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 1984
Jan 7, 1984 → Dec 29, 1984 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Lionel Richie118
- 2Cyndi Lauper114
- 3The Pointer Sisters91
- 4Duran Duran88
- 5Culture Club82
- 6Tina Turner79
- 7Madonna78
- 8Huey Lewis & The News78
- 9The Cars73
- 10Thompson Twins69
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Richie | 118 | 2.27% | 3.84% | 3.02% | 2 | 18 | 52 |
| 2 | Cyndi Lauper | 114 | 2.18% | 3.17% | 2.44% | 1 | 17 | 52 |
| 3 | The Pointer Sisters | 91 | 1.75% | 3.26% | 2.52% | 1 | 10 | 51 |
| 4 | Duran Duran | 88 | 1.70% | 3.13% | 2.35% | 0 | 17 | 46 |
| 5 | Culture Club | 82 | 1.58% | 3.75% | 2.86% | 3 | 13 | 45 |
| 6 | Tina Turner | 79 | 1.53% | 3.24% | 2.38% | 3 | 13 | 50 |
| 7 | Madonna | 78 | 1.51% | 3.47% | 2.22% | 3 | 4 | 52 |
| 8 | Huey Lewis & The News | 78 | 1.49% | 2.10% | 1.79% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 9 | The Cars | 73 | 1.40% | 3.26% | 2.24% | 0 | 5 | 43 |
| 10 | Thompson Twins | 69 | 1.32% | 3.24% | 2.20% | 0 | 9 | 50 |
| 11 | Van Halen | 64 | 1.23% | 3.36% | 2.10% | 0 | 7 | 45 |
| 12 | Elton John | 63 | 1.22% | 2.61% | 1.84% | 0 | 3 | 46 |
| 13 | Bruce Springsteen | 60 | 1.15% | 2.48% | 1.98% | 0 | 4 | 33 |
| 14 | Ray Parker Jr. | 60 | 1.15% | 3.25% | 2.13% | 2 | 8 | 40 |
| 15 | Billy Joel | 58 | 1.11% | 3.65% | 3.24% | 0 | 3 | 45 |
| 16 | Kool & The Gang | 55 | 1.06% | 3.24% | 2.12% | 1 | 6 | 32 |
| 17 | Daryl Hall John Oates | 54 | 1.03% | 2.77% | 1.75% | 0 | 4 | 37 |
| 18 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | 53 | 1.02% | 1.81% | 1.41% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 19 | Prince And The Revolution | 52 | 1.00% | 3.99% | 2.52% | 7 | 9 | 22 |
| 20 | Wham! | 51 | 0.99% | 3.67% | 2.54% | 1 | 11 | 35 |
| 21 | Chicago | 51 | 0.99% | 2.78% | 1.98% | 0 | 1 | 35 |
| 22 | Eurythmics | 51 | 0.98% | 2.21% | 1.72% | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| 23 | Stevie Wonder | 49 | 0.94% | 3.54% | 2.34% | 0 | 10 | 20 |
| 24 | Laura Branigan | 47 | 0.90% | 2.34% | 1.71% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 25 | Kenny Loggins | 47 | 0.90% | 3.04% | 2.00% | 0 | 5 | 34 |
| 26 | Paul McCartney | 45 | 0.87% | 3.01% | 1.96% | 0 | 4 | 26 |
| 27 | Prince | 45 | 0.87% | 3.46% | 2.29% | 6 | 10 | 33 |
| 28 | Rick Springfield | 45 | 0.86% | 2.19% | 1.42% | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| 29 | Phil Collins | 45 | 0.86% | 3.52% | 2.28% | 6 | 9 | 30 |
| 30 | Michael Jackson | 44 | 0.85% | 2.37% | 2.60% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 31 | Rod Stewart | 44 | 0.85% | 2.55% | 1.60% | 0 | 3 | 37 |
| 32 | Billy Idol | 42 | 0.80% | 2.77% | 1.70% | 0 | 3 | 49 |
| 33 | John Waite | 41 | 0.78% | 2.88% | 1.96% | 0 | 6 | 28 |
| 34 | Steve Perry | 40 | 0.78% | 2.34% | 1.49% | 0 | 2 | 39 |
| 35 | Chaka Khan | 40 | 0.77% | 3.36% | 2.17% | 3 | 9 | 40 |
| 36 | Queen | 39 | 0.76% | 2.35% | 1.31% | 0 | 0 | 46 |
| 37 | Rockwell | 38 | 0.73% | 2.98% | 1.82% | 0 | 6 | 31 |
| 38 | Billy Ocean | 38 | 0.72% | 3.39% | 2.06% | 1 | 8 | 24 |
| 39 | Night Ranger | 37 | 0.71% | 2.13% | 1.24% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 40 | Deniece Williams | 36 | 0.70% | 3.52% | 2.05% | 5 | 7 | 22 |
| 41 | Howard Jones | 36 | 0.69% | 1.71% | 1.18% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 42 | Corey Hart | 35 | 0.67% | 2.01% | 1.26% | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 43 | Nik Kershaw | 35 | 0.67% | 1.16% | 0.90% | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| 44 | The Jacksons | 35 | 0.67% | 2.65% | 1.69% | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| 45 | Nena | 33 | 0.64% | 3.47% | 2.02% | 5 | 7 | 19 |
| 46 | Dan Hartman | 33 | 0.64% | 2.15% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 47 | Shannon | 33 | 0.63% | 2.60% | 1.54% | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 48 | Sheena Easton | 32 | 0.61% | 2.00% | 1.24% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 49 | Yes | 31 | 0.60% | 2.49% | 1.81% | 0 | 1 | 30 |
| 50 | Matthew Wilder | 31 | 0.60% | 3.14% | 1.88% | 2 | 4 | 28 |