One hit wonders are a large part of music, but the artists often fade into obscurity and never get any other recognition. Some are carried by other famous artists and some are just catchy, but what happens to these artists when their song is no longer on top of the world?
Sometimes we have songs that we come to love, so we look for another popular song by that artist, but sometimes there isn’t one. Sheck Wes hasn’t released an album since 2018’s “Mudboy” which featured his viral song “Mo Bamba.” OMI also has not dropped a new release since his 2015 album “Me 4 U” which had #1 Billboard 100 hit, “Cheerleader.” This can leave fans wanting more and feeling unsatisfied.
Other times the artist attempts follow ups that don’t hit the same. Gotye hasn’t had anything close to a hit since “Somebody that I Used to Know” with 1.5 billion streams on Spotify. YLVIS hasn’t had a song break 10 million streams since “What Does the Fox Say?”
Nowadays, many songs blow up because of TikTok, like “ABCDEFU” by gayle. These types of songs will certainly add to the number of one hit wonders. When someone has a song that blows up due to a popular trend and that trend dies out, the song dies out too. Small artists often release these hits, but never reproduce the success of their biggest hit. This also happens with songs in TV and movies, they climb up the charts because of the success of the movie, but can’t grasp onto the limelight.
These artists get attention for a while, but once they die down, they’re left in obscurity and forgotten.