Introducing the Queen of Pop

The last half-decade of popular music has been an era of female dominance: Britney. Gaga. Beyoncé. Katy. Rihanna. But who, we wondered, is the undisputed Queen of Pop?

Here is the first Rolling Stone Queen of Pop Index. We ranked 16 solo female artists, looking at album and digital song sales, Hot 100 rankings, radio airplay, YouTube views, social media, concert grosses, industry awards and critics' ratings. In alphabetical order, they are: Adele, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, P!nk, Rihanna, Robyn, Shakira, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood.

In selecting a time period to cover, we decided to focus on the very recent past: 2009 to mid-2011. (And thus artists like Fergie and Gwen Stefani were not considered, because they haven't released solo albums during that time period.)

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You can probably guess who wound up on top if you've wandered past a newsstand or watched an awards show anytime in the last three years. But the breakdown is enlightening – even our lowest-ranked contender overall came within a false eyelash of topping one of the lists.

Let's start with the yardstick the record industry cares about most: album sales.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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