Doesn’t it seem like Taylor Swift has been everywherethese past few weeks? Whether in viral videos on YouTube, feuding with Spotify, or gracing magazine covers, the pop star seems firmly fixed in the center of the spotlight. But at different points throughout the year, couldn’t we have said the same about Beyoncé? Or Kim Kardashian? AndRihanna?
Mega fame is a more fleeting and fast-changing endeavor than ever, with top stars vying for attention at a dizzying speed. Kardashian may have created an iPhone game about it, but the real-life Fame Game is no less tricky and, it would appear, requires just as much calculation. There’s a delicate balance to maintaining worldwide fame that few have managed to master. How do you keep fans interested, while avoiding overexposure? And which star has done this to the greatest effect?
Out of curiosity, we turned to the numbers. Using Google Trends data, we mapped the top search query periods of the five biggest stars of the year: Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, and Jennifer Lawrence. Below, we compare their biggest spikes, and find that they each has vastly different strategies for staying relevant
It’s no surprise that, after the massive success of her visual album, most of Beyoncé’s spikes came after her live performances, especially her sultry “Drunk in Love” act at the Grammys and her sixteen-minute medley at the MTV Video Music Awards. But after a certain elevator incident, her up-until-then private life became a steady source of search queries. Ever the businesswoman, Beyoncé used the tabloid-y interest to her advantage, teasing wedding videos, cryptic lyrics, and even baby rumors throughout her sold-out summer music tour with Jay Z.
After four years straight of annual album releases, we were used to Rihanna dropping a new record of hits every November. She missed the deadline in 2013, and we have yet to hear a new record from the artist this year, but RiRi is still one of the biggest stars of the year. How so? She’s using fashion, not music, to stay on everyone’s minds. Her two biggest spikes in Google searches are correlated with her two major red-carpet moments: her Stella McCartney dress at the Met Gala and her coup d’état at the CFDA Awards, where she showed up in a glittering see-through dress to accept her award as Fashion Icon of the year.
The reality TV star has had more than a few Google search highs in 2014. She started the year off strong with her firstVogue cover, on which she posed next to her equally famous then-fiancé Kanye West. Her ubiquity then reached unprecedented levels with their elaborate European wedding weekend. But nothing can compare to last week’sPaper magazine cover, which put her original claim to fame front and center and promised to “break the Internet.” A look at this graph confirms she did just that.
Though some had Google-search surges due to nude photos or other scandals, Swift’s image remained squeaky clean in 2014. Each one of her traffic spikes was directly related to her music, including her rendition of “All Too Well” at the Grammys, and most notably the release of herrecord-breaking new album, 1989. No one on this list better harnessed her artistry to maximize search buzz. It worked, too: 1989 had the best-selling first week for a female artist since Britney Spears released Oops! . . . I Did It Again in 2000.
America’s new sweetheart makes an effort to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible—except when she has to promote either of her two franchises, The Hunger Gamesand X-Men. But she suffered a major blow to her privacy this summer with several waves of nude-photo leaks. While hundreds of celebrities had their private photographs leaked (including Rihanna and Kim Kardashian), the resulting Google searches focused primarily on Jennifer Lawrence. Later, when she spoke about the incident toVanity Fair, articulating a strong stance on the issue, the Internet rallied behind her.
A new layer of perspective is introduced when you compare the search results of all five in one graph. While you would think Kim Kardashian, with her year-long courting of the online conversation, would take the top spot, counterintuitively, Jennifer Lawrence does. This from the one woman on this list who tries her best to keep her personal life private and does not even have an Instagram or Twitter account. While unfortunately, three of our top stars—Rihanna, Kim, and Jennifer—were victims of the nude-photo hack, the public was overwhelmingly more interested in Lawrence. If the graph shows anything, it’s that, these days, limiting your exposure is effective PR, whether you want it or not.
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