YouTube

A lot of classic artists enjoy impressive view counts of their videos on youtube. Artists like Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Queen, AC/DC, Guns-n-Roses, Bon Jovi, ABBA, Bryan Adams, Nirvana, Metallica, Green Day and The Red Hot Chili Peppers all have multiple videos with over a hundred million views, and quite a few have at least one 1 billion view video.

This makes sense since these artists are largely seen as legends, however there are some classic artists and videos that have seem to fallen through the cracks and have been largely ignored by youtube viewers. With some, the reason is obvious. Prince, for example, kept his music off the internet for years and it wasn't finally allowed on the internet until after he died in 2016. Since most classic videos were uploaded to youtube 15/16 years ago, this meant his videos all lost about 6/7 years worth of views.

With other artist and videos, the explanation isn't nearly as clear. Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer was considered a monumental video on MTV back in the day much like Thriller and Take On Me were, yet the last time I checked it had yet to reach even 100 million views whereas Thriller has over 1 billion views and Take On Me has over 2 billion views. Why is this? Is Sledgehammer just too weird for younger viewers? Do they find the stop motion animation too off putting?

Meanwhile other artists seemed to be a mixed bag. Madonna has numerous videos with at least a hundred million views. It doesn't surprise me that La Isla Bonita is her first billion view video considering the large number of Latino/Latina users on youtube. Many of her other videos also have an impressive number of views like Hung Up, Papa Don't Preach, Like A Prayer, Frozen etc... However some of her most well regarded videos struggle to gain views. Express Yourself, Bedtime Story, Ray Of Light all have very low view counts.

Then there are some once popular artists that have seem to have been ignored all together on youtube. Janet Jackson was huge back in the 80s/early 90s yet almost none of her videos have more than a trivial number of views.

So why exactly are some classic artists and videos popular on youtube while others are not? Does social media have something to do with it? Are some artists just better at promoting their work than others?