Calvin Harris hit headlines this week with the news that he’d broken Michael Jackson’s record of the most top ten chart hits from a single album, with the DJ beating the record The King Of Pop’s previous record of seven from his 1987 album ‘Bad’.
But why has the Scottish hitmaker been so incredibly successful in the charts while his album ‘18 Months’ has been med with only moderate critical reaction? The answer is that his brand of pop infused dance has the knack of being incredibly accessible at its core and radio friendly enough to get massive exposure. It might not be deep or move the game along in any real way, but its populist heart is what’s needed for a consistent attack on the singles charts.
The amount, variety and level of guest artists he gets on to his tracks is also incredible. With this album featuring vocalists as diverse and high profile as Rihanna, Ellie Goulding and Tinie Tempah, it makes for both headline grabbing cameos and enough musical variation to keep things interesting to the casual listener.
The same can largely be said for dance contemporary David Guetta, with the French DJ having put out six top-ten hits from his latest album ‘Nothing But The Beat’. Although this included a re-launch with a whole stack of new tracks, it shows how popular this brand of guest filled pop-dance can be when done right.
Harris’ relentless single release schedule has also been the key to this record. Honestly, when’t the last time you heard of someone releasing eight singles off a single album? Putting out five is unusual for most artists, with those like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry putting out expanded editions to incorporate the new singles.
His decision to put out six of the singles before the release of the album is also a massive factor in this run of chart success. For over a year, Harris fans were forced to but the singles, as there was not even word of an album, let alone confirmation that those tracks would be on it. While this would explain why the six singles released before ’18 Months’ performed better than the two that have been released post album, it makes the chart-topping success of the album all the more head-scratching.
Let’s not take anything away from Harris though, as all the release schedules and plans stand for diddly squat if the music doesn’t come up to snuff. In this regard, Harris helps himself massively by making nearly all his tracks insanely catchy, with nearly all of his songs containing hooks that embed themselves so deep you can’t help but keep humming them for days on end.
We don’t expect his chart dominance to stop anytime soon, with plenty more tracks left on the album for the taking and his star only rising further and further in the musical world.
Why do you think that Calvin Harris has had such a rich vein for form over the last two years? Let us know in the comments.
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