I was inspired by the scathing Rolling Stone story on George Michael's "retirement". The story is funny but not in the way RS intended. What's funny about the story is that no one believes Michael will retire, yet he's making PR hay out of it. Rolling Stone is making fun of his lack of record sales. Which begs the question; what makes an artist valid?

The way people throw the word longevity around you'd think it was common for it to actually happen. Let me just go back to my coming of age years. From that period only Madonna and U2 can boast significant album sales. Only Madonna, Prince, U2 and Metallica can claim sell out concert tours. Metallica and U2 are the only ones getting any kind of airplay from new material. I know I'm leaving people out but the point is longevity, no matter how good your material, is a thing of luck in the music business. The prospect of keeping a massive amount of people interested is daunting. And the willingness of labels to pay for your promotion plays a more significant part then people are willing to realize.

So when someone like Christina Aguilera, who is argueably a good singer, says she's striving for longevity, I say bravo. But if she thinks she'll achieve it by putting out good records and keeping her voice up she's sadly mistaken.

Cher, Madonna, Prince, Michael, Metallica, and U2 all have it. But it's a very small number considering there's 40 very popular songs currently circulating in the Top 40 right now and another 200 albums on the Top Album charts. Longevity has taken on mythic proportions yet no one puts it into perspective. You have to be lucky first.

Remember in the early 90's when record companies were getting legit artists like Prince, MJ, janet, REM to sign multi million 6 album like deals? Companies then wanted artists to represent the quality of the company to attract clients if u will.

They were crazy doing that. But what iam saying is u gotta be around 4 a while to sign a huge deal (which don't seem to happen anymore) then u know ur gonna be around 4 a while.....