Year-End
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In 2017, Imagine Dragons started a trend that has continued every year since on Billboard’s year-end Top Rock & Alternative Artists chart.
It’s never obvious at first. An act has a big year, big enough that they reign supreme above all other rock and/or alternative artists in the U.S. Well and good, but by the time they’re crowned atop Billboard’s year-end charts, the clock has reset anew, and there’s no guarantee they’ll end up on top of the fray yet again the following year.
Except that’s exactly what’s happened in every two-year period since, a trend that continues in 2024, with Zach Bryan the year’s No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2024 Year-End Charts
After Imagine Dragons led in both 2017 and ’18, Panic! at the Disco followed in 2019-20. Glass Animals topped the list in 2021 and ’22, with Bryan ascending to the top in 2023, a spot he holds again this year.
Bryan, the folky troubadour whose music blurs the line between rock and country singer-songwriter fare, premiered a new album, The Great American Bar Scene, on July 4. Music from that set – including one-week Hot Rock & Alternative Songs No. 1 “Pink Skies” – certainly helped his fortunes on both the Top Rock & Alternative Artists and Top Country Artists (where he’s No. 2) for the year, but much like fellow country heavy-hitters Morgan Wallen and Chris Stapleton, it’s important to look beyond music that was released during the chart year.
Indeed, “I Remember Everything,” Bryan’s duet with Kacey Musgraves from his 2023 self-titled album, is No. 1 on a variety of year-end charts for 2024, including – but certainly not limited to – the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Rock Songs lists, as well as the all-genre Streaming Songs survey. Released in September 2023, the song reigned on the weekly Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart for 30 weeks through March of this year and didn’t fall off the survey until October. Even as The Great American Bar Scene’s tracklist roared onto the charts in July, “I Remember Everything” persisted; it’s only spent a handful of weeks outside Streaming Songs’ top 20 since release.
Bryan also notches multiple appearances on the year-end Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart; Zach Bryan leads the way at No. 2, followed by 2022’s American Heartbreak (No. 5), The Great American Bar Scene (No. 12), 2020’s Elisabeth (No. 20), 2022 EP Summertime Blues (No. 25) and 2023 EP Boys of Faith (No. 64). And on the year-end Rock Streaming Songs, he boasts the top two (“I Remember Everything” and 2022’s “Something in the Orange”) and 13 of the 50 total entries.
Bryan’s 2024 coronation continues another rising trend on Top Rock & Alternative Artists: the domination of soloists. After years of leads by bands, Bryan’s 2023 rule was the exclamation point on a year when the entire top 10 were solo acts, a first for the genre.
In 2024, soloists are still in vogue, but bands took back some territory, with two of the top 10 groups of two or more. One of those is Fleetwood Mac (No. 9), the classic rock act who remains a streaming force in the ‘20s, with “Dreams” No. 7 on the year-end Rock Streaming Songs survey. The other? Linkin Park (No. 8), which returns to the top 10 for the first time since 2017.
The story of Linkin Park’s resurgence began in 2023, when it vaulted to No. 16 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists after appearing at No. 50 in 2022, mostly on the strength of catalog sales and streams. The band was No. 3 in 2017, but it wasn’t for particularly celebratory reasons; longtime co-frontman Chester Bennington died that year, spurring an outpouring of streams and sales in remembrance of the late iconic singer. In 2023, the band found success via the 20th-anniversary reissue of its 2003 album Meteora, which spurred the year-end No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay Songs and Alternative Airplay Songs in “Lost,” a previously unreleased cut featuring Bennington’s vocals.
A new greatest-hits package, Papercuts, followed this April, boasting a one-week No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay in “Friendly Fire.” In September, Linkin Park officially reformed with a new vocalist in Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong, with comeback single “The Emptiness Machine” topping both Mainstream Rock Airplay and Alternative Airplay for multiple weeks. Despite being released in the 11th hour of the 2024 chart year, the song appears on several year-end rankings, paced by its No. 4 arrival on Hot Hard Rock Songs.
What will 2025 have in store for Linkin Park? Stay tuned, with new album From Zero having been released on Nov. 15, whose chart performance will factor into the year-end 2025 charts.
Further up Top Rock & Alternative Artists, Billie Eilish rises to the highest point she’s ever been on the ranking since the weekly Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts changed from their previous iterations to allow alternative-leaning music not necessarily within the rock genre in 2020. Eilish ends the year at No. 2, the highest rank for a woman since Lorde was No. 1 on the year-end tally in 2014. She’s also No. 1 on Top Alternative Artists, a return for Eilish after she also reigned in 2022.
As in 2022, Eilish released a new album, this time Hit Me Hard and Soft. The set has reigned on Top Rock & Alternative Albums for 18 weeks so far since debuting atop the June 1 list and has paced Top Alternative Albums for even longer (22 frames); though she misses out on the distinction of the No. 1 Top Alternative Albums year-end entry in 2024 (that goes to Noah Kahan’s Stick Season), Hit Me Hard and Soft still ranks at No. 2, while Eilish is the No. 1 Top Alternative Albums Artist in 2024 thanks to a flurry of appearances on the year-end ranking (When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? at No. 11, Happier Than Ever at No. 14 and Dont Smile at Me at No. 47).
