  While the emergence of success in creative professions, such as music, has
been studied extensively, the link between individual success and collaboration
is not yet fully uncovered. Here we aim to fill this gap by analyzing
longitudinal data on the co-releasing and mentoring patterns of popular
electronic music artists appearing in the annual Top 100 ranking of DJ
Magazine. We find that while this ranking list of popularity publishes 100
names, only the top 20 is stable over time, showcasing a lock-in effect on the
electronic music elite. Based on the temporal co-release network of top
musicians, we extract a diverse community structure characterizing the
electronic music industry. These groups of artists are temporally segregated,
sequentially formed around leading musicians, and represent changes in musical
genres. We show that a major driving force behind the formation of music
communities is mentorship: around half of musicians entering the top 100 have
been mentored by current leading figures before they entered the list. We also
find that mentees are unlikely to break into the top 20, yet have much higher
expected best ranks than those who were not mentored. This implies that
mentorship helps rising talents, but becoming an all-time star requires more.
Our results provide insights into the intertwined roles of success and
collaboration in electronic music, highlighting the mechanisms shaping the
formation and landscape of artistic elites in electronic music.
