Rihanna ranked #1 on Billboard's Top 40 Pop Songs Artists
The week of Oct. 3, 1992, Billboard premiered the Pop Songs radio airplay chart, as then-new Nielsen BDS-based monitoring technology allowed for unprecedented accuracy in gauging the biggest hits on mainstream top 40 radio.
Twenty years later, we're celebrating the anniversary by counting down the top 40 artists on the Pop Songs chart over the past two decades. We're also mixing in memories from those working in the format, on both the radio and records sides.
This week, Chart Beat is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Billboard's Pop Songs radio airplay chart.
THE TOP 40 POP SONGS ARTISTS 1992-2012
40 JEWEL
39 TAYLOR SWIFT
38 FERGIE
37 KE$HA
36 HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH
35 TLC
34 SHERYL CROW
33 NO DOUBT
32 BRUNO MARS
31 GOO GOO DOLLS
30 3 DOORS DOWN
29 BOYZ II MEN
28 CELINE DION
27 FLO RIDA
26 DESTINY'S CHILD
25 ALANIS MORISSETTE
24 'N SYNC
23 EMINEM
22 CHRIS BROWN
21 NELLY
20 AVRIL LAVIGNE
19 MAROON 5
18 JENNIFER LOPEZ
17 BACKSTREET BOYS
16 BEYONCE
15 MATCHBOX TWENTY
14 NICKELBACK
13 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
12 CHRISTINA AGUILERA
11 LADY GAGA
10 MADONNA
9 JANET JACKSON
8 THE BLACK EYED PEAS
7 USHER
Katy Perry's very first single, 'I Kissed a Girl,' had just recently come out and we were playing it on Z100. We started to feel an early buzz on the song, but the masses still weren't that familiar with who Katy was. We invited her to come on-stage at Z100's Jingle Ball to help introduce one of the acts performing at the show. We weren't sure if the crowd would be familiar with her by name, so we suggested that when she went out there, she should sing the hook of 'I Kissed a Girl' a capella. As soon as the crowd heard that, they sang every word along with her. Katy has told us that she'll always remember that moment." - Sharon Dastur, PD, WHTZ New York
6 KATY PERRY
5 MARIAH CAREY
4 KELLY CLARKSON
3 BRITNEY SPEARS
2 P!NK
Having first arrived on Pop Songs only as recently as 2005, her accomplishments are exceptional. She has the most chart appearances (34), the most top 10s (21) and the most No. 1s (nine, a mark she shares with the No. 6 artist, Katy Perry). She's reigned with "Umbrella" and shined with "Diamonds," the latter of which debuts this week. The top artist of Billboard's Pop Songs chart's first 20 years is ...:
But Katy has only 2 albums and is on the 6th place before Madonna,Janet,Bey and many others so she accomplished more! 