I’m directly refuting theories such as this one from Wired’s editor: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

He initializes his premise writing, “People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what’s available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. And the more they find, the more they like. As they wander further from the beaten path, they discover their taste is not as mainstream as they thought.”

Fast forward 5 years and this has been debunked as bullshit by studies reporting in the same publication: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/report-challenges-long-tail-theory-on-p2p-networks/

From the discussed report it was found that there was, “a ‘hit-heavy, skinny-tail,’ log-normal distribution for legal online music consumption; a distribution not that dissimilar from what one might expect from a more traditional, bricks & mortar store.”

Looking at the Billboard 200 you have a seemingly schizo list of rap, country, kiddie pop and dance. In reality you have simply carved out the handful of major demographic groups and each has annointed its chosen hit for the week/month/year.

Now whether Kenny Chesney or Hannah Montana is your cup of tea is another question altogether. But I would submit that they ain’t The Beatles and the overwhelming sales volume is due more to clustering of tastes than it is to musical talent.