Just come over here, let me smack you upside the head and we’ll call it even, K?
Damned whippersnappers.
Country is full of them. Shania Twain, Lucinda Williams, Allison Krause, Lee Ann Rimes, etc.
In rock there are a lot of mid-level bands that have had long careers. Bands like The Jayhawks. Rap has a whole bunch. Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Dr. Dre…
We need to ask this question in 20 years. We may be in the presence of some young long-term superstars, but we just don’t know it yet.
Pretty much every genre except bubblegum pop has plenty of artists with staying power. Those who can maintain superstar status for any length of time are unusual, though.
You have to remember, too, that a lot of the 60’s and 70’s acts you remember as having staying power only lasted a relatively short time creatively. The Beatles? What, 8 years? The Stones? About the same {they died in a plane crash in 1972, as far as I’m concerned}. Bowie? About 10 years {although his last two albums have actually been great}. Led Zep? 10 years. Deep Purple? 6, if that {I’m counting the good stuff}. A lot of the acts you remember as having staying power, if they haven’t died or split, only survive on the nostalgia circuit: it may be a pretty big nostalgia circuit, if you’re Mick Jagger or Pete Townsend, but when was the last time they released anything new that you actually wanted to hear?