Liz Phair is an American singer-songwriter whose place on this list is one of the more ironic in our database. Her 1993 debut Exile in Guyville is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential indie-rock albums ever made, and she is a revered figure in alternative music. She is the definition of a critically important artist, not a novelty.
But streaming gathers around a later, glossier song. "Why Can't I?", released in 2003 during a deliberate move toward mainstream pop, became her biggest hit, reaching far beyond her indie base.
On streaming, "Why Can't I?" sits near 58 million plays, while her next most-streamed track trails at around nine million. That puts the ratio above 6, past our 5.0 line.
So by our strict, numbers-only measure, Liz Phair registers as a certified one-hit wonder, and we flag the caveat as firmly as possible. This is a landmark artist with a deep, fiercely admired catalogue. It is only that her one polished pop crossover drew the streaming crowd far ahead of the raw, celebrated indie work that made her name. It is a striking inversion: the album the critics revere sits behind the glossy single they once questioned, at least when measured purely by streams.