Pop Stars: Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Madonna

Predict your favorite singer's future with TIME's interactive
The Ultimate Ranking of Pop Stardom
Want to know how Beyoncé compares to Elvis when it comes to generating hit songs? Here's the definitive ranking of the King, Queen and 48 other singers who have scored a top ten hit on the Billboard charts since 1960.
BY HITS
BY DEBUT
POINTS FROM TOP-TEN SONGS
  • 0-49
  • 50-99
  • 100-149
  • 150-199
  • 200-249
  • 250-299
  • 300+
year of career since first hit0510152025303505101520253035404550Miley Cyrus338Britney Spears372Taylor Swift388Santana457Marvin Gaye471Cher477Toni Braxton478The 4 Seasons488Lil Wayne499Maroon 5501Snoop Dogg520Barbra Streisand528Celine Dion544Phil Collins549Lionel Richie595Christina Aguilera603Chris Brown607Olivia Newton-John622Donna Summer625T-Pain630R. Kelly641Jennifer Lopez658Akon660Jay-Z686Lady Gaga713Elvis Presley727The Black Eyed Peas733Justin Timberlake738Eminem743The Rolling Stones776Bee Gees780The Supremes809Alicia Keys82050 Cent847Bruno Mars882Kanye West884Beyonce909Ludacris920Diddy943Stevie Wonder953Elton John999Boyz II Men1,000Katy Perry1,100Michael Jackson1,136Whitney Houston1,155Janet1,384Madonna1,414The Beatles1,537Usher1,778Rihanna1,800Mariah Carey1,901TOTAL

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Sure, Miley Cyrus is one of the great media stars of the decade. But when it comes to her status as a hitmaker, she is an upstart compared to icons like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Usher or the legions of greats that came before them.

To put the Disney performer-turned-provocateur in perspective, TIME went through every song that reached the top ten of the Billboard 100 back to 1960 to see which artists had both the biggest years and longest careers. We assigned points based on a song’s rank for each week it was in the top ten. Artists who collaborated on songs are both given credit for its success. Artists were chosen for this list based on all-time chart performance and contemporary significance.

While the Beatles’ debut year on the American charts reigns as the crowning example of chart dominance–they had 11 songs that reached the top ten and six number-one hits–they are in fact only the second most successful artist or group in a single year. It took 40 years, but Usher finally unseated them. He spent exactly half of all of 2004 atop the weekly Billboard 100 charts between “Yeah!,” “Burn,” “Confessions Part II” and “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys).

Methodology

Data comes from the Billboard archives. Points are awarded by placement in the Top Ten, from ten points for a number-one hit to one point for a number-10 song. All artists listed by name on a track are given full points for its chart performance, but groups with members who later had solo careers are still counted as separate entities. (Beyoncé, for example, gets points for “Telephone,” a Lady Gaga song in which she is featured, but does not receive points for songs attributed to Destiny’s Child, the trio that launched her career.) Points for songs are assigned to the year in which the song debuted in the top ten, even if its popularity runs into the next calendar year.

Correction, Aug. 28, 2014: Due to a programming error, the original version of this post incorrectly attributed three hit songs to Carlos Santana and omitted several by Janet Jackson. The post has been updated to display the correct number.

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