Ever since the hip-hop group Run-DMC teamed up with Aerosmith, a rock band, to record “Walk This Way” in 1986, record labels have recognised that combining the fan bases of multiple artists can be a boon to record sales. The practice has spread. According to data from the Billboard Hot 100, a weekly ranking of the most popular singles in America, collaborations now represent more than a third of hit songs (see chart). Of the top ten songs on the current Hot 100 chart, half are credited to more than one artist.

“Hit Songs Deconstructed, a music-analytics firm, estimates that 64% of hip-hop tracks that reached the Billboard top ten in 2017 featured more than one artist, compared with 40% of pop songs.”

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