Eras
Who was the most powerful artist in a year, who dominated a decade, who held #1 the longest. Every figure is a defined metric summed or maximised over a date range of stored weekly rows — nothing is weighted by opinion.
Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart combined, weighted · UK Singles Chart data ends Aug 1, 2025 · How it works
Each week an artist's share is the weighted mean of their Power Share across Billboard Hot 100 ×1 and UK Singles Chart ×0.45 (weights ∝ √population, US = 1). The divisor is every chart's weight, so a number one is worth the same share in any era — and a week before every chart exists, or after one's data ends, sums to less than 100.
UK Singles Chart data runs to Aug 1, 2025; later weeks combine the Billboard Hot 100 only, so their shares — and the most recent years' Era Power — are lower than a full week's would be.
Leader of every year
Column height = the leader's average Power Share over the period. Click a column to explore that range.
- The Beatles4 periods
- Madonna3 periods
- Frankie Laine2 periods
- Elvis Presley2 periods
- Michael Jackson2 periods
- Elton John2 periods
- Bee Gees2 periods
- TLC2 periods
- Destiny's Child2 periods
- Bruno Mars2 periods
- The Weeknd2 periods
- Drake2 periods
- Bing Crosby1 period
- Ruby Murray1 period
- Bill Haley And His Comets1 period
- The Everly Brothers1 period
- Paul Anka1 period
- Connie Francis1 period
- Chubby Checker1 period
- Roy Orbison1 period
- The Monkees1 period
- Creedence Clearwater Revival1 period
- Jackson 51 period
- Carpenters1 period
- Eagles1 period
- Fleetwood Mac1 period
- Donna Summer1 period
- Queen1 period
- Daryl Hall John Oates1 period
- John Cougar1 period
- Lionel Richie1 period
- George Michael1 period
- Bobby Brown1 period
- Janet Jackson1 period
- Mariah Carey1 period
- Boyz II Men1 period
- Whitney Houston1 period
- Ace Of Base1 period
- Celine Dion1 period
- Spice Girls1 period
- Savage Garden1 period
- Ashanti1 period
- 50 Cent1 period
- Usher1 period
- Kelly Clarkson1 period
- Chris Brown1 period
- Fergie1 period
- Rihanna1 period
- Lady Gaga1 period
- Ke$ha1 period
- Flo Rida1 period
- Sam Smith1 period
- Ed Sheeran1 period
- Post Malone1 period
- Olivia Rodrigo1 period
- Harry Styles1 period
- Taylor Swift1 period
- Sabrina Carpenter1 period
- Morgan Wallen1 period
- Ella Langley1 period
Leaders in 1964
Jan 4, 1964 → Dec 26, 1964 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1The Beatles216
- 2The Dave Clark Five116
- 3The Beach Boys86
- 4The Supremes82
- 5The Searchers73
- 6The 4 Seasons69
- 7Dusty Springfield63
- 8Bobby Vinton63
- 9The Bachelors63
- 10Jan & Dean63
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Beatles | 216 | 4.16% | 8.55% | 6.11% | 34 | 40 | 47 |
| 2 | The Dave Clark Five | 116 | 2.22% | 4.33% | 3.04% | 0 | 24 | 52 |
| 3 | The Beach Boys | 86 | 1.65% | 3.57% | 2.38% | 2 | 10 | 46 |
| 4 | The Supremes | 82 | 1.57% | 4.86% | 3.52% | 8 | 19 | 33 |
| 5 | The Searchers | 73 | 1.40% | 3.10% | 1.82% | 0 | 5 | 52 |
| 6 | The 4 Seasons | 69 | 1.33% | 3.34% | 2.02% | 0 | 8 | 45 |
| 7 | Dusty Springfield | 63 | 1.21% | 3.13% | 1.90% | 0 | 11 | 47 |
