Lady Gaga - a trendsetter for music sales?

It has recently been revealed that Lady Gaga's singles "Poker Face", "Just Dance" & "Bad Romance" have all registered 4 million plus sales in the USA. That's 12 million plus sales in singles from a CD released in 2008; an extraordinary effort in any sense, and for any music generation.

Whilst it is common knowledge that the music-buying public are trending towards mp3 single songs rather than full CDs these days, it makes interesting research to see where Lady Gaga presently sits in single song sales history in the USA.

4 million plus sales are recorded for "Hey Jude" [The Beatles], "Hound Dog" [Elvis Presley] & "I Will Always Love You" [Whitney Houston]. Each song is a classic, to be revered even in 100 years' time.

5 million plus sales are recorded for "I'm Yours" [Jason Mraz], "I Gotta Feeling" [The Black Eyed Peas] & "Low" [Flo-rida]. Each of these songs was released in the last 3 years, confirming the trend of mp3 sales.

Anything above this level is considered an outrider: "We Are The World" [USA For Africa] stands at 8 million plus, and "Candle In The Wind '97" [Elton John] has sold in excess of 11 million single in the USA. In both cases, these songs were released on the back of extraordinary world events occurring, thus they can be excluded from the assessment.

So, what does this information prove?

1. Lady Gaga is an extremely popular entertainer in the present market. It is very difficult to measure her success in comparison to The Beatles or Elvis, albeit all 3 artists have literally exploded to their level of popularity in a very short space of time. History will determine Lady Gaga's staying power.

2. Music sales revenue is now all about single mp3 sales. This is the future, and we need to accept the trend.

In generations to come, we may very well look back at 2010 as the real starting point for the change in retail sales of music. History has shown that it takes an extraordinary event to change the course of history, and we just may have witnessed it...

Who are the "smartest" musicians of the past 40 years?

This is a question which is rhetorical within reason. My definition of "smart" refers to those musicians who are well past their "use-by date", however they remain as visable/ relevant as when they were at the peak of their craft. It could be a unique combination of individuality and canny career management, or other unexplained factors.

My 2 nominations for the "smartest" musicians of the past 40 years are:

Elton John - whilst Mr Dwight has consistently released new material over the past 4 decades, in my opinion he peaked circa 1980. If you closely analyse his career management, Elton regularly aligns himself with "the latest thing" in music in order to keep his name in lights. From as far back as 1985 [duets with George Michael, when Michael was at his peak with Wham!] to recent collaborations with The Scissor Sisters, Elton will always be spoken about in the current music media. A very smart operator...

Madonna - when I turned 13, "Like A Virgin" was at the top of the pop charts. 25 years later, she remains extremely visable in the pop media. Recent duets with Justin Timberlake & celebrity divorces/ adoptions are the primary reason for Madonna's name to be known worldwide by all ages. It is apparent that she will vicariously use her daughter's increasing public profile to stay in the limelight. Whilst Madonna continues to release new music, she is essentially doing what she has always done; changing her image for each new CD release. Quite possibly the smartest player in the music business EVER!!!

I'm keen to read your opinions for other "smart" musicians over the past 40 years. Let's exclude all of the nostaglia acts [i.e. Rolling Stones, Kiss] who periodically tour their greatest hits only. Let's focus on the musicians who really use their brains in order to remain viable AND release new material...