The 7 Levels of Popstar

For decades, a shadowy organization called the Lemonati has kept lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Look around, lemon forward sodas, even lemon forward songs. We ran the tracks, slowed them down, reversed them, and squeezed out the truth. That's lemon propaganda right there. But now, 7up is fighting back with their new lime lemon soda. Join the 7 uprising. Flip the sip. Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light, and slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season, you create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross. Why do some artists feel iconic when others have been trapped at the same level for years? Why do some go 10 years releasing music before they finally have that massive breakthrough moment? And what makes somebody truly a legend? To build a legacy that lasts beyond just the music they create but impacts culture, maybe introduces film, maybe they start brands or businesses? Well, I have a theory that there are a lot. I have a theory that there are seven levels of pop star. I have been absolutely loving this sort of seven levels of format recently. I've been seeing a few of them pop up on my YouTube and then I saw this pathologist do one about like the seven levels of pop girl. And I absolutely loved that format. I thought it was so interesting. It was one of those things that really made me think about how would I classify this? How would I do this? And I think it's interesting because I think the way I've thought about it is a bit differently. You know, when I was really trying to think of criteria for breaking things down into these seven levels. Definitely a big emphasis is, you know, obviously commercial success and the scale of what they have done. But two, something that I really thought and weigh pretty heavily into this is longevity. How long they have been doing it. And also by default, I think a lot of newer artists lower on this list for me. Just because I think it's not just about are you capable of having big moments? Are you capable of having big moments over time? that sort of like upper echelon of being one of the biggest artists. Also, Sabrina is like just starting a fragrance line. And you know what I mean? They are just kind of setting into their pop stardom. Number five is what I call this sort of cultural catalyst. These are artists who are still earlier in their career, but are like the size of festival headliners, confidently will go down as a music goat and a music legend. However, are a little too earlier in their career to be labeled that, but also are deeper in it to where you don't feel like they're a new artist. Like they have cemented, they are here to stay. The two people that immediately popped to mind were like Billie Eilish and Tyler, the creator, right? Billie Eilish, only three albums, but even her first EP is one that had Ocean Eyes on it and Hostage. The song that she did with Khalid has like overthrown. Three billion streams. She has had two Oscar winning songs. She was in a TV show. She has a successful fragrance line and even has a concert documentary coming out directed by James Cameron, right? She has been an absolutely insane commercial for it since the beginning. All of her albums have been insanely successful. Her most recent being her most successful, which is insane. But to call Billie a music all time great feels too early still, right? Again, it's like we know she's going to get there. But I'm not sure or not, not that I'm not sure that it's just not yet. Like she needs two more albums, whatever of, of this level to where I think that will have set in. Another great example to me was someone like a Tyler, the creator, right? Where he has built such a world beyond just his music. He has a golf weighing clothing. He has golf, the floor fragrances. He just did his first movie role in Marty Supreme. And also he owns an orchestrated camp flog, not, which is one of the most successful artists led for a long time. And I think that's a great example of someone who's been in the music world for so long. of all time, right? He is somebody who has really gone out of their way to build what is this cinematic universe of Tyler, the creator outside of that. And he also has a lot more albums. So I feel like he's proved his consistency and longevity in that sort of way. And I think he's doing so many things in rap that not many other people could do, honestly. And I think that that is what is so, you know, he can really move culture in that way with these sorts of things and has proven that, right? Has orchestrated entire festivals, has dropped clothing lines. Like he's proven his ability to move culture. And also with this tier list, a big caveat I've heard say in the beginning is that I think people move around a lot. People can also rapidly jump. You know what I mean? Like I think Charli XCX is like a great example to me of like someone who is now just like doing, right? Like the year that she had from like Brat into doing all these movie soundtracks now, into acting and releasing her own doc, you know, mockumentary style film. Like they are in the process always of moving through the tiers. Like I don't want it to sound like it's this eternally rigid thing. Like you're a tier four pop star and that's all you'll ever be. I hate that. I don't think that at all. This is kind of just how I like thought about these categories in my mind, I guess, so to speak. Like, um, you know, really what is this sort of ladder to a true icon status? You know, um, when you get to the level of like what you do and your work will be referenced for decades to come. Um, and because I think a lot of those factors tend to not just be the music itself. It tends to be, um, creating this lasting legacy that expands beyond that, which is why it was fascinating me to try and like come up with these lists. Number six is what I call the superstar. This is an absolute icon of music. Think Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles. They will go down as some of the greatest artists of our generation. Many of them have built out some sort of like ownership, stake with their music. Um, whether that is founding their own label that they signed themselves to so that they have better ownership rights or maybe a publishing company or something like that. Sometimes it's a small imprint label within the label they're already signed to. Like they are artists that have also gotten to such a massive, massive success that they have leveraged to do those things now. And that has made it so that they have more sort of influence in say in the music industry and with their music. Um, and I think that's, I think that's, I think that's their own work, right? Um, a lot of artists have done this throughout time. You know, you can think of some artists do like a full label route, which is like something that Jay-Z did. However, what I think separates people in this tier from the like top tier seven icon legend status is that they don't really care as much about doing anything outside of their creative medium. Like they are here to be an artist and that's really it. And that is their driving force. And it doesn't need to