Music

There’s no surer mark of true pop stardom in the 21st century than endurance: Can your hits define not just a single cultural moment, but multiple, spanning decades and eras? Can you evolve enough to stay relevant amidst changing trends and industry shakeups? If so, then maybe you fit the criteria for entry in the Three-Decade Club: an exclusive group of artists who’ve managed to score top 10 hits in each decade of the 21st century thus far. To do so requires a high level of creativity, awareness and popularity — both with fans and with fellow artists — and of course, a little luck with timing never hurts either.

Here are the 18 artists to notch the Hot 100 three-decade feat so far — now also accounting for a French star DJ who scored a 2022 pop revival with a mid-’10s demo built around the hook from an ’00s hit. 

Taylor Swift: Already the proud artist behind five top 10 hits this decade — including three No. 1s, with 2020’s “Cardigan” and “Willow” and 2021’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” — Taylor Swift has been a relatively consistent visitor to the Hot 100’s top tier since first getting there with Fearless smashes “Love Story” (No. 4) and “You Belong With Me” (No. 2) in 2009. That includes another 20 top 10 hits in the 2010s alone, with five No. 1s: “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (2012), “Shake It Off” (2014), “Blank Space” (2014), “Bad Blood” (with Kendrick Lamar, 2015) and “Look What You Made Me Do” (2017).

M.I.A. Maya Arulpragasam first made her Hot 100 debut in 2008 with the Clash-sampling “Paper Planes,” a surprise No. 4 hit that September. In 2012, she appeared as a featured guest on Madonna’s “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” which peaked at No. 10 that February after she performed it (somewhat infamously) with the pop legend at that year’s Super Bowl. Then in 2020, she appeared as a featured artist on Travis Scott’s No. 1-debuting “Franchise.” (She’s the first artist to have her only three top 10 hits be spread across the last three decades.)

Jason Derulo. Derulo first visited with the Hot 100-topping “Whatcha Say” in late 2009, then scored an additional five top 10 hits over the 2010s, the biggest being the No. 3-peaking (and 2 Chainz-featuring) “Talk Dirty” in 2014. He returned to the top of the Hot 100 for the first time in over a decade in 2020 with his Jawsh 365 collab “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat),” which also included BTS on the remix that helped put the song over the top on the chart.

Mariah Carey. Mimi’s chart-busting days go back to the ’90s, of course, when she scored 19 Hot 100 top 10 hits over the course of the decade, including 14 No. 1s. In the 2000s, she landed another eight top 10s, with four No. 1s (“Thank God I Found You” featuring Joe and 98 Degrees, 2000; “We Belong Together,” 2005; “Don’t Forget About Us,” 2005; “Touch My Body,” 2008). Then she knocked out the ’10s and ’20s with one song: holiday perennial “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” whose first-ever trip to No. 1 stretched from late 2019 to early 2020, and which has returned to pole position each holiday season since.

Maroon 5. As consistent a hitmaker as the 21st century has seen, Maroon 5 first graced the Hot 100 top 10 in 2004 with “This Love,” visiting twice more that decade, and reaching the chart apex with “Makes Me Wonder” in 2007. In the 2010s, they scored 12 more top 10 hits, including three No. 1s (“Moves Like Jagger” featuring Christina Aguilera, 2011; “One More Night,” 2012; “Girls Like You” featuring Cardi B, 2018). This decade, they ducked their head into the top 10 early with “Memories,” which peaked at No. 2 in January 2020.

Drake. The new all-time record-holder for most Hot 100 hits scored the first of his 40 with the No. 2-peaking “Best I Ever Had” in 2009, one of two top 10s of his that decade. He then went on to totally dominate the 2010s, with 33 top 10 hits that encompassed six No. 1s (as the featured artist on Rihanna’s “What’s My Name”, 2010 and “Work,” 2016; “One Dance” featuring WizKid and Kyla, 2016; “God’s Plan,” 2018; “Nice For What,” 2018; “In My Feelings,” 2018). He’s made quick work in the 2020s, notching a staggering 23 top 10 hits this decade — including nine in one week with the release of Certified Lover Boy in autumn 2021 — led by five total No. 1s: “Toosie Slide” (2020), “What’s Next” (2021), “Way Too Sexy” (alongside Future and featuring Young Thug, 2021), “Wait For U” (featured along with Tems on the Future-led single, 2022) and “Jimmy Cooks” (featuring 21 Savage, 2022).

