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 1991
Jan 5, 1991 → Dec 28, 1991 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Mariah Carey97
- 2Color Me Badd87
- 3Bryan Adams83
- 4Amy Grant82
- 5Paula Abdul73
- 6Cathy Dennis71
- 7Michael Bolton70
- 8Extreme69
- 9Roxette66
- 10Whitney Houston61
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mariah Carey | 97 | 1.87% | 3.07% | 2.25% | 0 | 21 | 50 |
| 2 | Color Me Badd | 87 | 1.68% | 3.45% | 2.51% | 5 | 25 | 39 |
| 3 | Bryan Adams | 83 | 1.60% | 4.08% | 3.26% | 17 | 20 | 28 |
| 4 | Amy Grant | 82 | 1.57% | 2.85% | 2.23% | 0 | 13 | 45 |
| 5 | Paula Abdul | 73 | 1.40% | 3.69% | 2.41% | 3 | 15 | 34 |
| 6 | Cathy Dennis | 71 | 1.36% | 3.29% | 2.05% | 3 | 6 | 51 |
| 7 | Michael Bolton | 70 | 1.34% | 3.31% | 2.22% | 1 | 9 | 38 |
| 8 | Extreme | 69 | 1.32% | 2.90% | 1.94% | 0 | 7 | 40 |
| 9 | Roxette | 66 | 1.26% | 3.20% | 1.99% | 4 | 9 | 43 |
| 10 | Whitney Houston | 61 | 1.17% | 2.89% | 2.46% | 4 | 11 | 39 |
| 11 | Rod Stewart | 57 | 1.10% | 2.35% | 1.67% | 0 | 3 | 44 |
| 12 | Salt-N-Pepa | 55 | 1.05% | 2.26% | 1.77% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 13 | Hi-Five | 53 | 1.01% | 2.46% | 1.66% | 0 | 3 | 44 |
| 14 | Boyz II Men | 52 | 0.99% | 2.52% | 2.13% | 0 | 11 | 29 |
| 15 | Jesus Jones | 51 | 0.98% | 2.72% | 1.64% | 0 | 4 | 52 |
| 16 | R.E.M. | 51 | 0.97% | 2.97% | 1.87% | 0 | 6 | 39 |
| 17 | Wilson Phillips | 47 | 0.90% | 2.47% | 1.94% | 0 | 4 | 35 |
| 18 | EMF | 45 | 0.87% | 2.44% | 1.72% | 0 | 4 | 48 |
| 19 | Gloria Estefan | 45 | 0.87% | 2.70% | 1.58% | 2 | 4 | 49 |
| 20 | Tara Kemp | 42 | 0.81% | 2.40% | 1.46% | 0 | 2 | 36 |
| 21 | Cher | 39 | 0.75% | 2.08% | 1.43% | 0 | 0 | 48 |
| 22 | Luther Vandross | 39 | 0.74% | 2.20% | 1.31% | 0 | 1 | 35 |
| 23 | Guns N' Roses | 38 | 0.74% | 2.43% | 1.58% | 0 | 1 | 26 |
| 24 | Firehouse | 38 | 0.73% | 2.15% | 1.39% | 0 | 0 | 43 |
| 25 | Madonna | 37 | 0.72% | 3.23% | 2.07% | 3 | 7 | 28 |
| 26 | Another Bad Creation | 37 | 0.71% | 1.86% | 1.43% | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 27 | C | 36 | 0.69% | 1.23% | 0.96% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 28 | Londonbeat | 36 | 0.69% | 2.46% | 1.45% | 0 | 3 | 28 |
| 29 | Scorpions | 36 | 0.68% | 2.20% | 1.52% | 0 | 1 | 34 |
| 30 | The KLF | 35 | 0.68% | 2.12% | 1.28% | 0 | 1 | 47 |
| 31 | Nelson | 35 | 0.67% | 2.07% | 1.57% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 32 | Surface | 34 | 0.66% | 2.47% | 1.62% | 0 | 3 | 33 |
| 33 | Seal | 34 | 0.65% | 1.98% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 34 | Prince And The N.P.G. | 33 | 0.64% | 2.66% | 1.84% | 0 | 6 | 20 |
| 35 | Karyn White | 33 | 0.64% | 2.45% | 1.55% | 0 | 3 | 21 |
| 36 | Chesney Hawkes | 33 | 0.63% | 1.79% | 1.15% | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| 37 | Rhythm Syndicate | 32 | 0.62% | 2.53% | 1.37% | 0 | 2 | 28 |
| 38 | Heavy D & The Boyz | 32 | 0.62% | 2.03% | 1.48% | 0 | 0 | 27 |
| 39 | Natural Selection | 31 | 0.60% | 2.39% | 1.47% | 0 | 5 | 21 |
| 40 | Timmy T. | 31 | 0.60% | 2.45% | 1.61% | 1 | 6 | 24 |
| 41 | LL Cool J | 31 | 0.60% | 2.14% | 1.25% | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 42 | D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince | 31 | 0.59% | 2.22% | 1.33% | 0 | 0 | 29 |
| 43 | Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch | 31 | 0.59% | 1.97% | 1.37% | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| 44 | Vanilla Ice | 30 | 0.57% | 3.15% | 2.53% | 4 | 7 | 28 |
| 45 | Lenny Kravitz | 30 | 0.57% | 2.36% | 1.56% | 0 | 3 | 30 |
| 46 | UB40 | 29 | 0.56% | 1.99% | 1.44% | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| 47 | Tracie Spencer | 29 | 0.55% | 2.28% | 1.27% | 0 | 1 | 37 |
| 48 | Black Box | 28 | 0.55% | 1.92% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 49 | Stevie B | 28 | 0.54% | 2.37% | 1.82% | 0 | 3 | 23 |
| 50 | Celine Dion | 28 | 0.54% | 2.22% | 1.32% | 0 | 0 | 25 |