Several major artists have embraced manipulating the Billboard charts

Billboard began incorporating streaming in 2007

For nearly 50 years, the Billboard charts primarily relied on radio airplay and retail sales. But in 2007, the magazine began incorporating early streaming services AOL Music and Yahoo! Music into its methodology, and later worked with Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms. A single stream was not weighed as heavily as a purchase of a physical CD or vinyl record. Still, streaming’s impact became evident when songs with minimal radio airplay began climbing the charts, as seen with Baauer’s “Harlem Shake,” which did exceptionally well on YouTube.

Some critics say comparing chart rankings across decades is meaningless

Although Billboard’s charts are presented as objective measures of a given song’s popularity, the company’s changing methodology (alongside changes in technology and listener habits) has made weighing chart success from different eras an imperfect science.

TikTok isn’t factored into a song’s rank on the Billboard charts, but it can have an impact

Billboard ranks a song’s chart position based on its radio airplay, its physical sales, and its streaming numbers (across Spotify and other platforms), but doesn’t include user-generated content, meaning it doesn’t include TikTok videos. Keith Caulfield, Billboard’s managing director of charts and data operations, notes that TikTok still has an impact, though, because listeners will often stream the app’s most popular songs on other platforms.

Music today is often intended to circulate on social media

Artists are increasingly using TikTok and other short form video platforms as a space to promote their music. One scholar notes this emphasis, and connect it to Taylor Swift's early use of social media to promote her own work and brand.

One writer traces the evolution of a Billboard chart over 25 years

Billboard introduced its Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1988, looking to capture the rising popularity of acts like the Cure, REM, and U2. Music writer and Billboard obsessive Chris Molanphy traces the chart from his earliest days through grunge, alternative, and corporate eras, demonstrating just how much taste changes over time.

Taylor Swift was the first artist to occupy all of Billboard's Top 10

Swift's 2022 release "Midnights" led to an unprecedented feat: For the first time in Billboard history, the entire top 10 of the Hot 100 was occupied by the same artist. Two years later, "The Tortured Poets Department" would occupy the first 14 slots on the chart.

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

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.

Taylor Swift is one of the most successful artists in the world

Few musicians are more popular (or more influential) than Taylor Swift. that's not a broad generalization. The data from this music-industry report backs it up. Luminate not only breaks down Swift’s titanic streaming numbers but also analyzes the strength of her fandom, which the publication considers indicative of “influence.”

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.

Taylor Swift outsmarted her label by re-recording her albums

After Taylor Swift lost the rights to her songs, she lost control over what she could and couldn't do with them. Aware of her fan base, she re-recorded them, encouraged fans to listen only to her new versions, and improved the production quality, creating new hits out of existing songs.

Spotify's most-streamed albums to date

Interested in people's listening habits? Look through this up-to-date list to find out the most streamed albums on Spotify. See which musicians top the list by year, decade, or even all-time.

Some critics argue that Grammys favor commercially successful artists

For this two-part series of Slate’s pop music podcast "Hit Parade," pop critic Chris Malanfi looks into the relationship between commercial and critical success and how the Grammys are affected by outside influences like the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Streaming helped propel Bad Bunny to the top of the charts

For decades, labels believed Spanish-language artists had to sing in English to break into the mainstream. Metrics on YouTube and Spotify, though, have shown that listeners are interested in artists like Bad Bunny, who have intentionally made music in Spanish and have become immensely popular.

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.

Country's sound continues to evolve

Country music is having a moment. In 2023, it saw the biggest growth in market share of any genre—up nearly 22%. This overview traces country’s rise from Appalachian folk roots to its current pop, rock, and hip-hop-infused wave, with artists like Beyoncé and Post Malone joining the mix.

Billie Eilish broke records at the 2020 Grammys

Alternative pop star Billie Eilish had a fascinating rise to fame. She cemented her album "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" in Grammys history by becoming the first woman and youngest person to win all the Big Four awards in the same night.

The surprising and strange sources behind 12 famous songs

Britney Spears's "Toxic" borrowed strings from a 1981 Bollywood film, Billie Eilish sampled The Office, and one duo made an entire album using only the sounds of their Whirlpool washing machine. Explore how sampling can pull from pretty much anywhere.

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").

Super Bowl halftime shows reliably drive massive music sales spikes

Since Michael Jackson’s 1993 performance, halftime headliners have seen major increases in sales and streams—from Prince to Lady Gaga. Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 show was no exception, as it was the most-watched halftime performance on record.

Justin Bieber spent Coachella on YouTube

The pop star was the festival's Saturday headliner, a slot typically reserved for massive spectacles. Bieber, however, spent a significant portion of it scrolling YouTube. Timothy Karoff's evenhanded review tries to make sense of the unexpected scene.

'Deinfluencing' explained

You’ve probably heard of influencers, but have you heard of “de-influencers?” Basically, the de-influencing trend started when creators began making videos about products you shouldn’t buy, rather than sponsored content promoting things you should purchase. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson recently cracked some jokes about the trend, and its companion “under consumption-core.”

Watch Billy Joel deepfake himself in the 'Turn the Lights Back On' music video

Though deepfakes are often synonymous with manipulation and bad intentions, some artists have found creative uses for the technology. In this example, Billy Joel depicts himself in various eras of his career in keeping with the song's nostalgic message.

Nonstop posting by Elon Musk provides calculated political and brand messaging

For a week in August 2024, Musk posted 650 times, including reactions to far-right influencers; promotion of his AI tool, Grok; and support for controversial political takes. He livestreamed himself playing Diablo IV for hours during that same week.

Prediction markets have faced questions about insider trading

While prediction markets encourage bettors to use their knowledge of a situation to inform their trades, these platforms have faced questions about when this borders on insider trading. For instance, traders on Kalshi can bet on who Taylor Swift's bridesmaids will be—but some worry that it would be unfair for Taylor Swift herself to earn money on that specific bet.

Marketers often use psychological tactics to sway consumer action

From making someone feel as though a resource is scarce (“only one item left in stock!”) to invoking a sense of authority (“top dentists recommend this toothpaste”), marketers use a variety of psychological tactics to elicit a desired response from their target audience.

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.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

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.'

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

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 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.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

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.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

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

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

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