Known by her stage name, Lady Gaga, this artist is a singer, songwriter, and actress. She is widely recognized for her wild fashion and provocative work. Getting her start performing in school plays and at open mics around NYC, Lady Gaga attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, before dropping out to pursue her music career full time. She got signed to Def Jam Recordings but they ultimately canceled the contract. After that, Gaga began writing songs for Sony/ATV Music Publishing. That is where Akon got her a deal with Interscope Records and his own label, KonLive Distribution. She became a household name the following year, with her album, The Fame.
She has sold over 27 million albums and 146 million singles, which makes lady Gaga one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
$10 Million
At a time when most popular songwriters were busy talking about love and heartache, Chicago born, Curtis Mayfield was busy writing Civil Rights songs like 1964's "Keep on Pushing" or the 1965's "People Get Ready, " which Dr. Martin Luther King has cited as one of his favorites.
In 1994 Mayfield said "everything was a song," and beyond his solo hits or the ones, he wrote the Impressions, Mayfield's hand had no shortage of Top 10 songs to write. Gladys Knight and the Pips' "On and On", the Staple Singers' "Let's Do It Again", and Tony Orlando & Dawn's "He Don't Love You [Like I Love You]" are just a few of his classics, and more contemporary songs like En Vogue's "Giving Him Something He Can Feel."
$1 Million
Buddy Holly was a singer-songwriter from Lubbock, Texas, he was the classic all-American boy of that time. Although his commercial success lasted only about a year and a half before his tragic death, in that short amount of time he created famous hits like: "That'll Be the Day," "Rave On," "Everyday," "Oh Boy," and "Peggy Sue."
Buddy Holly died on February 3, 1959, at the young age of 22 in an airplane crash which also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson, and the pilot, Roger Peterson. At the time of his death, Holly had a net worth of what is equal to $1 million today.
$770 million
Dr. Dre has created albums for and started the careers of numerous rappers, including 2Pac, The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turn'al, 50 Cent, The Game, and Kendrick Lamar. He is credited as a key figure in the making and advancement of West Coast G-funk, a rap style described as synthesizer-based with moderate, substantial beats. Starting at 2018, he is the third wealthiest figure in hip hop, with total assets of $770 million.
Dre started his life as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru. He received acclaim with the persuasive gangsta rap band N.W.A, with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, which made rap lyrics more mainstream - and used rap to detail the viciousness of ‘thug’ life. His 1992 solo album, The Chronic, under Death Row Records, made him the best selling artist of 1993, and earned him a Grammy Award.
$1.2 billion
Ranked the "fifth most powerful person in British culture" by The Daily Telegraph in 2008, lyricist Don Black has stated that "Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical." Several of Lloyd Webber’s musicals have run for more than a decade, both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed over a dozen musicals, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass, among others.
He is one of the few artists who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he is an inductee into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. He is one of fifteen people to have won an Emmy, Oscar, Grammy and Tony. The company he started, named the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. He is involved in numerous charitable activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK and War Child. He also set up the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, which supports the arts, culture and heritage in the UK, in 1992.