Harry Styles is the top musical act in the U.S. for the first time, as he leaps 20-1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated June 6), marking his first week atop the ranking, either solo or as a member of One Direction.
The Artist 100 (which launched in July 2014) measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
Styles follows his former One Direction bandmate, Zayn, as the second member of the group to top the Artist 100. Zayn spent a week atop the tally in 2016 (April 16), the week that his debut album Mine of Mine bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. One Direction is now the only act to generate multiple No. 1 acts in the chart's relatively brief history. Notably, 1D as a group has never reached No. 1 on the Artist 100; it has peaked at No. 2 on charts dated Dec. 6, 2014 and Dec. 5, 2015.
Styles earns his first week at No. 1 on the Artist 100 powered by his self-titled debut LP, which enters the Billboard 200 at No. 1 with 230,000 equivalent album units in the week ending May 18, according to Nielsen Music. Styles, who previously peaked at No. 5 on the Artist 100, earns his largest share of points on the chart from album sales (81 percent).
Zac Brown Band vaults 73-2 on the Artist 100, as its new album Welcome Home debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 146,000 units. Album sales earn the group 92 percent of its Artist 100 activity. Rounding out the Artist 100's top five, Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran hold at Nos. 3 through 5, respectively.
Also on the Artist 100, Soundgarden debuts at No. 27 after frontman Chris Cornell died on May 17. Another of Cornell's groups, Audioslave, also enters at No. 67, while Cornell himself returns at No. 96.
Check out this week's full Artist 100 here.
