The Beatles crown the Top 125 Artists of All Time chart, thanks to their unrivaled dominance on the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 since their U.S. breakthrough in 1964.
On the occasion of Billboard's 125th anniversary, our charts team created an equally monumental ranking: Billboard's Top 125 Artists of All Time.
Using a formula blending all titles tallied on both the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart (since its inception on Aug. 4, 1958) and the Billboard 200 albums chart (since it became a combined stereo/mono survey on Aug. 17, 1963), we assembled a list of music's all-time top artists. (Due to changes in chart methodology and title turnover rates, certain periods for each chart recap were weighted differently to ensure as equal a representation as possible among all eras.)
The result: a group of truly iconic acts whose achievements prove that the history of Billboard mirrors the history of pop music itself.
Source: Trevor Anderson, Gary Trust / Billboard