| 8 | Bobby Vinton | 63 | 1.20% | 2.80% | 2.08% | 3 | 5 | 42 |
| 9 | The Bachelors | 63 | 1.20% | 2.90% | 1.99% | 0 | 1 | 49 |
| 10 | Jan & Dean | 63 | 1.20% | 2.52% | 1.63% | 0 | 3 | 46 |
| 11 | The Rolling Stones | 62 | 1.19% | 3.19% | 1.97% | 0 | 5 | 52 |
| 12 | Manfred Mann | 62 | 1.19% | 3.26% | 2.32% | 1 | 10 | 44 |
| 13 | Gerry And The Pacemakers | 61 | 1.17% | 2.40% | 1.72% | 0 | 1 | 50 |
| 14 | Dionne Warwick | 58 | 1.11% | 2.87% | 1.77% | 0 | 4 | 44 |
| 15 | Gene Pitney | 57 | 1.10% | 2.95% | 2.03% | 0 | 5 | 47 |
| 16 | Roy Orbison | 56 | 1.08% | 2.94% | 1.88% | 0 | 4 | 48 |
| 17 | Elvis Presley | 56 | 1.07% | 2.57% | 1.63% | 0 | 2 | 52 |
| 18 | Peter And Gordon | 53 | 1.03% | 3.53% | 2.33% | 2 | 9 | 33 |
| 19 | The Impressions | 51 | 0.99% | 1.84% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 47 |
| 20 | Mary Wells | 51 | 0.99% | 3.69% | 2.38% | 0 | 8 | 40 |
| 21 | Brenda Lee | 49 | 0.94% | 2.51% | 1.54% | 0 | 3 | 50 |
| 22 | Dean Martin | 48 | 0.92% | 2.83% | 2.03% | 0 | 6 | 27 |
| 23 | The Animals | 47 | 0.91% | 3.19% | 2.08% | 1 | 9 | 34 |
| 24 | Jim Reeves | 46 | 0.89% | 1.61% | 1.30% | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| 25 | Lesley Gore | 46 | 0.89% | 2.40% | 1.79% | 0 | 4 | 44 |
| 26 | Marvin Gaye | 43 | 0.82% | 1.86% | 1.31% | 0 | 0 | 43 |
| 27 | Chuck Berry | 43 | 0.82% | 2.41% | 1.48% | 0 | 0 | 48 |
| 28 | Louis Armstrong And The All Stars | 41 | 0.79% | 2.63% | 1.90% | 0 | 6 | 25 |
| 29 | The Shangri-Las | 41 | 0.79% | 3.16% | 2.17% | 0 | 8 | 19 |
| 30 | Cliff Richard | 41 | 0.78% | 1.92% | 1.29% | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 31 | Johnny Rivers | 40 | 0.77% | 2.44% | 1.35% | 0 | 1 | 29 |
| 32 | Martha & The Vandellas | 39 | 0.75% | 2.38% | 1.46% | 0 | 3 | 37 |
| 33 | The Dixie Cups | 39 | 0.74% | 2.83% | 1.61% | 0 | 2 | 28 |
| 34 | The Drifters | 37 | 0.70% | 2.27% | 1.35% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 35 | The Kingsmen | 36 | 0.70% | 2.37% | 1.63% | 0 | 5 | 39 |
| 36 | Major Lance | 35 | 0.67% | 2.40% | 1.54% | 0 | 3 | 42 |
| 37 | Cilla Black | 34 | 0.66% | 1.67% | 1.14% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 38 | The Newbeats | 33 | 0.64% | 2.93% | 1.65% | 1 | 6 | 19 |
| 39 | The Swinging Blue Jeans | 33 | 0.64% | 2.01% | 1.19% | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 40 | The Kinks | 33 | 0.63% | 3.09% | 1.88% | 0 | 6 | 20 |
| 41 | The Ronettes | 31 | 0.59% | 1.72% | 1.36% | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| 42 | Terry Stafford | 31 | 0.59% | 2.68% | 1.46% | 0 | 4 | 21 |
| 43 | Betty Everett | 30 | 0.58% | 2.41% | 1.20% | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| 44 | Sam Cooke | 30 | 0.57% | 2.28% | 1.20% | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| 45 | The Honeycombs | 29 | 0.56% | 2.48% | 1.60% | 0 | 2 | 23 |
| 46 | The Hollies | 29 | 0.56% | 1.09% | 0.82% | 0 | 0 | 43 |
| 47 | The Ray Charles Singers | 29 | 0.56% | 2.37% | 1.38% | 0 | 0 | 29 |
| 48 | Roger Miller | 29 | 0.55% | 2.04% | 1.16% | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| 49 | Al (He's the King) Hirt | 27 | 0.52% | 2.30% | 1.35% | 0 | 3 | 28 |
| 50 | Al Martino | 27 | 0.52% | 2.02% | 1.14% | 0 | 0 | 33 |