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MUSICAL MUSINGS
by Josh Hosler
October 26, 2004

TOP ARTISTS OF THE MILLENNIUM

Microsoft makes some great products, but when there's something I can't figure out how to do, there's no help in "Help." I just don't speak that language.

So it was with great delight this week that I finally figured out how to crunch my custom database of Billboard charts in such a way that I could tally the most successful artists over a period of time without spending hours typing numbers into a calculator. Sure, it involved exporting Access data to Excel, and then installing something from the original Office CD-ROM, but I won't go into all that. My head is still spinning, and I don't want to inflict that on you.

And so, I bring you the top 100 artists of the millennium ... so far. The song title shown is the artist's biggest hit of the past five years. (In some cases, an artist may have been featured on a bigger hit; I have included only top billers where possible.) This list is computed from combined performance on Billboard's Hot 100 and Top 40 Tracks charts.

#	Artist	Biggest (Top-Billing) Hit	from Yr
1	Nelly	Dilemma	2002
2	Usher	Yeah!	2004
3	Jennifer Lopez	I’m Real	2001
4	Pink	Get the Party Started	2002
5	Christina Aguilera	Lady Marmalade	2001
6	Santana	Smooth	2000
7	Destiny’s Child	Independent Women Part I	2000
8	Ja Rule	Always on Time	2002
9	matchbox twenty	Unwell	2003
10	Ashanti	Foolish	2001
11	P. Diddy	I Need a Girl (Part One)	2002
12	Beyoncé	Baby Boy	2003
13	OutKast	Hey Ya!	2004
14	3 Doors Down	Kryptonite	2000
15	Eminem	Lose Yourself	2002
16	’N Sync	Bye Bye Bye	2000
17	Alicia Keys	Fallin’	2001
18	Ludacris	Stand Up	2003
19	Creed	With Arms Wide Open	2000
20	Jay-Z	’03 Bonnie & Clyde	2003
21	Avril Lavigne	Complicated	2002
22	50 Cent	In Da Club	2003
23	R. Kelly	Ignition	2003
24	No Doubt	Underneath It All	2002
25	Nickelback	How You Remind Me	2002
26	Janet Jackson	All for You	2001
27	Sean Paul	Get Busy	2003
28	Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott	Work It	2002
29	Lil Jon	Get Low	2003
30	Mya	Case of the Ex (Whatcha Gonna Do)	2000
31	Aaliyah	Try Again	2000
32	Michelle Branch	All You Wanted	2002
33	Eve	Let Me Blow Ya Mind	2001
34	Enrique Iglesias	Hero	2001
35	Madonna	Music	2000
36	Chingy	Right Thurr	2003
37	Maroon5	This Love	2004
38	Britney Spears	Toxic	2004
39	Lil’ Kim	Magic Stick	2003
40	Faith Hill	Breathe	2000
41	Shaggy	Angel	2001
42	Justin Timberlake	Rock Your Body	2003
43	Joe	I Wanna Know	2000
44	Train	Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)	2001
45	Mary J. Blige	Family Affair	2001
46	Jessica Simpson	With You	2004
47	Ginuwine	Differences	2001
48	Linkin Park	In the End	2002
49	Vertical Horizon	Everything You Want	2000
50	Evanescence	Bring Me to Life	2003
51	Jagged Edge	Where the Party At	2001
52	Uncle Kracker	Follow Me	2001
53	Lifehouse	Hanging by a Moment	2001
54	Marc Anthony	I Need to Know	2000
55	Backstreet Boys	Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely	2000
56	Fabolous	Into You	2003
57	Murphy Lee	Wat Da Hook Gon Be	2004
58	Dido	Thank You	2001
59	Savage Garden	I Knew I Loved You	2000
60	Lonestar	Amazed	2000
61	Black Eyed Peas	Where Is the Love?	2003
62	Sheryl Crow	The First Cut Is the Deepest	2004
63	Hoobastank	The Reason	2004
64	Vanessa Carlton	A Thousand Miles	2002
65	Lenny Kravitz	Again	2001
66	Fat Joe	What’s Luv?	2002
67	Sisqó	Thong Song	2000
68	Kelly Clarkson	Miss Independent	2003
69	John Mayer	Your Body Is a Wonderland	2003
70	Nelly Furtado	Turn Off the Light	2001
71	Mario Winans	I Don’t Wanna Know	2004
72	Staind	It’s Been Awhile	2001
73	Puddle of Mudd	Blurry	2002
74	Juvenile	Slow Motion	2004
75	Twista	Slow Jamz	2004
76	Brian McKnight	Back at One	2000
77	Craig David	Fill Me In	2001
78	Rob Thomas	Smooth	2000
79	Chad Kroeger	Hero	2002
80	Shakira	Whenever, Wherever	2002
81	The Calling	Wherever You Will Go	2002
82	Petey Pablo	Freek-A-Leek	2004
83	Blu Cantrell	Hit ’Em Up Style (Oops!)	2001
84	Kid Rock	Picture	2003
85	Kanye West	All Falls Down	2004
86	Mariah Carey	Thank God I Found You	2000
87	Cam’ron	Hey Ma	2002
88	LL Cool J	Luv U Better	2002
89	Dixie Chicks	Landslide	2003
90	City High	What Would You Do?	2001
91	Toby Keith	Beer for My Horses	2003
92	B2K	Bump, Bump, Bump	2003
93	Enya	Only Time	2001
94	Busta Rhymes	I Know What You Want	2003
95	Whitney Houston	My Love Is Your Love	2000
96	Baby Bash	Suga Suga	2004
97	Ying Yang Twins	Salt Shaker	2004
98	Tim McGraw	Live Like You Were Dying	2004
99	Lil’ Mo	Superwoman Pt. II	2002
100	Celine Dion	That’s the Way It Is	2000

