Artists where the charts don’t tell their story

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Let’s talk chart deception! Who are some artists who have had a bigger impact on music and pop culture that the charts wouldn’t suggest based on their overall numbers, whether singles or albums?

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

Definitely Lana Del Rey. People (non-chart geeks friends) are quite shocked when I tell them she only has one two top 10s.

[rnb]

britney spears is the definition of this (she has chart success but deserved much, much more)


edit: this mainly applies to the hot 100 btw

[PREDS PRIDE]

there was that whole deal in the mid-late 90s when record labels pushed artists to sell whole albums instead of put out singles, and since the hot 100 had a rule about a song having to had been released as a single to chart, many huge hits of the era never charted on the hot 100. the main song i can think of that was like this was don't speak by no doubt, and in that band's early stages they didn't chart much at all yet they were very successful and iconic. there's a bunch more songs/artists like this but that's the main one i can think of.

[Landmarx]

(In the U.S. at least):
Grateful Dead
Randy Newman
k.d. Lang
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Sinead O’Connor
Fountains Of Wayne
Thin Lizzy
Devo
Public Enemy
Rush

[Joe1240]

MTV TRL Artists of the Early 2000s-
Britney Spears
Christina Aguilera
Jessica Simpson
Mandy Moore
Backstreet Boys
*NSYNC
98 Degrees

All were huge on MTV and Pop Culture at the time and the charts show a different story.

[mkarns]

Britney Spears has had six #1 albums according to Billboard, and four Hot 100 #1's and six CHR/Pop #1 singles (according to R&R/Mediabase). How many more does she need?

Much of Landmarx's list seems pretty spot on, though in the album market Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin's chart success seems commensurate with their impact during (and after) their too brief lifetimes.

[Skibidi Bop Bop]

The one and only Bob Marley.

[avamaxstan]

So many of the biggest hits of the 90s due to that insane Billboard rule. Don't Speak is one of the biggest songs of that decade (and still top 10 all-time at radio), and never charted on the Hot 100. 

[avamaxstan]

Jun 25, 2023 22:01:17 GMT -5 mkarns said:

Britney Spears has had six #1 albums according to Billboard, and four Hot 100 #1's and six CHR/Pop #1 singles (according to R&R/Mediabase). How many more does she need?

Much of Landmarx's list seems pretty spot on, though in the album market Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin's chart success seems commensurate with their impact during (and after) their too brief lifetimes.

It doesn't reflect Britney's immense impact and longevity. Katy Perry racked up more #1's than that in a single era.
Britney's singles run in UK/Europe is so much more impressive because US radio dropped her starting in the Britney era for reasons I still don't understand.

[Luckie Starchild]

Leonard Cohen
Laura Nyro
Leon Russell
Bill Withers
Jimmy Webb

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

Jun 30, 2023 9:08:56 GMT -5 avamaxstan said:

Jun 25, 2023 22:01:17 GMT -5 mkarns said:

Britney Spears has had six #1 albums according to Billboard, and four Hot 100 #1's and six CHR/Pop #1 singles (according to R&R/Mediabase). How many more does she need?

Much of Landmarx's list seems pretty spot on, though in the album market Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin's chart success seems commensurate with their impact during (and after) their too brief lifetimes.

It doesn't reflect Britney's immense impact and longevity. Katy Perry racked up more #1's than that in a single era.
Britney's singles run in UK/Europe is so much more impressive because US radio dropped her starting in the Britney era for reasons I still don't understand.

Yeah for me this is more about level of impact and chart success matching up. Britney's early singles run in the US (from BOTM to ITZ) does not reflect her level of success, impact or reach.

Lana has already been mentioned but was the first one that came to mind. Then you have songs (eg. Don't Speak [already mentioned], Torn by Natalie Imbruglia, some Madonna singles) that were so successful but charts didn't reflect that because of the rules at the time.

You can dig so deep into this and find many. Go look at Daft Punk's singles/albums run outside of RAM and Get Lucky. In fact so many artists outside of whatever was 'chart popular' at the time.

Just goes to show how little charts can mean to be honest...

[Night Senses]

James Brown, for sure. Zero #1 songs on the Hot 100, zero #1 albums on the Billboard 200 (the median peak for him isn’t even top 10). Yet he’s one of the most influential artists in music history. Globally it’s worse. He’s not on the same commercial level as Wonder, Gaye, Ross (Supremes included) and Robinson (Miracles included), but the impact and resonance of his music remains. “Sex Machine” and “Living in America” could be mistaken for huge #1 hits, but the peaks are kind of what his peers were doing in their sleep throughout the hills and valleys of their careers.

