How do you determine an Artist's Peak?

Quote from better-than-sex

the Year they sell the most albums (the total? Or their best selling album?)? Or the year they get a lot of Awards? Or the year they break a lot of records?

I'd do this and I'd also check google trends to see when they were most searched

its when they had the most relevancy. i don't think its based on highest selling album like twice for example sold the most with M&M but i wouldnt say that was their peak.

the year before they start consistently declining in sales, popularity, charting etc.

agree with the post above, you can only see a peak after it happened. Saying "they're peaking rn" is meaningless cause you have no idea how it'll go for them the next year etc.

Quote from Ves

There are really only two things that define any peak and that's popularity and relevancy. In some ways they go hand in hand, but a peak is defined by mostly positive sentiment that fuels popularity and relevancy. That's where the catch comes in though - there is nothing you can pinpoint that defines these two things. That depends on many factors that are so numerous there's no point in listing them out as they are different for everyone.

Also, the thing about peaks? You can only define them in retrospect. So there is very little way to predict what anyone's peak will be. There are indicators that may well become markers of a peak after the fact, but you can't really say what they will be until then.

I am lost

lol

Peaks can only be seen after the graph has ended. So for now we cannot determine an artiste's career until their career has ended completely.

Op, why are you interested in defining an artist's peak?

Quote from better-than-sex

Well, especially with what happened last year's "BTS Peaked" thread fiasco which just blew up in their face, I'm really curious how people actually perceive "peak". BWL was claimed to be BTS' peak when On underperformed but at the same time, it was their most successful album, raking up critical acclaims and no.1 from 8 of the top 10 music markets so I don't think they looked at popularity or relevancy when they claimed BTS' peak. Similarly, with Twice, they're claiming Twice already peaked and was declining in 2020 despite them putting out their best selling album in that year. And if Twice was declining in 2020, does that mean their peak was 2019? But that year didn't have their most successful song so it's different with BTS' claimed peak and a different standard was used. Same with EXO and Blackpink. I'm just curious with claimed peaks and how different standards are with each of the top groups.

actually ur question is pretty good but u can only find an artists peak when they stop making music

I dunno about other acts, but right now, BTS 's chart is looking like this (Higher high for those who know technical analysis). Peak, repeak, peak.

Quote from Flowercrew

I dunno about other acts, but right now, BTS 's chart is looking like this (Higher high for those who know technical analysis). Peak, repeak, peak.

This perfectly describes their career at different stages lmao

Its really different for every artists, for example :

Wonder Girls : easy, 2007-2009, from So Hot/Tell Me to Nobody that had a clear peak in charts/sales/popularity and impact. They broke barriers and this era was clearly above the rest of their careers.

SNSD : hard, they really had very different peaks : Charts : 2009 with Gee, Sales in korea : The Boyz and I Got a Boy

Sales in Japan : Run Devil Run. You could include all of them and say 2009-2013 is their peak but its basically their whole career so is that really a peak.

Blackpink is also hard : You could argue DDDD is their biggest song and therefore their peak but HYLT/LG is easily their biggest combination of songs and releases. HYLT/LG as an era is probably their peak.

Exo is hard too : Sales are the latest eras with Tempo and Love Shot but Growl/Overdose were probably bigger songs. You could also argue Call me Baby to Monster is also kind of a peak.

A quick rundown of when i think were the peaks of huge groups :

BTS : 2020 - On/Dynamite/LGO era. Probably can change, though if 2021 doesn't beat 2020 it will probably end up being their peak.

Bp : 2020 - HYLT/LG era : The Album era, clearly their peak right now but can change as soon as their next release.

Twice : 2016 - Cheer Up/TT era : Not their peak in sales but clear peak in every other stats.

SNSD : wide range : 2009/2013 - Gee to I Got a Boy to include everything

one year : 2011 - Run Devil Run : Their peak in Japan + The Boys, arguably their peak popularity in the 2 countries.

WG : 2007-2009 - So Hot to Nobody, you can't really divide this era as each year are as big as each other.

Exo : I have no idea lol, wide range could be 2013-2016 but could also be 2013-2018. They really never slowed down before 2019 and were super consistent making the peak discussion really hard.

GOT7 : have no idea too, i'm less knowledgeable about them and their sales and charts are quite all over the place. Probably 2015 - Just Right/If you Do era but Hard Carry to Never Ever is also a strong contender. The last few years reached peak sales so its also there.

Super Junior : 2009-2012, Sorry Sorry to Sexy F&S, that one was easy.

Shinee : Probably 2011/2012 ??? Dream Girl/Sherlock seems to be pretty good but i really don't know, hella consistent group.

TVXQ : 2008 or 2004, probably still Mirotic because it was the start of their domination in Japan.

Being cynical and by hindsight - Artists peak their last two Comebacks before their abandoned by the company.

Cynical and by prediction - Artists peak a few Months after the Company's New Group debuted.

Kpop is ruthless.

It's an interesting question. I think peak concept always happens before any artist really hits their highest "sales" mark or "chart" mark.... So true fans will always like the concepts an artist does just before they hit their public peak.

I am not 100% sure but I mostly think, if the artist exist/existed for a long time and someday had a very succesfull year than it is the "peak". For example I think The year SHINHWA released "This Love" was their "peak" (2013). But that dosn't mean anything cause there are also groups who someday get famous and have their most popular song in the year they turn famous as for example NU'EST's song "Where you at" (2017). In a few cases it can also be the debut song when an artist allready debuts to be popular as for example WANNA ONE's song "Energetic" (2017)

It's hard to gauge Becuz if a group goes from selling 1.5 million albums to 1.3 million and sells out a stadium at the same time, it's hard to say the higher selling album was their peak. Some groups are just big as long as they're active.