Best music artists of the 2010s
The 2010s reshaped music forever, as streaming replaced sales charts and genres blurred into one global playlist. From arena-filling pop titans to boundary-pushing hip-hop innovators, the decade produced artists whose influence still echoes today. Who truly defined the sound of the 2010s? Cast your vote and help settle the debate.
What counts: Seeded with approximate figures where shown — the crowd's votes decide the order.
Taylor Swift▲ Rising
She spent the decade rewriting the rules of pop stardom in real time — jumping from Red's heartbreak diaries to 1989's synth-pop reinvention to folklore's whispery indie turn, each pivot a commercial gamble that somehow always paid off. By the time she started re-recording her own catalog to reclaim ownership, she'd already proven no artist controlled their narrative — or their fans — more completely.
Peak Chart Year: 2014Grammy Awards (2010s): 5Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 4Albums Sold in 2010s: 40 MCritical Acclaim: 8.5/10Cultural Impact: 9.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 80 M
added by IJRin 7 rankings
69
Adele▲ Rising
21 didn't just top charts, it strangled them, selling millions in an era when albums were supposed to be dead, and 'Rolling in the Deep' became the sound of heartbreak for a generation. She proved a voice and a piano could still out-earn any hype machine, making her the decade's greatest argument that raw emotion never goes out of style.
Peak Chart Year: 2011Grammy Awards (2010s): 15Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 3Albums Sold in 2010s: 50 MCritical Acclaim: 9/10Cultural Impact: 9/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 50 M
added by IJRin 3 rankingsAdele
69
Kendrick Lamar▲ Rising
good kid, m.A.A.d city and To Pimp a Butterfly turned personal trauma and Black political rage into some of the most ambitious albums in hip-hop history, culminating in a Pulitzer Prize that no rapper had ever touched. 'Alright' became a protest anthem sung in the streets, cementing Kendrick as the decade's conscience as much as its most technically dazzling MC.
Peak Chart Year: 2017Grammy Awards (2010s): 13Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 1Albums Sold in 2010s: 5 MCritical Acclaim: 9.5/10Cultural Impact: 9/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 40 M
added by IJRin 6 rankingsKendrick Lamar
36
Drake▲ Rising
From 'Marvin's Room' to 'Hotline Bling' to a genre-blurring stream of playlist albums, Drake basically became the algorithm's favorite artist, racking up chart records by making hip-hop, R&B, and dancehall feel like one continuous mood board. Love him or roll your eyes at another 'vibes' album, he defined what mainstream rap sounded like for ten straight years.
Peak Chart Year: 2018Grammy Awards (2010s): 4Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 4Albums Sold in 2010s: 20 MCritical Acclaim: 7.5/10Cultural Impact: 9.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 70 M
added by IJRin 5 rankingsDrake
34
J. Cole▲ Rising
J. Cole built a career on going platinum with no features, turning introspective, no-gimmicks storytelling into a genuine populist movement that filled arenas without a single radio-friendly hook. He never chased the culture's loudest trends, and that stubborn authenticity is exactly why his fanbase felt like a cult that just kept growing.
Peak Chart Year: 2014Grammy Awards (2010s): 0Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 0Albums Sold in 2010s: 3 MCritical Acclaim: 7.5/10Cultural Impact: 7/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 30 M
added by IJRin 4 rankings
22
Billie Eilish▲ Rising
She arrived whispering over bass-heavy bedroom-pop beats and somehow ended the decade with an Album of the Year Grammy, proving teenage anxiety and hushed vocals could be as commercially dominant as any big-budget pop spectacle. 'Bad Guy' knocked pop conventions sideways, making Gen Z's discomfort with everything shiny into the sound of the moment.
