The Decline of Solo-Written Songs in The Billboard Hot 100

We collaborated with Word.Tips to find today’s most prolific songwriter by analyzing 8,700 songs by 101 artists and 50 years of Billboard Charts. We found that Zach Bryan is the solo writer on 90.9% of his songs (more than any other top solo artist), and Tyler, The Creator is the most prolific songwriter in rap, writing 42.39% of his material alone.

We analyzed the writing credits on every song on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts from 1970 to 2023, revealing that solo-written hits have become dramatically rarer and that songwriting teams have more than doubled in size. The average number of solo-written songs per chart across our 1970s figures is 16, whereas the corresponding figure for the past ten years is just three.