Most big artists hit their peak when their early fans are young and hungry for everything they put out. That first wave of albums is all the artist’s ideas, ambition, and life experiences packed into a short window. Years later, those fans are older, busier, stressed.. they can’t feel music the same way. The artist, too, isn’t starving anymore, they’ve said most of what they needed to say. That’s why the magic of the first peak almost never comes back.

Your early 20s won't come back with the release of Iceman. Have a good one y'all ✌️

Artists are at their best when they’re inspired. 2 chainz was at his best 10 years in, Jay Z dropped one his finest works 21 years after his debut, Donda was better than any album Kanye released since Yeezus, some could argue 2022 was a second or third peak for Drake depending on how you feel about Her Loss and HNVM.

Best not to read into it too much and take the music as it comes

there's only a few artists/bands that have "peaked" twice / spanning multiple decades

kanye
radiohead
david bowie
the microphones
sufjan stevens
the cure
bjork

Dylan, Bowie, and Neil Young would disagree with this statement with ease.

First you need to define what we mean with "Peak"

Let's start there

I always find it interesting why some people have that time at different ages tho

For me my best time with music was from when I was 11-16 but a lot of people do seem to say their early 20s and stuff. I can’t imagine being nostalgic for my 20s lol

As much as you guys shame "A&R mentality," this way of thinking is much more cynical.

So much of how we perceive music is based on marketing. If Jay Z had been less popular 4:44 goes from a late career defining classic to a dope album that gets talked about for 2 weeks.

G Herbo is all of a sudden appearing on AOTY lists. Not because he leveled up or because critics collectively woke up one day and realized how good he'd been for the last 10 years, but because he's getting better promotion. I have a feeling he's signed to the same agency as Adam Friedland.

Disclaimer: yes you pedantic nerds the streets were fw herbo this whole time but he's clearly getting a different kind of love now

thread makes me depressed, cause not being anywhere near the stature of all-time creative behemoths it makes me feel sad that the best of times are behind me.

It's one of the reasons why I don't understand the mindset of bringing life into the word as their destined for hardship. Most people have kids to have someone to look after them when they get old, or as a crutch to save a faulting marriage.

S*** is d***ed up. On Von

"You have 20 years to write your first album and six months to write your second"

do you make music?

Elvis: 50s -> 1968-73

because peaking twice is a paradox

Nah. I do play my fair share of instruments and try my best to imitate the best 👌

peaking "twice" dont even make sense

exactly, was just thinking about this w 444 yesterday

I guess technically you can "peak" twice if they both are the same highs but yeah a peak by definition is the highest level reached lol

yeah just being pedantic tbh

Kendrick might be the artist with the longest peak ever. Been on it since GKMC

The Weeknd did

Uh????

Taylor

Chief Keef in like his 3rd peak right now

of course there are exceptions

Em Jay and Kanye all peaked twice