Maroon 5: Greatest Adult Pop Artist Of The Last 20 Years
Maroon 5 is the top artist of the last 20 years on Billboard’s Adult Pop Songs radio airplay chart, according to Billboard. The all-time top charting song is “Smooth” by Santana, featuring Rob Thomas.
Billboard tracks the most popular songs, albums, and artists each week and publishes their finding in Billboard Magazine. Billboard is often regarded as the standard by which artists track their success based on their position on the Billboard charts.
Billboard uses Nielsen Music to track and chart songs measured by how many times each song is played on adult top 40 radio stations in the United States. Billboard launched their charts in 1996. See the full list of the greatest adult pop songs and artists in the last 20 years here.
Congrats @Maroon5! They’re the No. 1 artist on our Adult Pop Songs #GreatestOfAllTime chart https://t.co/9dF6kgXaHk pic.twitter.com/cqW9gFp30d
— billboard (@billboard) March 16, 2016
Among the 50 artists on the list, Maroon 5 stands out as the most popular artist in the last 20 years with a record-breaking 11 No. 1 hit songs including “Moves Like Jagger” in 2011, “One More Night” in 2012, “Makes Me Wonder” in 2007, in addition to 19 Top 10’s on the Billboard charts.
When it comes to adult pop songs in the last 20 years, Maroon 5 was untouchable, with Matchbox Twenty in second place. Maroon 5 also spent more time in the No. 1 position more than any other artist, spending a cumulative total of 64 weeks with one of their songs on the top of the charts. Matchbox Twenty, comparatively, spent a total of 54 weeks with their songs in the No. 1 position. Since the Billboard charts started in 1996, Matchbox Twenty has had four of their songs ranked at No. 1 and 13 in the top 10 position on the single chart.
Other artists to make the list of the Greatest Adult Pop Artists in the Last 20 Years include Train at No. 3, Nickleback at No. 4, Taylor Swift at No. 10, John Mayer at No. 12, OneRepublic at No. 14, Ed Sheeran at No. 24, Santana at No. 26, Green Day at No. 40 and Rhianna at No. 50.
Maroon 5’s first song to rank on the Billboard charts was “Harder to Breathe” on April 2003, which reached the No. 15 position on the adult pop hot singles chart. The following year, Maroon 5 would release two of their No. 1 hit songs, “This is Love” and “She Will Be Loved,” both of which spent 13 weeks in the No. 1 spot. Maroon 5’s 2015 released song, “Sugar,” was their most recent No. 1 hit single, which spent 5 weeks at the top of the charts.
The announcement comes as a surprise to Maroon 5, who was ranked 44th on Billboard’s Hot 100 57th Anniversary Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Artists in November 2015. Maroon 5 had won three Grammy Awards out of the nine they have been nominated for, three Billboard Awards out of 28 nominations, three American Music Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award.
Maroon 5, fronted by singer Adam Levine, released five albums since forming in Los Angeles in 1994 under the name Kera’s Flowers. After several line-up changes, the band changed their name to Maroon 5 and released their debut studio album, Songs About Jane, in 2002, which would go on to sell 10 million copies worldwide as of 2015. Maroon 5’s most recent album, titled V, which debuted at the No. 1 position on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, selling over 164,000 copies in the first week after its release and included their No. 1 hit single, “Sugar.”
Currently, Maroon 5 is on the road performing at venues all over the world on their Maroon V Tour. For more information on Maroon 5, visit their website here.
