A test of Rosen’s and Adler’s theories of superstars

This article compares and contrasts Adler and Rosen’s theories regarding the stardom and popularity of musical artists through the impact of local linguistic policies on consumers’ decisions to buy recorded music (CDs). Spain, with local linguistic policies implemented in Catalonia and the Basque Country, serves as an ideal quasi ‘natural experiment’ for testing these theories. The authors’ predictions are addressed within a multilevel regression framework, with two main results: first, contrary to Rosen’s predictions, the impact of local linguistic policies on the probability of buying music CDs is positive; second, local linguistic policies seem to contribute to increasing the production of music CDs in local languages, increasing the popularity of local artists with their audiences.