Eilish also boasts a coronation as the No. 1 on Hot Alternative Songs Artists in 2024, accumulating 11 songs on the 50-position year-end Hot Alternative Songs list. That includes the Nos. 2 and 3: “Birds of a Feather,” from Hit Me Hard and Soft, and “What Was I Made For?,” off the 2023 Barbie film soundtrack.
Neither song could hold a candle to Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” No. 1 on the year-end Hot Alternative Songs. The viral success of the tune fuels Hozier’s appearance at No. 4 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists, an impressive comeback for the Irish singer-songwriter after having last reached the top 10 in 2015, when he was No. 2. “Too Sweet” was a force across all metrics; the song ends 2024 as the No. 1 on the year-end Adult Alternative Airplay Songs, Alternative Streaming Songs and Rock Digital Song Sales lists, while other notable accolades include No. 2 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, No. 4 on Alternative Airplay Songs and No. 4 on Rock & Alternative Airplay Songs.
Hozier’s influence even extended outside the rock and alternative genres, much like his breakout 2014 hit, “Take Me to Church.” “Too Sweet” ends the year at No. 10 on Hot 100 Songs, as well as at No. 4 on Adult Pop Airplay Songs and No. 7 on Pop Airplay Songs.
The year’s No. 1 on Top New Rock & Alternative Artists illuminates TikTok’s continued influence on all charts: Djo, whose “End of Beginning,” originally released in 2022, went viral via multiple trends on the social media app earlier this year. The project of actor Joe Keery also finds its way to No. 10 on Top Rock & Alternative Artists, while “End of Beginning” is the year-end No. 6 on Alternative Streaming Songs and No. 7 on Alternative Airplay Songs.
And Hozier’s not the only resurgent act to top a year-end radio ranking; Sum 41’s “Landmines” leads the Alternative Airplay Songs list, while Daughtry crowns the Mainstream Rock Airplay Artists ranking.
Sum 41 (which relents the Alternative Airplay Artists No. 1 to usual format stalwart Green Day) topped the weekly Alternative Airplay chart for two weeks but ultimately remained on the ranking for 51 weeks from October 2023 to October 2024. The Deryck Whibley-fronted band’s reign was its first since 2001’s “Fat Lip,” marking the longest break between rulers in the chart’s 36-year history.
Daughtry’s Mainstream Rock Airplay Artists coronation is thanks to a pair of one-week No. 1s on the weekly Mainstream Rock Airplay. This is former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry’s first time topping the chart. “Pieces” ends up at No. 3 on Mainstream Rock Airplay Songs, followed by “Artificial” at No. 5; Nothing More’s “If It Doesn’t Hurt” is No. 1, the rockers’ first time as the biggest song of the year, eclipsing the No. 3 rank of “Ballast” all the way back in 2014.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Oct. 28, 2023, through Oct. 19, 2024. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
A billionaire in the music business usually doesn’t start out in the music business. They begin in less glamorous industries until, with a large enough bank account, they can buy a record label, music venue or concert promoter and earn entry into the world of media moguls. Or the billionaire joins the equally exclusive fraternity of professional sports team owners. Some do both music and sports.
Charles Dolan, the patriarch of the Dolan family, majority owners of MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Group —not to mention a few sports teams —began with a closed-circuit service that sent tourist information into New York City hotel rooms. Ron Burkle got his start working for a grocery store before turning into a grocery M&A titan. Len Blavatnik, whose Access Industries holding company owns most of Warner Music Group, earned his fortune buying aluminum smelters after the breakup of the Soviet Union. For Vicent Bolloré, maritime freight and paper manufacturing were the pathway to media and entertainment. For Phil Anschutz, it was oil. For Hassan Khosrowshahi, it was consumer electronics.
In a few instances, billionaires came to the music business through Wall Street. Two celebrity hedge fund kings, Bill Ackman (Pershing Square Holdings) and Steve Cohen (Point72), have purchased stakes in public music companies. Ackman acquired 10% of Universal Music Group (UMG) before its 2021 initial public offering, becoming a helpful cheerleader for UMG — and music assets in general — as more institutional investors put money into a growing slate of public and private music companies. Cohen, owner of the New York Mets, quietly has small stakes in two of the Dolan family’s companies, MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Co.
Warren Buffet is an outsider here. Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Holdings looks for undervalued companies with competitive advantages — think insurance companies and railroads. A media mogul he isn’t. Buffet has a reputation for investing in boring companies with good management and avoiding the crowds that drive up prices. “Price is what you pay; value is what you get,” he once said. Berkshire Hathaway owns a considerable stake in a radio company, SiriusXM, that is trying to keep satellite radio relevant in an era of high-flying streaming services. But SiriusXM, which represents just a small part of Berkshire’s portfolio, isn’t an entryway to glitz and glamour.
