They love being on top.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah they do.
Billboard Magazine recently released its list of the Greatest 125 Artists of All Time, with The Beatles taking the top spot.
Rounding out the top five are The Rolling Stones at two, Elton John at three, Mariah Carey at four, and Madonna at five.
Music journalist Eric Alper said the point of this list is really quite simple: to spark debate and controversy.
“It’s fun for people like you and I to sit here and complain or gloat or be gleeful that our favourite artists are making another chart.”
It does that fairly well.
Let’s look at the band Chicago, best known for a string of hits like Hard To Say I’m Sorry, 25 Or 6 To 4 and Look Away. They took the number 10 slot, ahead of Elvis Presley.
LISTEN BELOW: The Best: Billboard ranks the 125 Greatest Artists of All Time
“I remember them as kind of the AM radio staple in the 1980s and then they disappeared,” said Alper during his recent appearance on the 630 CHED Afternoon News. “But for 19-consecutive studio albums, they sold over a million copies in America.”
Another interesting case on this list is Taylor Swift.
Ranked number eight, she’s placed higher than Stevie Wonder, the Eagles and George Michael.
As this list develops, popular artists of today like Swift and Drake will overtake many of the artists of the past, for a very good reason.
“Due to the way that the chart is being developed and you have music streaming services, Youtube and you have all sorts of different sorts of methodology other than buying a physical single. It’s now possible for Drake to release an album with 22 songs on it, and have every single one of those 22 songs on the Billboard Hot 100,” said Alper.
The existence of streaming and the introduction of the charts has negatively impacted some artists, the King perhaps being the most prominent example.
“(Elvis) has way more solo hits than any other artists in history, but he pre-dated the Billboard Hot 100,” said Alper. “So does he get knocked for all of this? Yeah, he does.”