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 1972
Jan 1, 1972 → Dec 30, 1972 · 53 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Michael Jackson89
- 2Al Green89
- 3Donny Osmond75
- 4Gilbert O'Sullivan73
- 5Nilsson71
- 6Don McLean62
- 7Bread62
- 8The Stylistics59
- 9Elton John59
- 10America59
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jackson | 89 | 1.68% | 2.90% | 2.10% | 3 | 14 | 53 |
| 2 | Al Green | 89 | 1.68% | 3.24% | 2.40% | 1 | 16 | 50 |
| 3 | Donny Osmond | 75 | 1.42% | 2.69% | 1.82% | 1 | 7 | 47 |
| 4 | Gilbert O'Sullivan | 73 | 1.38% | 3.01% | 2.10% | 4 | 15 | 50 |
| 5 | Nilsson | 71 | 1.34% | 3.54% | 2.41% | 7 | 11 | 49 |
| 6 | Don McLean | 62 | 1.17% | 3.28% | 2.23% | 1 | 13 | 35 |
| 7 | Bread | 62 | 1.17% | 2.42% | 1.68% | 0 | 2 | 50 |
| 8 | The Stylistics | 59 | 1.12% | 2.40% | 1.38% | 0 | 2 | 48 |
| 9 | Elton John | 59 | 1.12% | 2.28% | 1.56% | 0 | 1 | 51 |
| 10 | America | 59 | 1.11% | 2.44% | 1.72% | 0 | 4 | 41 |
| 11 | Elvis Presley | 55 | 1.04% | 3.17% | 1.87% | 3 | 6 | 53 |
| 12 | Three Dog Night | 53 | 1.01% | 2.57% | 1.80% | 0 | 4 | 38 |
| 13 | Carpenters | 51 | 0.96% | 2.37% | 1.62% | 0 | 1 | 49 |
| 14 | The Osmonds | 50 | 0.95% | 2.57% | 1.51% | 3 | 5 | 39 |
| 15 | T. Rex | 50 | 0.94% | 2.42% | 1.71% | 0 | 1 | 46 |
| 16 | Roberta Flack | 48 | 0.91% | 2.74% | 1.99% | 1 | 11 | 33 |
| 17 | Neil Diamond | 48 | 0.91% | 3.06% | 1.79% | 5 | 7 | 34 |
| 18 | David Cassidy | 48 | 0.90% | 2.06% | 1.25% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 19 | The Chi-lites | 47 | 0.89% | 2.89% | 1.94% | 2 | 6 | 46 |
| 20 | Bill Withers | 47 | 0.88% | 2.43% | 1.83% | 0 | 6 | 34 |
| 21 | Johnny Nash | 46 | 0.86% | 3.18% | 1.91% | 3 | 5 | 41 |
| 22 | The New Seekers | 45 | 0.85% | 3.09% | 1.76% | 0 | 5 | 48 |
| 23 | Jackson 5 | 45 | 0.84% | 2.09% | 1.30% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 24 | Alice Cooper | 43 | 0.81% | 3.07% | 1.72% | 3 | 6 | 44 |
| 25 | Paul Simon | 40 | 0.76% | 2.99% | 1.81% | 0 | 9 | 27 |
| 26 | The Moody Blues | 40 | 0.76% | 2.35% | 1.64% | 0 | 3 | 33 |
| 27 | The 5th Dimension | 39 | 0.73% | 1.91% | 1.19% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 28 | Gary Glitter | 36 | 0.68% | 2.47% | 1.57% | 0 | 4 | 31 |
| 29 | Neil Young | 35 | 0.66% | 3.16% | 1.87% | 3 | 7 | 27 |
| 30 | The Staple Singers | 35 | 0.66% | 2.82% | 1.74% | 0 | 5 | 26 |
| 31 | Slade | 34 | 0.65% | 1.19% | 0.84% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 32 | Melanie | 34 | 0.64% | 3.52% | 2.32% | 6 | 9 | 17 |
| 33 | Joe Tex | 34 | 0.64% | 2.36% | 1.70% | 0 | 3 | 25 |
| 34 | The Hollies | 33 | 0.62% | 2.72% | 1.58% | 2 | 5 | 32 |
| 35 | Chuck Berry | 33 | 0.62% | 3.19% | 1.75% | 1 | 5 | 22 |
| 36 | Badfinger | 33 | 0.62% | 2.83% | 1.56% | 0 | 5 | 22 |
| 37 | Sonny & Cher | 32 | 0.61% | 1.92% | 1.40% | 0 | 0 | 31 |
| 38 | The Temptations | 32 | 0.60% | 2.44% | 1.32% | 0 | 2 | 38 |
| 39 | Bee Gees | 32 | 0.60% | 2.12% | 1.08% | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| 40 | Gallery | 32 | 0.60% | 2.19% | 1.29% | 0 | 1 | 39 |
| 41 | Rod Stewart | 32 | 0.60% | 1.90% | 1.86% | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| 42 | Cat Stevens | 31 | 0.59% | 2.06% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| 43 | Joe Simon | 30 | 0.56% | 1.72% | 0.97% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 44 | Mac Davis | 29 | 0.55% | 2.42% | 1.56% | 0 | 5 | 27 |
| 45 | Cher | 29 | 0.54% | 1.99% | 1.98% | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| 46 | Sly & The Family Stone | 29 | 0.54% | 2.68% | 1.73% | 0 | 3 | 23 |
| 47 | Donna Fargo | 28 | 0.53% | 2.04% | 1.16% | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| 48 | Looking Glass | 28 | 0.52% | 2.43% | 1.62% | 0 | 7 | 16 |
| 49 | The Supremes | 28 | 0.52% | 2.06% | 1.07% | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| 50 | Billy Preston | 28 | 0.52% | 2.40% | 1.35% | 0 | 4 | 33 |