[bonicap]

Jun 25, 2023 17:42:45 GMT -5 Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ said:

Definitely Lana Del Rey. People (non-chart geeks friends) are quite shocked when I tell them she only has one two top 10s.

I was gonna say this too. She has always been more popular than what the charts showed but right now she is consistently the #2 most streamed woman every day. Born To Die is a classic inside the BB200, but when it comes to peaks she has had almost nothing.

[Forever Winter]

Taylor 2018-2021

[Amnesiac]

Jun 30, 2023 9:07:19 GMT -5 avamaxstan said:

So many of the biggest hits of the 90s due to that insane Billboard rule. Don't Speak is one of the biggest songs of that decade (and still top 10 all-time at radio), and never charted on the Hot 100. 

It's eye-opening the first time you go through the Joel Whitburn Pop Singles book and see how many big 90s hits have an "A" next to their chart position. Green Day deserves a special mention there. I think they have the most airplay only hits of any artist, or they're close to it. If you just go by the Hot 100, you don't get the full story of how big they were in the 90s at all.

[mkarns]

Jul 3, 2023 11:15:20 GMT -5 Amnesiac said:

Jun 30, 2023 9:07:19 GMT -5 avamaxstan said:

So many of the biggest hits of the 90s due to that insane Billboard rule. Don't Speak is one of the biggest songs of that decade (and still top 10 all-time at radio), and never charted on the Hot 100. 

It's eye-opening the first time you go through the Joel Whitburn Pop Singles book and see how many big 90s hits have an "A" next to their chart position. Green Day deserves a special mention there. I think they have the most airplay only hits of any artist, or they're close to it. If you just go by the Hot 100, you don't get the full story of how big they were in the 90s at all.

Which is why I find it irritating when people continue to cite the Hot 100 for the 90s and after as if it were the Holy Bible of popular music. Due to chart rules and often changing methodology, as well as record company, radio, and management shenanigans, much very popular and lasting stuff is either nonexistent on the chart or doesn't reflect its true popularity. (Not that it was perfect before, and other national charts had and have their flaws as well.) It was wise of Whitburn & Co. to start listing airplay-only hits in the chart books.

[johnm1120]

Despite only 2 top 40 hits, Enya is the 2nd highest selling Irish artist of all time.

[colson]

Blame the record label for commercially withholding those singles. Many of these 90s artists benefited from radio only hits because it helped their parent album sell millions of additional copies. So would have those albums sold as well as they did if those hit airplay only singles were commercially released to retail through most of it's airplay chart life?

And then you had other acts who did commercially release hit singles that sold extremely well AND more importantly, so did the parent album. Can you imagine If those acts didn't commercially release any of their hit radio singles to retail? Those albums most likely would have sold millions of additional copies.

Businesswise, record labels were smart to maximize album sales instead of focusing on releasing commercial singles just to have high charting hits on the Hot 100.

[Daenerys]

Britney and Lana feel like the Queens of this, as it has already been mentioned. When you look at their Hot 100 peaks, they should be ~20 placements higher than they really are. Had their labels played the game a bit more, and a bit more aggressively they would have had their album success mirror their singles on the Hot 100.

[velaxti]

I think Drake. He was one of the most popular artists around as early as 2010 - 2012, but someone in the future looking at the charts would just think he was fairly popular from 2009 - 2014 and blew up much bigger around 2015/2016 which isn't really how it happened. Just that illegal downloads finally stopped becoming the main source of music for broke teenagers and students around the mid-10's.

[mkarns]

Jul 14, 2023 18:32:51 GMT -5 velaxti said:

I think Drake. He was one of the most popular artists around as early as 2010 - 2012, but someone in the future looking at the charts would just think he was fairly popular from 2009 - 2014 and blew up much bigger around 2015/2016 which isn't really how it happened. Just that illegal downloads finally stopped becoming the main source of music for broke teenagers and students around the mid-10's.

Of course, if you use the Billboard Hot 100 and nothing else for the early 2010s, you might think that the cast of Glee were among the most popular artists in music EVER, to be ranked as at least the equal of Elvis, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Mariah, Britney, Taylor, etc. in terms of hitmaking proficiency and impact.