Pop star and rapper Drake beat all kinds of records this week, including one long held by The Beatles, with the 31 year old superstar claiming seven of the top 10 spots on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Several other established pop stars have songs on the chart, including Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. But there is also a lot of relatively new blood – newer music stars who have only broken into the scene in the past two years and already managed to turn heads.
The pop music industry consistently requires fresh talent in order to remain relevant, youthful, and cool. While Drake dominates the top of the charts, there are countless newer performers who have made their mark and may one day rise to Drake’s superstardom status.
24/7 Wall St. has identified America’s 40 hottest new music stars, based on Billboard performance and internet popularity. We defined new music stars as artists who have only had songs reach their peaks on the charts beginning in 2016 or later.
Click here to see America’s 40 hottest new music stars.
Click here to see our methodology.
R&B/hip-hop is the country’s most popular genre, accounting for nearly 25% of total music consumption in the U.S. in 2017, according to music tracking company Nielsen Music. This is reflected in the fact that 14 of the 40 artists on our list are rappers.
Many of these rappers, such as Lil Yachty and Lil Pump, are exceptionally young and found early success using internet music platforms such as Soundcloud. Unfortunately, XXXTentacion and Lil Peep, two promising performers who were finding similar success and would have been included on our list, recently lost their lives.
A few of music’s newest superstars aren’t necessarily known for pop music but have found success nevertheless. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is best known for his acting. Yet the movie star had a musical hit with his performance of “You’re Welcome” from Disney’s “Moana,” which spent 13 weeks on the Hot 100. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also appears on our list, is famous for his work on Broadway, including writing and starring in “Hamilton.” Yet he, too, has found pop success with four charting hits since 2016.
40. Louis Tomlinson
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 10
> Biggest hit: Back To You
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 3,752,777
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39. Playboi Carti
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 34
> Biggest hit: Magnolia
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 1,352,006
38. gnash
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 40
> Biggest hit: I Hate U I Love U
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 453,293
37. Noah Cyrus
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 15
> Biggest hit: Make Me (Cry)
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 3,454,690
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36. Kehlani
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 18
> Biggest hit: Gangsta
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 3,403,095
35. D.R.A.M.
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 37
> Biggest hit: Broccoli
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 840,430
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34. Julia Michaels
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 29
> Biggest hit: Issues
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 2,144,424
33. Jake Paul
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 3
> Biggest hit: Jerika
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 5,423,981
32. Zara Larsson
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 33
> Biggest hit: Never Forget You
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 2,720,766
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31. Lin-Manuel Miranda
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 2
> Biggest hit: Almost Like Praying
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 6,538,628
30. YoungBoy Never Broke Again
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 54
> Biggest hit: Outside Today
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 1,287,639
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29. Lil Yachty
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 30
> Biggest hit: 1 Night
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 3,911,920
28. Lukas Graham
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 47
> Biggest hit: 7 Years
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 1,779,238
27. Maren Morris
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 55
> Biggest hit: The Middle
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 1,788,989
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26. Portugal. The Man
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 45
> Biggest hit: Feel It Still
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 2,434,917
25. James Arthur
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 52
> Biggest hit: Say You Won’t Let Go
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 1,919,467
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24. Harry Styles
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 14
> Biggest hit: Sign Of The Times
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 6,553,477
23. Halsey
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 72
> Biggest hit: Bad At Love
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 158,918
22. Old Dominion
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 77
> Biggest hit: Break Up With Him
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 406,179
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21. Liam Payne
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 32
> Biggest hit: Strip That Down
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 4,625,486
20. Brett Young
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 74
> Biggest hit: In Case You Didn’t Know
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 670,525
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19. SZA
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 49
> Biggest hit: All The Stars
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 3,512,642
18. Desiigner
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 60
> Biggest hit: Panda
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 2,025,485
17. 6ix9ine
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 44
> Biggest hit: Gummo
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 4,471,166
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16. Logic
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 72
> Biggest hit: 1-800-273-8255
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 1,576,736
15. Marshmello
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 53
> Biggest hit: Friends
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 3,943,950
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14. Lil Pump
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 35
> Biggest hit: Gucci Gang
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 5,917,724
13. Niall Horan
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 65
> Biggest hit: Slow Hands
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 3,428,918
12. Bebe Rexha
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 47
> Biggest hit: Meant To Be
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 5,610,041
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11. Khalid
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 101
> Biggest hit: Location
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 243,287
10. Kodak Black
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 83
> Biggest hit: Tunnel Vision
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 4,531,794
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9. 21 Savage
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 77
> Biggest hit: Bank Account
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 5,002,792
8. Zayn
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 49
> Biggest hit: Pillowtalk
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 8,322,586
7. Alessia Cara
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 97
> Biggest hit: Here
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 4,783,955
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6. Camila Cabello
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 84
> Biggest hit: Havana
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 8,947,461
5. Dua Lipa
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 72
> Biggest hit: New Rules
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 11,195,952
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4. Lil Uzi Vert
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 135
> Biggest hit: XO TOUR Llif3
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 4,861,059
3. Dwayne Johnson
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 13
> Biggest hit: You’re Welcome
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 24,216,643
2. Cardi B
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 101
> Biggest hit: Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 17,375,415
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1. Post Malone
> No. of weeks on Hot 100: 249
> Biggest hit: Rockstar
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 10,678,605
Methodology:
To determine America’s newest music superstars, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed artist performance on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart from Jan. 2, 2016 through the week of July 7, 2018. We then created an index using the number of weeks an artist spent on the chart during that period, the positions they held on the chart, and the number of page views each artist’s Wikipedia page received over the past two years, a reflection of each musician’s popularity. To be considered, artists could not have had a single reach its peak position on Hot 100 prior to the week of Jan. 2, 2016.
Songs for which the artist in question was not the primary performer were not included in our ranking. For example, if a rapper had a guest verse on another performer’s song, that song’s performance on the Hot 100 was not considered in our ranking.
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