Highlights and Takeaways from Billboard’s Top 100 Artists of the 21st Century

(January 10, 2025).  Late last year, Billboard released its ranking of the 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century so far.  This week they’ve announced a truer-to-form compilation of the 100 Top Charting Artists of this century to date. 

The difference?  Besides the newer list’s deeper dive, the first survey — unveiled last summer and fall — was a subjective ranking of artists based on the editors’ opinions about such factors as star power, concert draw, videography, influence, social media presence, and, oh yeah, chart performance.  But the key phrase there was “editors’ opinions.”

Beyoncé topped that list, with Taylor Swift coming in second and Rihanna third.  Drake — the top male — was ranked fourth. 

This week’s newer unveiling, which is excerpted below but can be found in its entirety here, is strictly chart-based — a numbers crunching of Billboard’s two marquee rankings: The Billboard 200 (albums) and the Hot 100 (singles) — to determine which artists have dominated its pages for the past 25 years.

The distinction finds Taylor Swift at No. 1 this time, Drake at No. 2 and Rihanna in third.  Beyoncé is down at a still-respectable No. 7 on the new list.

Too much to digest?  Inundated with all these retrospectives at a time when people aren’t even in agreement as to when we actually hit the century’s quarter mark (some contend that happens at the end of 2025 with the century having begun on Jan. 1, 2001)?

Well, leave it to djrobblog to break down this latest recap’s highlights and takeaways, and some reactions to Billboard’s latest composite survey of the musicians millennials and Gen-Z’ers grew up consuming the most. 

Here are those highlights from the milestone list.

Santana Carries Baby Boomer Torch

Santana — the man and the band at No. 98 — is the most veteran act on this list and the only one whose chart career predates 1990.  The band (fronted by the legendary Carlos Santana, 77) squeaked in on the strength of two massive singles — “Smooth” (featuring Rob Thomas) and “Maria, Maria” (featuring The Product G&B) — that began the century with a combined 22 weeks atop the Hot 100, plus their parent album, Supernatural, which spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and sold 15 million copies in this country alone.  To demonstrate Santana’s longevity, the band’s first Billboard chart entry occurred in 1969 with their self-titled debut album and the song “Jingo.”  Only a handful of the remaining 99 acts on this list were even born then and the next earliest anyone charted was in 1990 when singers like Mariah Carey and Alan Jackson debuted.

American Idol: a 21st Century Institution

Kelly Clarkson (No. 27) leads three American Idols (Carrie Underwood, No. 33; Daughtry, No. 89) on this list.  Of course, American Idol — the annual artist competition TV series — is a 21st century institution that debuted with Clarkson’s inaugural crowning in 2002.  Clarkson has gone on to talk show host fame while Underwood’s voice can be heard singing the NBC Sunday Night Football theme weekly each NFL season.  Notable alumni absences are Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, and Jennifer Hudson, all of whom had promising career starts courtesy of the show, but whose chart lives fizzled out before you could say, “Paula who?”

Solo Acts Reign but Bands Still Exist

Not surprisingly, there are zero groups among the top ten charting artists of this century.  Maroon 5 is the highest ranked one at No. 11, thanks to a stellar chart career that began with 2002’s Songs About Jane, the sophomore album that became their first Billboard 200 entry that year and sold over five million physical copies.

Eleven and Eleven

Speaking of Maroon 5 at No. 11, the Los Angeles-based group leads eleven pop/rock bands on the list including, in order: Nickelback (26), Linkin Park (37), Imagine Dragons (38), Coldplay (53), Creed (66), 3 Doors Down (76), Twenty One Pilots (84), Daughtry (89), Santana (98), and — my personal fave — Fall Out Boy (100).

Boy Bands But No “B-Boys”

Speaking of Boys, the only boy bands represented here are One Direction at No. 77 and *NSYNC at No. 90.  Noticeably absent are ‘90s holdovers the Backstreet Boys who, alongside *NSYNC, exploded into the 21st Century with massive albums that were among the biggest first-week debuts of all time.  I guess their aptly titled blockbuster album Millennium, released in 1999, came a bit too early to make a huge impact in the new, uh, millennium.

And speaking of One Direction and *NSYNC, they are among four groups that also have solo members represented.  Harry Styles of 1D is at No. 63 while *NSYNC’s Justin Timberlake is at No. 24.  The other two such entries are Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé (Nos. 41 and 7, respectively), and The Black Eyed Peas and Fergie (Nos. 23 and 75, respectively).  Fergie can thank one massive album — 2006’s The Dutchess — that generated five top ten hits including three No. 1s in ‘06 and ‘07.

Better Late (or early) Than Never

Former rapper-turned-pop singer -turned-country star Post Malone — at a shockingly high No. 4 — is the highest ranked artist to have had all of his chart success in just the past ten years (since January 2015).  His first hit, “White Iverson,” inspired by the NBA legend, debuted on the Hot 100 in September 2015, while his first album came in 2016. 

