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 1989
Jan 7, 1989 → Dec 30, 1989 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Bobby Brown114
- 2Milli Vanilli108
- 3Paula Abdul108
- 4New Kids On The Block108
- 5Madonna90
- 6Bon Jovi83
- 7Fine Young Cannibals74
- 8Richard Marx71
- 9Roxette67
- 10Karyn White57
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bobby Brown | 114 | 2.20% | 3.35% | 2.81% | 14 | 26 | 52 |
| 2 | Milli Vanilli | 108 | 2.08% | 3.69% | 2.90% | 5 | 15 | 52 |
| 3 | Paula Abdul | 108 | 2.07% | 2.96% | 2.35% | 3 | 19 | 52 |
| 4 | New Kids On The Block | 108 | 2.07% | 4.63% | 2.97% | 5 | 17 | 52 |
| 5 | Madonna | 90 | 1.73% | 3.16% | 2.36% | 3 | 18 | 43 |
| 6 | Bon Jovi | 83 | 1.59% | 2.98% | 2.17% | 2 | 5 | 51 |
| 7 | Fine Young Cannibals | 74 | 1.42% | 3.29% | 2.06% | 2 | 7 | 51 |
| 8 | Richard Marx | 71 | 1.36% | 3.15% | 2.29% | 3 | 8 | 35 |
| 9 | Roxette | 67 | 1.29% | 2.58% | 1.73% | 0 | 8 | 47 |
| 10 | Karyn White | 57 | 1.10% | 2.18% | 1.68% | 0 | 1 | 45 |
| 11 | Debbie Gibson | 56 | 1.07% | 2.61% | 1.97% | 0 | 6 | 41 |
| 12 | Guns N' Roses | 55 | 1.05% | 3.08% | 2.16% | 2 | 6 | 38 |
| 13 | Martika | 54 | 1.04% | 2.97% | 1.83% | 0 | 5 | 51 |
| 14 | Gloria Estefan | 54 | 1.03% | 2.89% | 1.97% | 0 | 9 | 42 |
| 15 | Soul II Soul | 52 | 1.00% | 3.20% | 2.07% | 3 | 5 | 43 |
| 16 | Cher | 51 | 0.98% | 2.93% | 1.81% | 0 | 4 | 43 |
| 17 | Neneh Cherry | 51 | 0.97% | 2.94% | 1.73% | 1 | 6 | 42 |
| 18 | The Bangles | 50 | 0.96% | 3.47% | 2.21% | 4 | 5 | 31 |
| 19 | Tone-Loc | 46 | 0.89% | 2.84% | 1.93% | 0 | 4 | 29 |
| 20 | Rod Stewart | 44 | 0.85% | 2.21% | 1.43% | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 21 | Prince | 42 | 0.81% | 2.89% | 1.81% | 0 | 6 | 30 |
| 22 | Simply Red | 42 | 0.80% | 3.03% | 1.82% | 0 | 4 | 40 |
| 23 | Janet Jackson | 41 | 0.79% | 2.84% | 2.03% | 0 | 8 | 19 |
| 24 | Jody Watley | 40 | 0.77% | 2.60% | 1.46% | 0 | 4 | 42 |
| 25 | Phil Collins | 40 | 0.76% | 3.18% | 2.62% | 2 | 10 | 21 |
| 26 | Dino | 36 | 0.70% | 2.00% | 1.25% | 0 | 0 | 48 |
| 27 | Expose | 35 | 0.67% | 1.94% | 1.24% | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| 28 | Bette Midler | 34 | 0.66% | 2.57% | 1.63% | 0 | 2 | 29 |
| 29 | Donny Osmond | 34 | 0.66% | 2.37% | 1.31% | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| 30 | Donna Summer | 34 | 0.65% | 2.55% | 1.59% | 0 | 3 | 35 |
| 31 | Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers | 33 | 0.64% | 2.77% | 1.65% | 0 | 3 | 26 |
| 32 | Natalie Cole | 33 | 0.64% | 2.43% | 1.69% | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| 33 | Tom Petty | 33 | 0.64% | 1.92% | 1.08% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 34 | Mike + The Mechanics | 33 | 0.63% | 2.63% | 1.77% | 0 | 4 | 21 |
| 35 | Poison | 33 | 0.63% | 2.46% | 1.80% | 0 | 2 | 25 |
| 36 | Warrant | 33 | 0.63% | 2.45% | 1.58% | 0 | 1 | 31 |
| 37 | Michael Damian | 31 | 0.60% | 2.46% | 1.35% | 0 | 1 | 35 |
| 38 | Great White | 31 | 0.59% | 2.21% | 1.32% | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| 39 | Taylor Dayne | 31 | 0.59% | 2.39% | 1.75% | 0 | 2 | 22 |
| 40 | The Cure | 29 | 0.56% | 2.40% | 1.39% | 0 | 1 | 36 |
| 41 | Def Leppard | 29 | 0.56% | 2.47% | 1.86% | 0 | 3 | 21 |
| 42 | Tears For Fears | 28 | 0.54% | 2.45% | 1.55% | 0 | 3 | 19 |
| 43 | Sheena Easton | 28 | 0.54% | 2.68% | 1.61% | 1 | 4 | 29 |
| 44 | Young M.C. | 28 | 0.54% | 2.03% | 1.29% | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| 45 | Billy Joel | 28 | 0.54% | 2.64% | 1.77% | 0 | 7 | 15 |
| 46 | Don Henley | 27 | 0.53% | 1.93% | 1.09% | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| 47 | Bad English | 27 | 0.52% | 2.58% | 1.46% | 0 | 3 | 24 |
| 48 | Skid Row | 27 | 0.51% | 2.23% | 1.25% | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| 49 | Jason Donovan | 26 | 0.50% | 1.10% | 0.67% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 50 | Chicago | 26 | 0.49% | 2.01% | 1.83% | 0 | 0 | 35 |