Why do some artists find success through albums but not singles?

any better in the UK with five – ‘Let’s Dance’, released in 1983, was his only transatlantic shared success. Meanwhile, mind-blowingly, Dylan has never reached number one in the main charts anywhere, and only clinched the top spot in 2020 with ‘Murder Most Fowl’ in the Billboard Rock Digital Songs Sales chart. Yet this just doesn’t seem to make sense – with the Eagles included, these are three of the biggest powerhouse names in rock and roll ever to have lived. How can the successes of their individual songs be so relatively few when they have built up a reputation as some of music’s most formidable forces? Ed Sheeran blows them all out of the water combined with 14 number one hits in the UK alone. That’s surely a sign that something is seriously out of order.

However, there is a lot to be said about songs that possess too much power never making it to the top of the charts, not necessarily because they are any less popular. Think of Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ or Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ as the prime examples – absolute anthems in their own respective rights, but the point is that they have forever transcended generations, rather than remaining stuck as a sonic emblem of one specific moment in time, even in spite of the subjects they were inspired by. In this respect, the personae of such artists – whether it be in a solo capacity or collectively – holds a lot more cultural significance than the actual success of their singles themselves. People loved the allure and almost soap opera-esque dynamics of the Eagles, Bowie’s charisma and innovative character was a huge draw, and Dylan still often remains as mysteriously elusive as he ever was, cultivating a certain starry curiosity in his wake.

As such, when it came to their music, fans tended to gravitate more towards the notion of a brand or an image related to the star, as opposed to the individual songs alone. Naturally, this is where releasing albums comes in handy, as an artistic suite or body of work is far more insightful to the psyche of someone’s world, compared to a track that can be over in three minutes flat. Of course, it would be utterly stupid to dismiss the value of hit singles as worthless, just because, strangely enough, they never did much heavy lifting for a few rock icons. But it does cause some food for thought about what the symbolism of singles does in the long run for an artist. What do you think Sheeran will be remembered more for – his hit song ‘Shape of You’, or its album Divide? Probably the former. Conversely, with Dylan, will it be ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’ or The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan? Most likely the latter. However blazing singles can be, they will never parallel the rounded and immersive experience that an album automatically provides in its very nature. You’re on a journey with an artist, whether that lasts for the course of ten tracks or 25, and at the end of it, you’re meant to reflect on the collection as a whole and truly feel something. The fact that artists like the Eagles, Bowie, and Dylan found their most success in this lane speaks volumes about how much people yearned to truly connect with them.

There are other logistical reasons which factor into the matter. Back in the day, to buy a single would have meant a separate additional purchase, when you could just enjoy the track on the radio until the album was released and make a more worthwhile investment at that point. But it still doesn’t explain why some artists shot to the top of the charts repeatedly throughout this time, and some of whom were arguably far less famous. So, let’s decide to take the artistic and romantic view on this. In some respects, you’d rather have a lack of individualized commercial success so long as your albums still fly off the shelves, because it means your fans are more interested in connecting with you for a steady time period rather than just at the one-stop shop of a single song. If there’s any doubt in that idea, just take the careers of the Eagles, Bowie, and Dylan as your case studies – because no one would dare say that they haven’t lasted for the long run, would they?