Statistically the most popular artist from each decade
It’s practically impossible to put together a list of the best bands of all time. Everybody has a different opinion on who is the best, and even if there is one band with more than a few haters, fans will always be willing to defend their favourite acts if they have to. While there’s no set answer to who the ‘best’ artist may be, the sales figures of acts like Elvis and The Beatles at least give fans a more precise answer.
Throughout history, there has been statistical evidence for who deserves the spot of the best artist of their generation. In a study done by ChartMasters, the most successful artists of their time were determined by how many album sales from the artist’s collective material.
Since the ‘50s were known as the birthplace of rock and roll, it’s no surprise that a selection of the biggest names of the time were included. Rather than the initial progenitors like Chuck Berry or Little Richard, Elvis Presley was the most popular at over 127,000,000 sales. It’s no surprise that ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ takes the top spot, either, exposing rock and roll to a white audience for the first time with songs like ‘Hound Dog’.
When the 1960s began, though, a hole was left in pop music once Presley was drafted into the Army. As the US was also moving on from the death of President John F. Kennedy, The Beatles picked up where Presley had left off, turning in iconic performances live and reinventing what rock and roll could mean on albums like Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road. Compared to every other decade, The Beatles have everyone beaten by a mile with over 376,000,000 record sales.
Though the counterculture of the ‘60s brought bold new strides in rock music, the next decade proved to be more fruitful, with everyone from Led Zeppelin to Queen making their heavier brand of rock fury. Apart from heavy music, Pink Floyd became the most successful band of the decade at over 171,000,000 sales. Granted, half of those sales may as well be chalked up to Dark Side of the Moon, which spent over a decade on the charts and has become more of a time capsule of Western culture than a proper album.
While the ‘70s may have focused on the band mentality of Pink Floyd, the 1980s had room for a new king when Michael Jackson hit the scene. After his time with the Jackson Five, ‘The King of Pop’ ushered in a new era for pop music with Thriller and Bad. Working with Quincy Jones and the biggest names in pop and R&B, Jackson’s spot at the top with 181,000,000 is pretty much a no-brainer for the decade.
As music started to shift towards something more authentic in the 1990s with the arrival of grunge, it’s strange to see a band as integral as Nirvana not at the top. Then again, the end of the decade was dominated by the movie soundtrack, and the massive boost Celine Dion got from James Cameron’s Titanic led to fans flocking to the vocal powerhouse, building up to 160,000,000 sales.
By the time we reached the new millennium, popular music had come a long way since the days of rock and roll. Embracing the world of hip-hop, the years of rising stars like Tupac and Snoop Dogg gave way to Eminem lighting up the charts, with fans finding comfort in the Detroit rapper’s odes to the streets. Then again, this would be one of the final times that album sales played a significant role in an artist’s relevance.
Going through the 2010s, Adele nabbing the top position feels like an inevitability, given her crossover appeal for both pop fans and the older generation who preferred her heartbreaking ballads like ‘Someone Like You’. Though it’s unclear where the 2020s will be headed, the presence of K-pop icons BTS at the top shows a willingness to accept artists that aren’t strictly English-speaking.
Even though there might be a handful of trends in each decade, the critical aspect of the data shows that no decade sounds precisely the same. Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and the fact that each artist sounds different in each decade proves that every audience isn’t content with settling for what has come before.
The most popular artist of each decade:
- 1950s – Elvis Presley (127,149,000)
- 1960s – The Beatles (376,924,000)
- 1970s – Pink Floyd (171,695,000)
- 1980s – Michael Jackson (181,681,000)
- 1990s – Celine Dion (160,090,000)
- 2000s – Eminem (123,624,000)
- 2010s – Adele (73,356,000)
- 2020s – BTS (16,701,000)
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