Post by urbanpatrician on Jul 13, 2023 21:49:12 GMT
If you ask me....
BIGGEST pop stars of all time. Being objective here. That's what you gotta be.
1. Michael Jackson - He's the king. I don't like him, but he's the king.
2. Madonna - The queen. Longevity wise it's hard to compete with her, even if I like early Madonna over anything after around 85. She gets less interesting by the decade, but she always pops up occasionally with something.
3. Elvis - I don't really care for that era, but on principle alone he's here.
4. Prince - One of my favorites. Maybe too high for some people, but not if you actually had any idea how big he really was.
5. Mariah Carey - Anyone who didn't realize how big she truly was for an entire decade needs to really brush up on their pop culture education. She was the queen of the 90s. After Madonna started to slide down a bit, Mariah was BIGGER than Madonna from 1990 to 1999. Nobody dominates an entire 10 years like Mariah did.
6. Elton John - Incredible longevity. Even by the 90s he was still producing chart toppers.
7. David Bowie - 70s and early 80s were his decades, but it's somewhat shy of 2 decades of dominance.
8. Britney - Anyone who thinks Lady Gaga has anywhere close to the influence of Britney needs to go back in time to '99 and '00. Britney is basically a generation resetter. She created a new generation of listeners and should've been the first name on anyone's mind until really anyone could've challenged her. Ok I admit after 2000, she started sounding less distinct and started blending in more with the rest of the radio, but still.... until Gaga I don't see that she had any real competition. Maybe Christina but they came out the exact same era, so she wasn't a supplanter.
9. Whitney - Huge, but I think she had a peak which was 87-93. After that I think most people get the impression there is always a bigger name around. At least in my world. But her peak was MONUMENTAL. Stuff you only see in your dreams.
10. Janet Jackson - Hard to deny her. Maybe overshadowed a little bit by Prince, Madonna, and Michael Jackson in the 80s. And Whitney and Mariah in the early 90s, but her late 90s were superior to Whitney's late 90s and I think that's where it started to kinda separate a little bit. In my opinion, by 2000 Madonna, Michael Jackson, Whitney were getting washed and boring, but Janet's new stuff still had a sense of freshness.
11. Billy Joel - Another influential figure with longevity.
12. George Michael - A hitmaker, tho I guess late 80s is what I primarily think.
13. Taylor Swift - She's a bit more recent, but I think what stands out about her is that it's 2023 and she's more interesting than she was when she started in '08 or '09 and that applies to pretty much no one else on this list.
14. Beyonce - I really thought Say My Name was the ultimate one hit wonder back in 2000, but I was off by a mile. I'd say only Taylor and Beyonce can battle each other right now in terms of critical and commercial success and as far as still being kinda relevant still with their new works. But I don't think Beyonce has, mathematically speaking, the same stratosphere of fans that Taylor has tho, speaking from a worldwide basis which clearly Taylor wins.
15. Eminem - I debated putting him or Jennifer Lopez, but ultimately I gotta go with Eminem. Rap was never a huge seller, but Eminem was able to do it. Dr. Dre was the jam of the late '90s, but Eminem actually managed to be bigger than his daddy which I found interesting. You gotta be there to know how big he was in the early 00s. And while I thought 2000 Eminem was more interesting than 2002 Eminem, those were by far his 2 biggest years. Only thing I will say is he definitely became a manufactured pop act after a while tho he did get less and less interesting.