Please correct me if I am wrong but I cannot recall if any singing act or musician has ever become a "super star" after their 30th birthday. It seems like all of the big acts really reached to top before they reached their 30's. Are there exceptions to this rule? I'm sure that there are but I cannot recall at the moment.

it depends on your definition of superstar.

How old was Elvis in his Vegas days?


How old was Paul McCartney when he hit it big with Wings?


How old is Madonna?

PurpleRein said:

All of these people made it big when they were under the age of 30.

Graycap23 said:

pretty much. it is the teenage market that has and always will generate the superstar level sales, and who are teenagers more likely to be into....younger artists.

this is what made the Beatles, Elvis, Prince, Britney, you name it.

despite plenty of fams who would like to believe he was different, Prince was an 80's pop star which propelled him to fame. he was packaged and sold like nearly every other music star. sure he dictated that package to a greater extent than others, but that doesn't make him different from them in the marketing standpoint of creating a star.
[Edited 4/20/06 12:56pm]

Phil Collins?

Sting?

Sheryl Crow?

Universaluv said:

How old was Phil and Sting when they hit it big?

Graycap23 said:

Let's say Sting acheived super-stardom with the Police in 1983 with Synchronicity. He would've been 32.

Phil, Let's say he reached super-stardom with Genesis in 1986 with Invisible Touch. He would've been about 35 at the time.

Universaluv said:

Cool. Thanks for the info.

I don't know how old Rick James was when he first signed in 1978 but I know he was in his 30s in the 1980s when he blew up.

Also, in the 1980s, it was a completely different time. Veteran acts like Diana Ross, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, and The Chi-Lites still continued to make records and be successful in the 1980s. It wasn't until the 1990s that things started to become fucked up.

vainandy said:

But those are veteran superstars who had comebacks. That still happens, although not often. Smokey, Diana, etc.. didn't become superstars in the 1980's.

I know they didn't get their start in the 1980s. I'm just saying that someone didn't have to be in their 20s in the 1980s to be successful.

As far as comebacks, Smokey and Diana started in the 1960s and were successful throughout the 1970s and continued on into the 1980s. They had not really disappeared. A comeback in the 1990s and today is possible and does happen but it's extremely rare unless it's some adult contemporary type stuff.

Universaluv said:

That might have been vainandy's point, tho...that in the '80s radio and the record buying public were more accepting of veteran acts filling the airwaves...which would allow for a climate in which an artist could become a superstar even if they were over 30.
[Edited 4/20/06 13:40pm]

That was exactly my point. Thanks.

vainandy said:

This is true. Maintaining a succesful music career does still happen and it's not all adult contemporary (see U2 or Madonna). Acheiving superstardom over 30 is even harder. Especially nowadays.

I guess Sting has managed to do both, acheive over 30 superstardom and maintain it for a couple of decades (granted he has gone the adult contemporary route to do it )

Oops, I forgot about Madonna and I never was into U2. When I said adult contemporary, I was thinking of Elton John and Rod Stewart. Those two used to kick ass but later turned into Barry Mannilows.

Byron said:

yeah Sheryl Crow is a good example

Universaluv said:

Stings first album with the Police was in 1979 whe he was 27
Phil Collins and Genesis first hit it big with "I know what I like in your wadrdrobe" a no3 UK hit for them in 1973, Phil was still 22. Ironically Genesis was started in 1966 when him and Mike Rutherford were in their early teens!!

vainandy said:

Rick James was born in Feb 1949 so he was 29 when You and I was a hit in 1978.

I can think of a few people over 30 when they hit it big

Shania Twain was 30 when she had her first big pop hit in 1997
Macy Gray was 32 in 1999, when she blew up with her hit I try.
Pops Staples was at least 50 when the Staples singers blew up with I'll take you there in 1972.

On the other hand, some groups blew up and finished in their teens like Hanson and the Sugababes still going, now all about 20, but cant have been more than 15 when they released their first hit in 1999.
Prince was 19 when For You was released and he was just 26 when When Doves Cry sidled in NO 1 pop and Purple Rain no 1 Pop album in June 1984. He was 24 1/2 when LRC hit #6 in May 1983

Sorry sorry, One more
Billy Ray Cyrus was 31 when Achy Breaky Heart became a no 1 hit all over the world

Graycap23 said:

Most of all: Bruce Springsteen

A Tina Turner-type comeback couldn't happen now. I don't count Santana because he had to do it by hooking up with Rob Thomas and a few other "in" people at that time.


I remember Tina Turner being all over the radio and MTV/VH1 back then. She had to be over 40.
[Edited 4/21/06 6:05am]

I heard that Bill Withers was nearly 30 when he decided to get into the music business.

Bonnie Raitt

tane1976 said:

Graycap's question is which acts "reached their top" after their 30's. So I'm not necessarilly counting their first album. I'm talking about when they blew up as superstars...

Sting wasn't a "superstar" yet in 1979. Nor was Phil in 1973.
[Edited 4/21/06 8:17am]

Springsteen didn't go global until 85. How old was he then?

SquirrelMeat said:

He would've been 36 in 1985

Universaluv said:

With that song and 1974s Crapet Crawlers, Genesis were superstars by English standards in 1975, in 1978 they had their first American smash with "Follow me, follow you" Also Phil Collins become the main star after Peter Gabriel left to do a solo career in 1975. Genesis's 1980 album Duke was a nother large hit and Phil Collins released "In the air tonight" from his solo album "Face Value" in Feb 81 a few weeks short of his 30th birthday. I am a Phil Collins and Genesis fan. Face Value sold 9 million copies.

Tina Turner is the only one I can think of right now. She didn't hit super-stardom until 1984. She was 44.