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 1973
Jan 6, 1973 → Dec 29, 1973 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Elton John99
- 2Stevie Wonder81
- 3Gladys Knight And The Pips81
- 4Carpenters79
- 5Gilbert O'Sullivan65
- 6Marvin Gaye60
- 7Dawn60
- 8Jim Croce58
- 9Helen Reddy55
- 10Donny Osmond54
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elton John | 99 | 1.90% | 3.42% | 2.38% | 6 | 18 | 52 |
| 2 | Stevie Wonder | 81 | 1.57% | 3.04% | 2.11% | 2 | 17 | 49 |
| 3 | Gladys Knight And The Pips | 81 | 1.55% | 2.79% | 1.96% | 1 | 10 | 52 |
| 4 | Carpenters | 79 | 1.53% | 3.24% | 2.26% | 6 | 18 | 45 |
| 5 | Gilbert O'Sullivan | 65 | 1.24% | 2.79% | 2.21% | 0 | 2 | 49 |
| 6 | Marvin Gaye | 60 | 1.15% | 2.91% | 2.09% | 6 | 11 | 34 |
| 7 | Dawn | 60 | 1.15% | 2.47% | 1.73% | 0 | 8 | 44 |
| 8 | Jim Croce | 58 | 1.11% | 3.04% | 1.95% | 1 | 7 | 45 |
| 9 | Helen Reddy | 55 | 1.06% | 2.43% | 1.57% | 0 | 5 | 48 |
| 10 | Donny Osmond | 54 | 1.04% | 2.64% | 1.80% | 1 | 7 | 45 |
| 11 | War | 53 | 1.01% | 2.35% | 1.55% | 0 | 3 | 44 |
| 12 | The Sweet | 52 | 1.00% | 3.33% | 2.17% | 4 | 6 | 39 |
| 13 | David Bowie | 49 | 0.95% | 2.31% | 1.37% | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 14 | Billy Preston | 48 | 0.92% | 2.44% | 1.55% | 0 | 4 | 37 |
| 15 | Diana Ross | 48 | 0.91% | 3.13% | 1.89% | 4 | 8 | 44 |
| 16 | Carly Simon | 46 | 0.89% | 3.42% | 2.21% | 4 | 9 | 25 |
| 17 | Paul McCartney And Wings | 45 | 0.87% | 3.26% | 1.98% | 3 | 8 | 31 |
| 18 | Four Tops | 44 | 0.84% | 2.19% | 1.51% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 19 | Wings | 43 | 0.83% | 2.56% | 1.44% | 0 | 7 | 33 |
| 20 | Edgar Winter Group | 41 | 0.79% | 2.82% | 1.64% | 0 | 5 | 38 |
| 21 | The Spinners | 40 | 0.78% | 2.19% | 1.51% | 0 | 2 | 37 |
| 22 | Barry White | 40 | 0.77% | 2.74% | 1.52% | 0 | 4 | 37 |
| 23 | Roberta Flack | 40 | 0.77% | 3.35% | 2.08% | 6 | 9 | 25 |
| 24 | Seals & Crofts | 39 | 0.75% | 2.05% | 1.20% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 25 | Chicago | 38 | 0.73% | 2.22% | 1.57% | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| 26 | Perry Como | 37 | 0.72% | 1.90% | 1.16% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 27 | Al Green | 37 | 0.71% | 1.78% | 1.65% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 28 | Gary Glitter | 37 | 0.71% | 1.10% | 0.87% | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| 29 | Three Dog Night | 37 | 0.70% | 2.27% | 1.37% | 0 | 1 | 33 |
| 30 | The Stylistics | 36 | 0.70% | 2.44% | 1.41% | 0 | 3 | 37 |
| 31 | Elvis Presley | 35 | 0.68% | 1.92% | 1.61% | 0 | 0 | 43 |
| 32 | Steely Dan | 35 | 0.67% | 2.04% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 33 | Eddie Kendricks | 35 | 0.67% | 2.86% | 1.90% | 1 | 7 | 27 |
| 34 | The Doobie Brothers | 34 | 0.65% | 1.91% | 1.16% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 35 | Bette Midler | 34 | 0.65% | 1.91% | 1.11% | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| 36 | The Rolling Stones | 33 | 0.64% | 2.73% | 1.67% | 0 | 5 | 26 |
| 37 | The O'Jays | 33 | 0.64% | 3.15% | 1.85% | 0 | 6 | 31 |
| 38 | Charlie Rich | 33 | 0.63% | 2.46% | 1.44% | 0 | 3 | 33 |
| 39 | Lobo | 32 | 0.62% | 1.91% | 1.38% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 40 | The Temptations | 32 | 0.62% | 1.97% | 1.34% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 41 | Slade | 32 | 0.61% | 1.23% | 0.88% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 42 | Stealers Wheel | 31 | 0.59% | 2.27% | 1.49% | 0 | 1 | 31 |
| 43 | Wizzard | 29 | 0.56% | 1.10% | 0.73% | 0 | 0 | 39 |
| 44 | Paul Simon | 29 | 0.56% | 3.24% | 1.72% | 2 | 6 | 24 |
| 45 | Stories | 29 | 0.56% | 2.43% | 1.50% | 0 | 5 | 26 |
| 46 | The Isley Brothers | 29 | 0.55% | 2.76% | 1.64% | 1 | 5 | 21 |
| 47 | The Osmonds | 28 | 0.55% | 1.64% | 1.47% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 48 | Marie Osmond | 28 | 0.54% | 3.09% | 1.68% | 1 | 4 | 16 |
| 49 | Jackson 5 | 28 | 0.54% | 1.43% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 39 |
| 50 | Ringo Starr | 27 | 0.53% | 3.22% | 1.78% | 2 | 8 | 13 |