For this list, Billboard is highlighting ten billionaires — some well-known, others less so — who have built music companies or invested in them but didn’t originally build their fortunes in the music business. Billboard excluded CEOs or musicians. According to Forbes, Jay-Z is worth $2.5 billion, Rihanna is worth $1.4 billion and Taylor Swift is worth $1.1 billion. Two founder/CEO billionaires, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, are also excluded.
Phil Anschutz
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You can tell everybody … that Sir Elton John was named Time magazine’s Icon of the Year in 2024.
In a new cover story for the publication — which will reveal its pick for Person of the Year on Thursday (Dec. 12) — John sat for an interview in which he looked back over his career, and considered his own legacy. “If people remember that we tried to change the world a little bit, we were kind, we tried to help people … And then, apart from that, there was the music,” he said.
Writer Belinda Luscombe makes a compelling argument for John earning the title. “The candle that is Elton John has been inextinguishable, no matter how strong the wind. His 57 U.S. top 40 hits were mostly released during his wild-child youth, but he found a second act in writing songs for animated Disney movies, for which he won two Oscars, and a third in writing songs for Broadway musicals, for which he won a Tony,” she writes. “There’s a whiff of fourth act about him as he moves into the mash-up phase of his career, lending his melodies — and some vocals — to a new generation of performers.”
Throughout his wide-ranging interview, John talked about myriad aspects of his life, including his faith, sobriety and relationship with his late mother. He also reflected on aspects of his job in the industry, including his distaste for performing in music videos. “Music videos should be made by good-looking people like Harry Styles. I’m not very good at looking at myself,” he explained “I don’t think you ever lose that body consciousness. I just think it stays with you forever.”
Trending on Billboard
The star also spoke about the recent news that Tammy Faye, the Broadway musical he wrote music for, closed less than a month after its Broadway debut. “It’s a shame for everyone who put so much work in it. But that’s what happens when you take a chance,” he said. “It’s a fairly political piece of work. And with that you have to press somebody’s buttons. The buttons we pressed … with the critics weren’t the right ones.”
Among the many people to speak on John’s behalf in the story were a number of modern pop performers whom John personally championed. Dua Lipa, who collaborated with John on his hit song “Cold Heart,” said that it never felt like John was courting her for a collaboration due to her star power. “It was because of our friendship,” she said. “Singing alongside one of my musical heroes was a no-brainer. His music has been able to soundtrack my life from the very beginning.”
Meanwhile, pop phenomenon Chappell Roan also shared her own anecdotes about meeting John, and she revealed the piece of advice he gave that changed her perspective. “The advice he gave me was that the songs will come,” she said. “He thought that he wouldn’t have the ideas, but they were absolutely there. He just had to let them come to him. So that’s a good reminder.”
See Time‘s cover featuring Icon of the Year Elton John below:
Elton John
TIME
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This year, the two biggest players in live music, AEG and Live Nation, put energy and resources into making power sources at live events, and festivals in particular, cleaner and greener.
This largely took the form of batteries, with the option to use batteries to power not just the errant parking lot light but full mainstage operations becoming real with the evolution of technology, as driven by the electric vehicle industry.
The effect was felt at the highest levels, with Lollapalooza in August becoming the first major festival in the U.S. to power its mainstage using battery power. Meanwhile AEG/Goldenvoice, which has been experimenting with battery systems for a few years with lower-priority power needs, had a breakthrough year in 2024 through a hybrid system that uses industrial-tier batteries, clean generators, biodiesel, solar and grid power to dramatically reduce “scope 1” emissions at events. (“Scope 1” refers to the emissions created by power sources at the event itself, versus a scope 3 emission that would include carbon emitted by fan travel to and from shows.) The hybrid system from AEG/Goldenvoice saved the use of more than 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel (truly, stop for a second to consider how much that is) at its Portola Festival in San Francisco alone. This same system at Camp Flog Gnaw in L.A. in November ended up being, the company said, Goldenvoice’s “cleanest energy festival to date.”
What’s also encouraging is that huge and longstanding festival energy providers like CES Power are also looking at ways to implement battery systems and starting to shift inventory to include batteries.
These aren’t yet perfect systems. Batteries still must be charged by generators, with the standard diesel-chugging kind still primarily used for this charging. Plus, these systems are still more expensive than traditional power sources, which can make it hard for producers to use them even with the best intentions. But with industry leaders putting time, money and attention towards these projects, there’s reason to believe the trickle-down effect will happen in time as prices across the battery industry come down and technology advances.
When it comes to sustainability, there’s a lot of industry talk about freely sharing information about the stuff that’s working, given that this work is so important for the industry and humanity at large. And yet, one gets the sense that a competitive spirit is still driving some of this innovation within the perpetually-competitive live events world, which if true feels like a welcome battle to wage.