Their catalog is just so varied. Sure, you might not like their early rock ‘n’ roll music, but they’ve also got psychedelic music and soul music and folk music and hard rock music and experimental music and Indian music. If you claim you don’t like any of that, it suggests to me that (a) you’re very close minded or (b) you need to listen to more of The Beatles.

@cdallarivamusicPeople who claim to hate The Beatles are kind of crazy

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Many people on TikTok did not agree with this take. This wasn’t a shock. TikTok has a great way of bringing your posts to the people who will disagree with them the most. (See also when I posted that I didn’t like Original Pirate Material by The Streets and was attacked by every British person on the app.) Regardless of your opinion of my opinion, I do feel pretty sure that The Beatles are one of the best remembered bands of all time.

Here’s one way we can measure that. The Beatles were very popular in the 1960s. In fact, they had the second most top 40 hits of the decade after Elvis Presley. (Of note, The King’s hits were packed in the first few years of the 1960s.) All these years later, The Beatles remain very popular. In fact, they are not only the most popular artist from the 1960s on Spotify, but their monthly listeners rival many contemporary pop stars.

Using a similar idea, we can measure which artists who were once popular have been most forgotten. To do this, we will sort artists who had at least ten top 40 hits in the 1960s by least to most popular on Spotify. Once we do that, we are left with a list of artists you’ve probably never heard of unless you were alive at the time.

Before you start yelling at me, I’m not saying that all of these artists are bad. Some, like The Impressions, are legitimate legends. But compared to other artists that had a significant number of hits in the 1960s, people are not listening to The Impressions that regularly.

In The Impressions case, that’s a bad thing for listeners. They’re missing out. But in most other cases, I don’t think it really matters. If some 15-year-old kid is spared from listening to Herman’s Hermits or Tommy Roe, I’m okay with that.

If you got mad at the list from the 1960s, then the list from the 1970s will likely not make you feel any better. While this one also contains long-forgotten stars, like Helen Reddy and The Osmonds, it also contains Carole King. King is not only one of the most celebrated songwriters of all-time, her life recently celebrated in a hit Broadway musical, but her album Tapestry was briefly the greatest selling album of all-time. How could I say she is being forgotten?

Clearly, lots of people still know who Carole King is. But if you compare her popularity on Spotify against her peers, she isn’t played as much these days. For example, Elton John’s popularity score is 33% higher. Similarly, the Eagles have 603% more followers. Carole King is a legend. But we probably need one of her songs to go viral on TikTok to help keep that legend alive with the next generation.

For good measure, I also ran the same analysis for the 1980s. Many of the same points that I raised for the 1970s, hold here too. John Mellecamp — who comes in as the 10th most forgotten — is still popular. He continues to sell out venues. But the last time he played in my area, he played a 2,868 capacity room. By contrast, Bruce Springsteen — who has 283% more Spotify followers than Mellencamp and a popularity score clocking in 16% higher — continues to play stadiums that hold 60,000 people. Both big stars in the 1980s, Springsteen is just more popular these days.

Is it Okay to Forget?

When scanning each of these lists, you will notice that the most forgotten artists of the 1980s are generally more popular than those of the 1970s and the 1960s. For example, the 10th least popular star of the 1960s is Brook Benton. He has a popularity score of 44. Barry Manilow the 10th least popular of the 1970s, has a popularity score of 64. Mellencamp, the analog for the 1980s, comes in with a score of 67.

This trend aligns with what researchers find when looking at memory. We forget things chronologically. For example, when asked to recall the U.S. presidents, outside of a few big outliers like Washington and Lincoln, people typically remember the more recent presidents better than the older ones.

In one sense, that’s okay. Our brains only have so much room. There’s enough going on that you probably don’t need to remember who was president in 1849 (i.e., Zachary Taylor) or which artist had the biggest hit in 1966 (i.e., “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & the Papas) to survive. But in another sense, it’s a good reminder that even the greatest artists are being forgotten. While it would be ridiculous to expect every high schooler to be knowledgeable on the music of the 1950s, we should still try to preserve the great art that came before our time.

A New One
"Could be Love" by Poolhouse
2025 - Indie Rock

For all the bad that I think TikTok is doing to our brains, it still has a magical power to bring songs to bigger audiences in the strangest ways. For example, if you look at the YouTube comments on Poolhouse’s “Could Be Love,” you’ll notice many mention someone named Rachel. The quartet from Utah doesn’t have a member named Rachel.

Rachel is a creator on TikTok that talks about music, movies, and television. The other day, she made a post about “Could Be Love,” saying that she loved it but thought it should be arranged in a slightly different way. Her arrangement went viral, thus sending people back to the original song by Poolhouse. Poolhouse says that they are now going to cut a new version like the one Rachel imagined. I’m sure that one will rock. But I like the original too.

An Old One
"Gypsy Woman" by The Impressions
2025 - Soul

If The Impressions are being forgotten, this is your reminder to remember them. And a good way to preserve their memory is by listening to “Gypsy Woman.” Of course, the vocals on this song are worthy of celebration. The Impressions are in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. But pay attention to the other details on the track. Curtis Mayfield’s guitar work may be just as powerful as those vocals.

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