Eminem. Though Eminem broke out in the late ’90s, his first trip to the top ten came in 2000, when “The Real Slim Shady” hit No. 4. One of the biggest stars of the ’00s, he landed 11 top 10 hits that decade, with two No. 1s (“Lose Yourself,” 2002; “Crack a Bottle” with Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, 209), and then added another 10 in the 2010s, including three No. 1s (“Not Afraid,” 2010; “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna, 2010; “The Monster” featuring Rihanna, 2013). This decade, he hit No. 3 with the Juice WRLD-assisted “Godzilla,” from his surprise Music to Be Murdered By LP.

Lady Gaga. Gaga came out scorching, topping the Hot 100 with her first two singles in 2009 (“Just Dance” featuring Colby O’Donnis and “Poker Face”) and hitting the top ten twice more that year. She kept it going in the 2010s with another 11 top 10 hits, led by the chart-topping “Born This Way” (2011) and “Shallow” with Bradley Cooper (2019), and made the top 10 twice in 2020 with the Chromatica singles “Stupid Love” (No. 5) and “Rain on Me” with Ariana Grande (No. 1).

Beyoncé. After a dominant turn-of-the-century run as part of Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé scored her first top 10 as a guest artist on Jay-Z’s “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” (No. 4, 2002), then broke out as a solo star in 2003, with her first charting two singles (“Crazy in Love” with Jay-Z and “Baby Boy” with Sean Paul) shooting to No. 1. Bey scored 13 total top 10s that decade, including three more No. 1s (“Check On It” featuring Slim Thug, 2005; “Irrepleaceable,” 2006; “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” 2009), and added another five to her tally in the 2010s, with one more No. 1 in her guest appearance on Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” She made it Hot 100-toppers in three straight decades in May 2020, with her guest spot on the remix to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage,” and returns to the top 10 on her own this week with her Renaissance lead single “Break My Soul.”

Lil Wayne. Speaking of Destiny’s Child, rap icon Lil Wayne scored his first top 10 hit with a verse on their “Soldier” in 2005, and racked up a total of 10 top 10 hits before the decade was out, led by the Hot 100-besting “Lollipop” featuring Static Major in 2008 and “Down” with Jay Sean in 2009. An additional 14 top 10s followed in the 2010s, with a third No. 1 coming via his featured turn on DJ Khaled’s “I’m the One” alongside Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Quavo. In 2020, Wayne found himself back in the top 10 when he was added to the remix of Jack Harlow’s “Whats Poppin,” a No. 2-peaking hit.

Chris Brown. The then-teen star hit No. 1 with his breakout hit “Run It!” in 2005, the first of his nine top 10 hits that decade (also encompassing a second No. 1, “Kiss Kiss” featuring T-Pain). The ’10s saw Brown amass another six top 10s (led by “No Guidance” featuring Drake, a No. 5 hit in 2019), and he hit the top 10 for the first time this decade with Young Thug collab “Go Crazy,” which peaked at No. 3 in March 2021.

Miley Cyrus. After breaking out as a pop-rock hitmaker under her own name, the entertainer formerly best known as Hannah Montana scored four top 10 hits in the 2000s, beginning with the No. 10-peaking “See You Again” in 2008. She returned to the region another four times in the 2010s, one of which marked her first (and to date, only) visit to No. 1 on the chart, with her “Wrecking Ball” spending three non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2013. She’s added on more visit so far in the 2020s, with her appearance alongside The Kid LAROI on his No. 8-peaking “Without You” remix in 2021.

Kanye West: The first decade of Kanye’s superstardom saw him make 12 trips to the top 10, including three to the top spot: as a featured guest (alongside Jamie Foxx) on Twista’s “Slow Jamz” (2004), as a lead artist (with Jamie Foxx again featured) on “Gold Digger” (2005) and on his own with “Stronger” (2007). He made another six appearances in the top 10 in the 2010s, though only one topped the chart: “E.T.,” led by Katy Perry, in 2011. This decade, he’s returned to the region twice, both with cuts from his 2021 Donda album: “Hurricane” (No. 6) and “Jail” (No. 10).