On the other end of that spectrum, the highest ranked act whose success this century was confined to the millennium’s first ten years is OutKast at No. 71.  Their last new chart entry was Idolwild — both the album and its title track — which first charted in 2006.  Of course, it helps when one of your albums — 2003’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below — is arguably the most acclaimed hip-hop album of the century with two iconic No. 1 Hot 100 hits — “Hey Ya” and “The Way You Move” — included. 

Hip-Hop Takes Over

Drake (obviously) leads the field of 24 rappers or former rappers on this recap, making it the most represented genre of all.  Aside from the Canadian superstar at No. 2, other MCs who made the list are: Post Malone (4), Eminem (5), Ye (20), Nelly (25), Jay-Z (29), Lil Wayne (30), 50 Cent (31), Kendrick Lamar (32), Nicki Minaj (36), Ludacris (39), Future (43), Juice WRLD (44), T.I. (45), Travis Scott (51), Lil Baby (52), Bad Bunny (55), Flo Rida (56), Doja Cat (65), OutKast (71), Cardi B (73), Ja Rule (81), Pitbull (82), and J. Cole (85).  For those wondering, T-Pain ranks at No. 95 on this list but, contrary to popular belief, he was never primarily a rapper.

And for those tracking the female MCs, that’s three: Minaj (36), Doja Cat (65), and Cardi B (73).  No signs of Megan Thee Stallion (surprisingly), Missy Elliott, Sexyy Red, GloRilla, or Lil Kim.  

R&B and Hip-Hop Take Over Pop

The combined genre of R&B/Hip-Hop made headlines in 2017 when, for the first time ever, it overtook rock as the most consumed genre of music in the U.S., a status it’s maintained ever since (thanks mostly to streaming).  But there’s no questioning which subgenre has been the larger variable in this equation.  As noted above, rappers account for 24 of the century’s top 100 chart acts.  Still, R&B (and its various offshoots) is well represented with — depending upon how you count them — at least 19 acts on this list including half of the top ten. They are Rihanna (3), The Weeknd (6), Beyoncé (7), Bruno Mars (9), Usher (10), Chris Brown (18), Alicia Keys (22), Mariah Carey (28), Destiny’s Child (41), SZA (46), Akon (59), Mary J. Blige (62), Ne-Yo (70), R. Kelly (74), Ashanti (78), Khalid (87), Sean Paul (88), Jason Derulo (93), and T-Pain (95).

To illustrate how blurred the lines are between R&B and other genres, many of these artists — like Rihanna, Beyonce, Mars, SZA, Akon, Khalid, Paul, Derulo, and T-Pain — cannot be confined to one style of music.  Similarly, other more pop-oriented artists on this list have also found success on the R&B charts, including Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Santana, and others.

Country’s Comeuppance

Excluding Taylor Swift, who left the genre, and Post Malone (and, for that matter, Beyoncé, who only recently jumped on its bandwagon), country music’s biggest representative is Morgan Wallen, at No. 13.  Riding a wave of Bro Country popularity plus  an anti-cancel culture sentiment, Wallen’s last two albums in just the past four years have joined the ranks of the biggest charting albums of all time.  Wallen is joined on the 21st century ranking by thirteen fellow country musicians: Underwood (33), Luke Combs (40), Kenny Chesney (42), Rascal Flatts (48), Luke Bryan (57), Toby Keith (58), Tim McGraw (60), Jason Aldean (61), Lady A (64), Blake Shelton (80), Florida Georgia Line (86), Keith Urban (92), and Alan Jackson (99).

So, depending on how you count, that’s either 14 or 17 — or 18 if you add in Kid Rock (No. 83) — country artists among the century’s 100 biggest.

And, sorry folks, that doesn’t include Lil Nas X or Shaboozey, the two artists who broke and tied, respectively, the record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 at 19 weeks apiece with their country hybrids “Old Town Road” and “A Bar Song (Tipsy), respectively and respectfully.

No Longer With Us

This list includes four artists or groups with key members who are no longer with us: No. 37 Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, rapper Juice WRLD (No. 44), country singer Toby Keith (58), and No. 77 One Direction’s Liam Payne.  Only one of those deaths — Keith’s —was attributed to natural causes (cancer).

Given one’s perspective, that’s either a surprisingly low number or four people too many.

Here’s a preview of the 40 Top Artists of the 21st Century. 

You can view the full chart here.  

What are some of your reactions?  Feel free to comment below or in any of the social media posts where the article appears. 

DJRob

DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff!  You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.

DJRob (@djrobblog) on Threads

You can also register for free (select the menu bars above) to receive notifications of future articles.