A few observations about this chart:

The top new artist of the millennium is also the #1 artist of the millennium: Nelly. He began his career in 2000 with "(Hot S**t) Country Grammar," and there's no end in sight. Nelly currently has four songs on the Hot 100 at once, two from each of his current albums.

But Usher is closing in fast. This week, Usher became the first artist in sixteen years to have four #1 songs in the same calendar year: "Yeah!," "Burn," "Confessions Part II," and "My Boo." The last artist to do this was George Michael, with "Faith," "Father Figure," "One More Try," and "Monkey" in 1988.

To gauge the fallout of the late '90s teeny bop trend, note that Christina Aguilera comes in at #5, 'N Sync at #16, Britney Spears at #38, Jessica Simpson at #46, and Backstreet Boys at #55. But these rankings don't directly correlate to the relative staying power of each artist. Britney scored her biggest hit of the millennium just this year—"Toxic"—as did Jessica Simpson—"With You."

They're all doing a better job of sticking around than some other people. Mariah Carey was the #1 artist of the 1990s; so far, she is the #86 artist of the 2000s. Talk about your fall from grace!

Rob Thomas comes in at #78 solely on the power of "Smooth," the Santana song that featured him on vocals. In my calculations, featured artists only get half credit for their work. This means that Rob Thomas did better than Mariah Carey on the success of half a song.

Believe it or not, that half credit also makes Rob Thomas the top artist of the millennium to chart only one song. (Santana charted several songs without Rob Thomas.) The Calling charted only once, with "Wherever You Will Go," but full credit for that hit only carries The Calling to #81, three slots lower than Rob Thomas. Did I mention that "Smooth" was a huge hit? So far, it is the biggest song of the millennium, having racked up fourteen weeks at #1 and 58 weeks on the Hot 100.

The top country artist is Faith Hill at #40, followed by Lonestar at #60. The biggest chunks of these points come from the #2 hit "Breathe" and the #1 hit "Amazed," respectively. The top country artist on the list who has not charted a pop crossover song is Toby Keith at #91. I find it amusing that the Dixie Chicks edge Toby out by two notches.

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