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 2012
Jan 7, 2012 → Dec 29, 2012 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Flo Rida165
- 2Rihanna151
- 3Nicki Minaj138
- 4Maroon 5125
- 5fun.122
- 6Katy Perry119
- 7Carly Rae Jepsen115
- 8Adele107
- 9Taylor Swift94
- 10David Guetta94
| # | Artist | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flo Rida | 165 | 3.17% | 4.01% | 3.43% | 4 | 33 | 52 |
| 2 | Rihanna | 151 | 2.91% | 3.93% | 3.54% | 10 | 26 | 52 |
| 3 | Nicki Minaj | 138 | 2.65% | 4.09% | 3.30% | 8 | 25 | 52 |
| 4 | Maroon 5 | 125 | 2.40% | 4.04% | 3.43% | 2 | 18 | 52 |
| 5 | fun. | 122 | 2.35% | 3.82% | 3.15% | 0 | 17 | 50 |
| 6 | Katy Perry | 119 | 2.28% | 3.81% | 3.08% | 2 | 14 | 48 |
| 7 | Carly Rae Jepsen | 115 | 2.22% | 3.83% | 3.34% | 7 | 23 | 43 |
| 8 | Adele | 107 | 2.06% | 5.68% | 4.36% | 10 | 15 | 44 |
| 9 | Taylor Swift | 94 | 1.81% | 5.25% | 3.27% | 7 | 16 | 52 |
| 10 | David Guetta | 94 | 1.81% | 3.45% | 2.67% | 0 | 3 | 52 |
| 11 | One Direction | 89 | 1.72% | 3.50% | 2.14% | 0 | 1 | 52 |
| 12 | Justin Bieber | 84 | 1.61% | 3.64% | 2.24% | 0 | 7 | 41 |
| 13 | Kelly Clarkson | 84 | 1.61% | 4.02% | 2.84% | 0 | 10 | 50 |
| 14 | Gotye | 80 | 1.54% | 2.48% | 2.11% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 15 | Train | 75 | 1.44% | 3.13% | 2.17% | 0 | 5 | 46 |
| 16 | Calvin Harris | 73 | 1.40% | 2.85% | 2.00% | 0 | 1 | 52 |
| 17 | Chris Brown | 73 | 1.40% | 3.00% | 1.69% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 18 | LMFAO | 71 | 1.37% | 4.63% | 3.92% | 1 | 9 | 45 |
| 19 | Drake | 70 | 1.35% | 3.27% | 2.59% | 0 | 1 | 52 |
| 20 | Ellie Goulding | 70 | 1.34% | 2.85% | 2.21% | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 21 | The Wanted | 69 | 1.33% | 3.15% | 2.23% | 0 | 2 | 46 |
| 22 | Bruno Mars | 69 | 1.32% | 3.68% | 2.92% | 0 | 9 | 40 |
| 23 | Usher | 64 | 1.22% | 3.30% | 2.35% | 0 | 3 | 52 |
| 24 | Pitbull | 57 | 1.09% | 2.49% | 1.82% | 0 | 0 | 46 |
| 25 | Alex Clare | 56 | 1.08% | 2.25% | 1.81% | 0 | 0 | 39 |
| 26 | P!nk | 55 | 1.06% | 3.14% | 2.32% | 0 | 3 | 24 |
| 27 | Jessie J | 53 | 1.02% | 3.30% | 2.26% | 0 | 1 | 40 |
| 28 | Jason Mraz | 49 | 0.95% | 2.07% | 1.31% | 0 | 0 | 46 |
| 29 | Wiz Khalifa | 47 | 0.90% | 2.13% | 1.41% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 30 | PSY | 46 | 0.89% | 3.55% | 2.48% | 1 | 9 | 17 |
| 31 | Ne-Yo | 44 | 0.84% | 2.50% | 1.85% | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| 32 | Neon Trees | 43 | 0.82% | 2.13% | 1.51% | 0 | 0 | 39 |
| 33 | Luke Bryan | 42 | 0.82% | 1.55% | 1.21% | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 34 | Big Sean | 38 | 0.74% | 1.36% | 1.08% | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 35 | Coldplay | 38 | 0.72% | 2.24% | 1.67% | 0 | 0 | 49 |
| 36 | Sia | 38 | 0.72% | 1.13% | 0.99% | 0 | 0 | 51 |
| 37 | Ed Sheeran | 37 | 0.72% | 1.67% | 1.15% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 38 | Tyga | 37 | 0.71% | 2.29% | 1.55% | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| 39 | Carrie Underwood | 36 | 0.69% | 1.47% | 1.01% | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| 40 | Emeli Sande | 35 | 0.67% | 1.56% | 0.78% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 41 | Kimbra | 34 | 0.66% | 1.05% | 0.90% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 42 | Phillip Phillips | 34 | 0.66% | 2.06% | 1.54% | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| 43 | The Lumineers | 34 | 0.65% | 3.16% | 1.99% | 0 | 3 | 28 |
| 44 | Gym Class Heroes | 33 | 0.64% | 2.18% | 1.59% | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| 45 | Demi Lovato | 31 | 0.59% | 1.52% | 1.21% | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| 46 | Ke$ha | 30 | 0.58% | 3.36% | 2.02% | 0 | 4 | 13 |
| 47 | Eric Church | 29 | 0.56% | 1.40% | 1.08% | 0 | 0 | 46 |
| 48 | Lil' Wayne | 29 | 0.56% | 1.16% | 1.50% | 0 | 0 | 52 |
| 49 | Janelle Monae | 28 | 0.53% | 1.10% | 0.88% | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| 50 | Jason Aldean | 26 | 0.50% | 1.74% | 0.74% | 0 | 0 | 49 |