State Champ Radio Billboard Explains: Harry Styles’ Solo Chart History
Written by djfrosty on February 1, 2024
Remember when Harry Styles was just one of five young men randomly assemble to become arguably the most successful boy band of the 2010s? Over a decade removed from his X Factor UK days, Styles has grown into one of pop music’s most formidable hitmakers across the Billboard charts.
The “Treat People With Kindness” singer first appeared on the Billboard charts as a member of One Direction alongside bandmates Zayn, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson. During its run, the boy band earned four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and six top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “What Makes You Beautiful” (No. 4) and “Best Song Ever” (No. 2).
In 2017, Styles embarked on his solo career with an eponymous album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Harry Styles gave way to two more No. 1 albums — 2019’s Fine Line and 2022’s Harry’s House — earning Styles the impressive distinction of launching each of his studio albums atop the chart.
On the Hot 100, the Grammy-winner has scored seven top 10 hits, including the No. 1 singles “Watermelon Sugar” — which won the Grammy for best pop solo performance in 2021 — and “As It Was.” Serving as the lead single from Harry’s House, “As It Was” became one of only five songs to spend at least 15 weeks atop the Hot 100. The track landed at No. 2 on the 2022 Year-End Hot 100, and its success was so massive that the song ranked at No. 15 on the 2023 Year-End Hot 100.
“As It Was” also holds a pair of monumental radio records. The song spent a whopping 63 weeks on Pop Airplay, good enough to rank behind Rema and Selena Gomez‘s “Calm Down” as the song with the second-most weeks on the chart. According to Luminate, “As It Was” also ended 2022 as the most heard song on U.S. radio, garnering over three billion audience impressions.
Check out the full Billboard Explains video on Harry Styles’ chart success above.
After that video, catch up on more Billboard Explains videos and learn about Peso Pluma and the Mexican music boom, the role record labels play, origins of hip-hop, how Beyoncé arrived at Renaissance, the evolution of girl groups, BBMAs, NFTs, SXSW, the magic of boy bands, American Music Awards, the Billboard Latin Music Awards, the Hot 100 chart, how R&B/hip-hop became the biggest genre in the U.S., how festivals book their lineups, Billie Eilish’s formula for success, the history of rap battles, nonbinary awareness in music, the Billboard Music Awards, the Free Britney movement, rise of K-pop in the U.S., why Taylor Swift is re-recording her first six albums, the boom of hit all-female collaborations, how Grammy nominees and winners are chosen, why songwriters are selling their publishing catalogs, how the Super Bowl halftime show is booked and more.