be anything beyond that. You know, someone like Bruno Mars, like he has a rum brand that I had never known about before filming this video or like Harry Styles has pleasing. But when you think about this sort of people in this category, also like they have taken years long hiatuses from music and not really cared. Um, you know what I mean? Like when you think of like a tier seven, like an Ariana Grande, like the, her taking a break from music is like doing wicked, right? We're just like an astronomically huge thing. And she's like, you know what I mean? So like Bruno Mars went 10 years without making a solo album. Um, you know, Harry Styles is not afraid to completely disappear for two years when he's making an album. Adele wanted to raise a child and was like, I'm going to peace out for a while. Like they're, they're not as obsessed with like growing the thing constantly all the time. They want to make music when they feel driven to make music, but it's not ever going to be anything more than that. And I think that they could get to that status at top tier status, but they choose not to. They choose to have more privacy. They choose to have more comfort and just pursue other things with life, you know? Um, then they have been with going up that way. Then we get to the tier seven. This is like what I call the icon. Like you will be studied and referenced for over a decade. Your work has evolved with time to the point where you have maintained cultural dominance throughout multiple eras of music. You have proven that you're not alone. You're not alone. You're not that your influence and impact does not just span on music alone, but it is your ability. You have such a deep fandom and connection with the people who love you that they want to be a part of you and be a part of anything that you create in any way, right? This is the Ariana Grande's of the world, right? She can do a billion dollar fragrance line, but she can also be in a movie like Wicked and could do Broadway, could be in a bunch of other movies, was an actress before, right? Like she's proven throughout beyond just music. She's proven throughout beyond just music. She's proven throughout beyond just music and what she is that like her legacy will be something that people hold on to for years. Similarly with Beyonce. Beyonce also, again, has a bunch of director consumer businesses like Sacred and her whiskey brand, but she also started her own label, which is another fascinating thing and not just the label for managing her own music, but label for signing other artists. Taylor Swift is in this category because of she has really proven her ability to move culture with things like the NFL viewership. She's proven her ability to move culture with things like the NFL viewership. And just the talking about how her tours has impacted GDPs of countries, right? Like we know that she can move people in a way that very few, maybe no one else on earth is capable of doing. She hasn't done that in the sort of traditional business route that a lot of other people on this list have. However, she has proven that. And her commercial success is just so dominant that you can't ignore it. Another example to me is Lady Gaga. She has house just broke the record for the largest show from a female artist like this year, right? She has been a dominant force of music for like two decades now. She's proven she's done movies like A Star is Born, right? Like there's just this longevity to her and this ability to do so many different things. I think very, very few artists could ever replicate. Another fascinating example to me was Bruce Springsteen. Fun fact, he was the first artist to ever become a billionaire. Through music. And he did it in a very interesting way because he doesn't really own businesses in the sort of like REM beauty type way, right? He actually has, I think on record, the largest catalog sale of all time at $500 million for his catalog of music, which is insane. And one of the reasons for that is because he maintained a lot of ownership of the music. So he has songwriting ownership on pretty much like 40 plus years worth of work. So when that sale happened, he had more of a stake in it. Also throughout that entire 40 years had better royalties because that was also just an era of music where everything was still like CDs fill and physical music sales. And also he was just consistently one of the highest grossing performance of all time at like $200 to $300 million per show. He has also had a documentary come out about him and done things like that. He's been very outspoken politically, which I very much admire. So he's an example to me of, again, like he is mainstreamed. This legend status, no matter what, right? Like your parents probably showed you a song of his at some point in your life, uh, in the way that I will show kids Beyonce and Ariana Grande at some point in 20 years from now or whatever. Right. Um, that is what it meant means to have true icon legend status, right? There were people that I wanted to include on this list, but I just didn't really know how to do so. Um, a great example to me is like a Britney Spears, right? Like she does meet this criteria to me of like insane commercial success. And like, you still being referenced to this day, but also like so much happened with her and her mental and was clearly manipulated and abused in a lot of ways that it's like, I don't want to try and compare her sales to something. Like, I just, I just felt like it's better not to talk about it at all. Another great example, again, is someone like Jay-Z who built his own label, has built businesses, has, you know what I mean? Like he also, I think when it's sort of that almost Rihanna type route where after a while he didn't stop releasing altogether, but made it clear that like music was no longer his primary focus. But I do think again, in this being referenced, having a legacy, having shifted the landscape of music in a way that will be talked about for generations, you can't deny Jay-Z has to be up there as well. So let me know, who did I forget on this list? Is there anyone you would have added? Was there any criterias or things I should have thought about? I'm really interested, especially in these sort of tiers of like cultural catalysts where I had like Billie and then this sort of like the gatekeepers. The gatekeeper tier, you know, like where, what artists do you think are there that have been, gotten to such a great level and you love their music, but for some reason have not had this sort of like Sabrina Carpenter type blow up? And why don't you think they've had that blow up? I'm very, very curious, but I love y'all. I hope you enjoyed this fun little video and doing this trend. I want to do stuff like this more often and I'll see y'all next week. Bye. Peacemakers. Risk takers. For the optimists. Pessimists. For long distance love. For introverts and extroverts. The thinkers and the doers. For old friends and new. Coca-Cola. For everyone. Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you. Burst the air. Then the light. And slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress. A hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.