Jay-Z. Like Mariah Carey, Jay-Z’s hitmaking days go back to the ’90s — and in fact, the rapper’s second top 10 visit (and first Hot 100 No. 1) came as a guest on Mimi’s “Heartbreaker” in 1999. In the 2000s, Jay was a Hot 100 fixture, reaching the top 10 an impressive 14 times and topping the chart three times (as a featured artist on Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” in 2003 and Rihanna’s “Umbrella” in 2007, and as a lead artist alongside Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind” in 2009). He kept the momentum going in the 2010s with five top 10 hits — with the Mr. Hudson-featuring “Young Forever” (No. 10, 2010), the Kanye West collab “N—as in Paris” (No. 5), the Justin Timberlake-led “Suit & Tie” (No. 3, 2013), the JT-featuring “Holy Grail” (No. 4, 2013), and another Bey-led smash, “Drunk in Love” (No. 2, 2014). This decade, he’s reached the region just once so far, via a feature appearance on Drake’s “Love All” (No. 10, 2021).

Coldplay. The U.K. pop-rock outfit hit the top 10 twice in their breakout decade of the 2000s, including the Hot 100-topping “Viva La Vida” in 2008. They continued to be a fixture on the chart throughout the 2010s, reaching the top 10 twice — with “A Sky Full of Stars” (No. 10) in 2014, and “Something Just Like This” (No. 3) alongside The Chainsmokers in 2017. In late 2021, they scored their first Hot 100 No. 1 since “Viva La Vida” 13 years earlier, with their BTS team-up “My Universe.”

Snoop Dogg. The West Coast rap icon broke into the top 10 for the first time in late 1993, with the eventually No. 8-peaking “What’s My Name?” — a peak matched just a couple months later by Doggystyle follow-up “Gin & Juice.” Snoop’s hitmaking prowess stretched into the 2000s with a number of subsequent top 10 hits, including his first two Hot 100 No. 1s: as lead artist on the Neptunes-produced solo smash “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (2005) and a featured artist on Akon’s “I Wanna Love You” (2006). He hit No. 1 for a third time at the outset of the 2010s for his guest turn on Katy Perry’s massive “California Gurls” — his final No. 1 to date — and he now also has a 2020s top 10 hit to his credit, with his No. 10-debuting Benny Blanco and BTS collab from 2022, “Bad Decisions.”

Britney Spears. Another ’90s alum whose contemporary relevance never seems to fade for long. Britney Spears emerged this summer from a six-year hiatus, following her 2016 album Glory — during which she successfully fought to be freed from an involuntary conservatorship — and immediately resumed occupation of her place in pop music’s inner circle, with her Elton John collab “Hold Me Closer” debuting at No. 6 on the Hot 100 this September. It’s her first top 10 entry since will.i.am teamup “Scream & Shout” went to No. 3 in 2013, and the latest hit in a career that boasts five No. 1 hits, dating back to “…Baby One More Time” in 1999 and also including “Womanizer” and “3” in the 2000s.

OneRepublic. For most of the late ’00s and early-to-mid ’10s, OneRepublic were among the most consistent hitmakers in pop-rock. The Ryan Tedder-led outfit first broke out as the featured artist on Timbaland’s “Apologize” (No. 2, 2008), and went to score eight more Hot 100 top 40 hits over the next seven years, with “Counting Stars” matching their prior No. 2 peak in early 2014. They hadn’t reached the top half of the chart since 2015 when their Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack contribution “I Ain’t Worried” started gaining momentum this summer; on the chart dated Sept. 17, the song jumped from 14-8, becoming their first top 10 hit since “Stars.”

David Guetta: A renowned DJ in Europe dating back to the 1990s, David Guetta became a global star in the late ’00s as a hitmaking producer — first hitting the Hot 100’s top 10 as a lead artist in 2009, with the Akon-assisted “Sexy B–ch” (or “Sexy Chick”), which ultimately peaked at No. 5 in Feb. 2010. Guetta revisited the chart’s top tier five more times as a lead or featured artists in the 2010s, including a pair of No. 4 hits (the Usher-featuring “Without You” in 2011 and the Nicki MInaj-assisted “Turn Me On” in 2012). He returned to the region again this November with the Bebe Rexha collab “I’m Good (Blue)” — a teamup recorded as a demo in the mid-’10s (and prominently lifted from Eiffel 65’s 2000 smash “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”), before finally being released to viral success and a No. 7 Hot 100 peak (to date) in 2022.