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 1986
Jan 4, 1986 → Dec 27, 1986 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Madonna105
- 2Janet Jackson90
- 3Billy Ocean87
- 4Whitney Houston66
- 5Lionel Richie66
- 6The Bangles65
- 7Robert Palmer65
- 8Miami Sound Machine64
- 9Pet Shop Boys60
- 10Genesis59
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madonna | 105 | 2.01% | 3.36% | 2.77% | 8 | 28 | 49 |
| 2 | Janet Jackson | 90 | 1.73% | 3.06% | 2.25% | 1 | 18 | 45 |
| 3 | Billy Ocean | 87 | 1.67% | 3.47% | 2.06% | 2 | 11 | 52 |
| 4 | Whitney Houston | 66 | 1.27% | 3.52% | 2.62% | 5 | 13 | 30 |
| 5 | Lionel Richie | 66 | 1.26% | 3.00% | 2.00% | 3 | 10 | 36 |
| 6 | The Bangles | 65 | 1.26% | 2.78% | 1.82% | 1 | 9 | 46 |
| 7 | Robert Palmer | 65 | 1.25% | 2.72% | 1.70% | 0 | 3 | 49 |
| 8 | Miami Sound Machine | 64 | 1.24% | 2.40% | 1.61% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 9 | Pet Shop Boys | 60 | 1.15% | 2.64% | 1.91% | 0 | 2 | 51 |
| 10 | Genesis | 59 | 1.14% | 2.56% | 1.94% | 0 | 6 | 32 |
| 11 | Mr. Mister | 56 | 1.07% | 3.15% | 2.57% | 4 | 13 | 29 |
| 12 | Huey Lewis & The News | 54 | 1.04% | 3.19% | 2.11% | 5 | 10 | 40 |
| 13 | Mike + The Mechanics | 47 | 0.91% | 2.61% | 1.62% | 0 | 1 | 40 |
| 14 | Falco | 47 | 0.91% | 3.48% | 2.06% | 5 | 7 | 30 |
| 15 | Van Halen | 46 | 0.88% | 3.15% | 1.74% | 0 | 5 | 36 |
| 16 | Peter Gabriel | 46 | 0.88% | 2.59% | 1.78% | 0 | 3 | 37 |
| 17 | John Mellencamp | 45 | 0.86% | 2.38% | 1.81% | 0 | 1 | 38 |
| 18 | Nu Shooz | 44 | 0.84% | 3.32% | 1.89% | 4 | 5 | 39 |
| 19 | Wham! | 43 | 0.83% | 2.59% | 2.01% | 0 | 1 | 40 |
| 20 | Peter Cetera | 43 | 0.82% | 2.99% | 1.80% | 0 | 5 | 30 |
| 21 | Heart | 43 | 0.82% | 2.55% | 1.79% | 0 | 3 | 37 |
| 22 | Michael McDonald | 43 | 0.82% | 2.61% | 1.81% | 0 | 3 | 34 |
| 23 | Simple Minds | 42 | 0.80% | 2.57% | 1.92% | 0 | 3 | 46 |
| 24 | Simply Red | 40 | 0.78% | 2.96% | 1.90% | 2 | 7 | 33 |
| 25 | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | 40 | 0.76% | 2.22% | 1.39% | 0 | 0 | 47 |
| 26 | Prince And The Revolution | 39 | 0.76% | 2.46% | 1.52% | 0 | 3 | 36 |
| 27 | Steve Winwood | 38 | 0.73% | 2.50% | 1.60% | 0 | 3 | 29 |
| 28 | Howard Jones | 37 | 0.71% | 2.22% | 1.33% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 29 | Starship | 37 | 0.70% | 2.48% | 2.00% | 0 | 2 | 33 |
| 30 | Five Star | 36 | 0.69% | 1.42% | 0.98% | 0 | 0 | 47 |
| 31 | Bon Jovi | 35 | 0.67% | 3.44% | 2.09% | 6 | 8 | 22 |
| 32 | Survivor | 35 | 0.67% | 3.15% | 1.94% | 0 | 5 | 24 |
| 33 | Journey | 35 | 0.67% | 1.87% | 1.03% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 34 | Level 42 | 35 | 0.67% | 2.90% | 1.80% | 0 | 4 | 34 |
| 35 | Atlantic Starr | 35 | 0.67% | 3.02% | 1.77% | 0 | 5 | 28 |
| 36 | a-ha | 34 | 0.66% | 2.04% | 1.85% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 37 | Jermaine Stewart | 34 | 0.65% | 2.85% | 1.64% | 0 | 4 | 27 |
| 38 | Berlin | 33 | 0.64% | 2.44% | 1.39% | 0 | 2 | 27 |
| 39 | Glass Tiger | 33 | 0.63% | 2.47% | 1.43% | 0 | 2 | 25 |
| 40 | The Outfield | 32 | 0.62% | 2.06% | 1.19% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 41 | Bananarama | 32 | 0.62% | 2.63% | 1.69% | 0 | 3 | 27 |
| 42 | Dire Straits | 32 | 0.62% | 3.04% | 2.23% | 2 | 4 | 22 |
| 43 | Loverboy | 31 | 0.60% | 1.79% | 1.10% | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| 44 | Billy Joel | 31 | 0.60% | 1.83% | 1.20% | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| 45 | Cameo | 31 | 0.60% | 2.54% | 1.67% | 0 | 3 | 26 |
| 46 | ZZ Top | 31 | 0.59% | 1.73% | 1.24% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 47 | Sly Fox | 30 | 0.58% | 2.00% | 1.19% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 48 | Rod Stewart | 30 | 0.58% | 2.99% | 1.64% | 0 | 5 | 29 |
| 49 | Eurythmics | 30 | 0.58% | 2.41% | 1.36% | 0 | 3 | 42 |
| 50 | Cyndi Lauper | 30 | 0.58% | 3.21% | 1.69% | 3 | 5 | 18 |