Drake has more top-five Hot 100 hits than any other artist

The artists with the most No. 1 singles

Scoring a No. 1 single is a difficult task—less than 4% of the songs that have made Billboard's Hot 100 chart have ever reached the top spot. This list breaks down the most elite hitmakers in Billboard history, including the Supremes, Taylor Swift, and the Beatles, who released an incredible 20 No. 1 singles.

2025 marked the first time in 35 years a hip-hop song wasn't in the top 40

The Billboard Hot 100 chart dated October 25, 2025, didn't have any rap or hip-hop songs in its top 40 singles, something that hadn't happened since Feb. 2, 1990. One explanation is a Billboard methodology change, and another is Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl."

In the week after his death, 5 Prince albums appeared in the Billboard top 10

After his death in 2016, the public revisited Prince's catalog in a big way. For the first time in modern Billboard history, half of the magazine's Billboard 200 was concurrently occupied by a single artist. Three of those titles were compilations ("The Very Best of Prince," "The Hits/The B-Sides," and "Ultimate"), with the remaining two taken by studio albums ("Purple Rain" and "1999").

Billboard’s Hot 100 methodology is notoriously private

The magazine’s singles chart is based on on-demand streams (from platforms like Spotify), digital sales (from stores like iTunes), and radio airplay. Not all of those sources are weighted equally, though—sales are more important than airplay, and airplay is more significant than streams. In 2018, Billboard began weighing streams from premium subscriptions more heavily than free streams (like listening to a song on Pandora).

Superfans of K-pop group BTS gamed the Billboard chart

In 2021, the boy band scored a number one hit with “Butter,” its second English-language track. As Stereogum writer Tom Breihan points out, though, it rose to the top of the charts without actually being the most popular song in the country. Other songs were considerably more popular on streaming platforms, but BTS’ hyperdevoted fanbase realized that purchasing digital downloads weighed more heavily in Billboard’s methodology. Recognizing an opportunity, BTS dropped the price of a download to 69 cents, securing their place on the top of the charts.

'Islands in the Stream' was another massive crossover hit for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

The country stars each earned their second pop No. 1 hits with the duet, eventually selling over 3 million units. In 1998, the Fugees’ Pras scored a hit with an interpolation of the song on his track “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are),” which was eventually certified platinum.

Chris Stapleton's 'Tennessee Whiskey' is the best-selling country song of all time

The 2015 track has sold over 20 million units in the US, making it the third single to be certified double diamond. (The other two are Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" and Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower.") Stapleton's track is actually a standard that was written in 1981 and recorded by several other artists, including George Jones.

The Chicago Bears are the only professional sports team to score a Billboard Hot 100 hit

The 1985 track "The Super Bowl Shuffle" was recorded for charity, but the song (with its rudimentary raps and goofy taunts) became an unexpected hit, reaching No. 41 on the Hot 100 chart. This podcast digs into the history of the song and how it became an unexpected pop culture phenomenon.

Hip-hop gained significant popularity in the 21st century

Although hip-hop and rap music were popular in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it was ubiquitous in the early 2000s, with 20 songs in the Billboard top 10 in 2003 alone. The surge was due in no small part to Jay-Z and Eminem, who were the biggest names in the genre.

This year's highest-paid dead celebrities

Forbes unveiled the list of 13 highest-paid dead celebrities. For the first time ever, the top five people in Forbes 2022 list of highest paid dead celebrities, have made more than $100 million each

Winning a Grammy significantly impacts an artist's sales and streaming

2023 album of the year winner Harry Styles returned to the top 10 of the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, with "Harry's House." It's also not just the winners; Grammy performers also get a boost, like the 100% increase in Spotify streams that Bad Bunny's "Después de la Playa" saw after he sang it on the telecast.

The Drake equation calculates the number of exoplanets that can harbor life

Developed in 1961 as part of the Search for Extra-Terrerestrial Intelligence initiative, the formula incorporates several estimated values, including the rate of star formation in the galaxy and the fraction of stars with planets.

Kendrick Lamar brought his Drake feud to the Super Bowl stage

At the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in New Orleans, Kendrick Lamar leaned into his high-profile feud with Drake, turning months of diss-track drama into one of the most discussed performances in recent Super Bowl history.

80 artists on their favorite Bob Dylan songs

Listen to any rock music from the past century and you’ll likely hear some trace of Dylan’s influence. This massive list, released back on Dylan’s 80th birthday, offers objective data to back that up. Its 80 participants include David Byrne, Michael McDonald, and dozens more. The best part? The article also includes a playlist, so you can listen to the songs while you read about their impact.

Andy Warhol's presence continues to persist in pop culture

Warhol produced iconic album art for The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground. He also inspired rappers Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator. Warhol’s immense influence on art and pop culture elevated him to celebrity status, and his identity and style continue to be referenced in sometimes unexpected corners of cultural consciousness.

In 2025, an AI-generated song became a country hit

The song, “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust, racked up over 3 million streams on Spotify in less than a month and went to number one on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales in early November 2025. Because the genre prides itself on authenticity and has a long history of workaday songwriters, the song's success was controversial in the industry. Billboard does not currently have a policy prohibiting AI-generated songs.

Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams' reentered the pop charts thanks to a viral video

In 2020, a man from Idaho named Nathan Apodaca filmed himself drinking cranberry juice while skateboarding and mouthing along to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” a hit from their 1977 album “Rumours.” The video’s popularity on TikTok introduced the song to a younger generation (and reintroduced it to older ones). In turn, listeners sought it out on streaming platforms, sending it back into the Hot 100.

The Dow now tracks 30 major US companies across various industries

Since 1928, the DJIA has included 30 firms. Today's group spans technology, healthcare, and finance—with Apple, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer, and Coca-Cola among its most recognized components.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

As of 2022, the US accounted for nearly one-fifth of global oil production

By 2022, the US had cemented its position as the world’s top oil producer with close to 18 million barrels per day. This eclipsed Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The Beatles once sued Nike

Nike used The Beatles' "Revolution" in an ad, sparking a $15M lawsuit over the song's use. While The Beatles and Nike ultimately reached an agreement, Nike ushered in the modern practice of using hit songs in advertisements, as opposed to jingles or covers.

Lisa Loeb was the first unsigned artist to top the Billboard chart

The singer-songwriter's single "Stay (I Missed You)" was included in the film "Reality Bites" and included on its soundtrack. Due in part to the success of the film, the song quickly raced up the Billboard Hot 100.

A government mandate changed the sound of Canadian radio

In 1971, Canadian radio stations were required to ensure their programming included at least 30% Canadian artists. The impact was both cultural and commercial, with Canadian artists gaining more visibility at home and Canadian studios and songwriters earning more pay.

In 2024, the US had more organ transplants than ever before—besting the 2023 record

More than 48,000 organ transplants were performed in 2024, and about 46,630 were performed in 2023. These record highs are illustrated here as part of data from 1988 to partway through 2025. Kidneys, livers, and the heart remain the most common transplanted organs. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Listen to 'Now and Then,' the Beatles' final song

The Beatles released their final song, "Now and Then," in October 2023, featuring a previously hidden John Lennon vocal. The track was initially shelved due to poor audio quality but was revived with the help of AI to enhance Lennon's performance....

As of 2025, Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most-visited sites in the world

Alphabet Inc.'s Google search engine and YouTube received nearly 150 billion combined visits in November, followed by Facebook, ChatGPT, and Instagram, which each received over 5 billion visits during the same span. With 4.42 billion visits for the month, Wikipedia ranked just behind Reddit's 4.85 billion.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.