Peak Chart Year: 2019Grammy Awards (2010s): 6Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 1Albums Sold in 2010s: 5 MCritical Acclaim: 8.5/10Cultural Impact: 8.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 60 M
added by IJRin 2 rankingsBillie Eilish
21
Bruno Mars▲ Rising
Uptown Funk turned a whole decade briefly back into 1980s Minneapolis, becoming inescapable at every wedding, gym, and Super Bowl halftime show it touched. Bruno's genius was making throwback showmanship feel urgent again, proving pure musicianship and charisma could still dominate an era obsessed with mood and minimalism.
Peak Chart Year: 2017Grammy Awards (2010s): 11Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 5Albums Sold in 2010s: 15 MCritical Acclaim: 8/10Cultural Impact: 8.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 40 M
added by IJRBruno Mars
16
He turned druggy, nocturnal R&B into arena-filling pop with 'Can't Feel My Face' and then closed the decade by basically rewriting 80s synth-pop for After Hours, proving he could shapeshift without losing his brooding core. Few artists moved from mixtape mystery man to Super Bowl headliner this convincingly.
Peak Chart Year: 2015Grammy Awards (2010s): 3Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 3Albums Sold in 2010s: 10 MCritical Acclaim: 8/10Cultural Impact: 9/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 90 M
added by IJRin 3 rankingsThe Weeknd
-11
Lady Gaga▼ Falling
She opened the decade still riding Fame Monster theatrics, then spent ten years proving she was more than costumes by winning an Oscar nomination for A Star Is Born and stripping everything down on Joanne. Gaga's willingness to constantly risk reinvention — pop maximalist one year, torch-song traditionalist the next — kept her essential long after the meat dress stopped being the headline.
Peak Chart Year: 2011Grammy Awards (2010s): 4Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 2Albums Sold in 2010s: 15 MCritical Acclaim: 8/10Cultural Impact: 8.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 40 M
added by IJRin 2 rankingsLady Gaga
-11
Ed Sheeran▼ Falling
'Shape of You' became one of the most streamed songs ever, turning a scruffy busker with a loop pedal into a global chart monopoly that even Spotify's own algorithms seemed built around. Sheeran made acoustic-pop feel massive again, for better or worse defining what 'inescapable' meant in the streaming era.
Peak Chart Year: 2017Grammy Awards (2010s): 4Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 2Albums Sold in 2010s: 45 MCritical Acclaim: 7/10Cultural Impact: 8.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 70 M
added by IJRin 3 rankingsEd Sheeran
-14
Ariana Grande▼ Falling
She turned personal tragedy and heartbreak into thank u, next, an album that felt like a group therapy session set to trap-pop beats, and somehow made vulnerability sound like victory. Her vocal range and ability to turn Twitter drama into instant chart-topping bops made her pop's most reliable hit machine by decade's end.
Peak Chart Year: 2019Grammy Awards (2010s): 1Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 2Albums Sold in 2010s: 10 MCritical Acclaim: 7.5/10Cultural Impact: 8.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 60 M
added by IJRin 2 rankingsAriana Grande
-21
Post Malone▼ Falling
He blurred rap, rock, and country into one lazy-vocal genre-melt and ended up with some of the most streamed songs of the entire decade, proving genre distinctions meant nothing to a generation raised on playlists. Beerbongs & Bentleys made mumbled melancholy into a commercial juggernaut, and Post became the unlikely voice of a post-genre, post-everything pop landscape.
Peak Chart Year: 2019Grammy Awards (2010s): 0Billboard Hot 100 #1s (2010s): 2Albums Sold in 2010s: 10 MCritical Acclaim: 6.5/10Cultural Impact: 7.5/10Monthly Spotify Listeners: 60 M
added by IJRin 3 rankingsPost Malone
-38
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Comments (8)
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The crowd is sleeping on the bottom half of this list.
This order is closer to right than any editor would've gotten.
- UUmar IvanovJul 28, 2026
Voted — and the gap between #1 and #2 should be bigger.
- YYuki ReyesJul 28, 2026
Exactly the kind of argument the internet was built for.