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List needs a rewrite.
No Billie Holiday?
No Nina SImone?
No Janice Joplin?
No Dolly Parton?
What are we even doing here?
The webster definition is "a person or thing widely admired especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere"
The webster definition is "a person or thing widely admired especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere"
You can be popular but not be musically significant or influential that was my point.
Paul HarrisJust like a one winged dove
- Madonna
- Dolly
- Beyonce
- Barbara Streisand / Cher
In terms of their statuses as icons.
Barbara & Cher both symbolized the "ugly girl" with a voice of gold, the former who is Jewish and not supposed to capture the limelight of the WASP's world, the latter a hippie who wasn't supposed to ascend in the world of the suits, who nonetheless became massive movie stars with cult followings among their own generation of women. Cher also captured a special LGBT goddess status later on...despite not being gay. And I can't think of a female popstar who became arguably the biggest movie star of all actresses in the world before Barbara. Even Doris Day never reached the status where Walter Matthau had to hit her with an ego check when she showed up late to work with her entourage in tow.
Beyonce is the queen of R&B. While some might argue Aretha is more iconic, she's just more historic because more time has passed, and so many documentaries have been made attempting to shine a light on her. In reality, Aretha's recording career was never close to most of these women. She only had a single #1 hit, and fourteen Top 10's as a solo artist. Given, it was a lot harder back then to chart multiple singles because of how music was consumed, but Beyonce puts out about half that many Top 10 hits with every album. Between Destiny's Child, her solo career, and her business-marriage to Jay-Z, she commands an empire that devours anything Aretha or Whitney did.
Dollywood exists for a reason. Dolly is the queen of all country stars. Her story encapsulates and defines the girl from the middle of nowhere stepping off the bus to become a big star. She transcended the genre. She is America's sweetheart of sweethearts.
Madonna was the closest thing to a female Elvis or Michael Jackson. Simple as that. The high and the low were obsessed with her. The Cosmopolitan became one of the most popular cocktails that remains to this day because a fucking magazine photo trended with her holding a pink drink in an martini glass, ffs.
We're going by popularity, that's what means of being iconic.
According to this, this is what it means.
View attachment 1028287
By that definition, I would say it's more than just popularity. Madonna is winning because she had the popularity, including as a sex symbol, was completely distinctive, and she defined the era of 80s pop for female artists. You instantly know one of her songs just from her sound.
I would also say people like Aretha, Billie Holiday, Dolly, Janis etc are extremely iconic. They epitomize an era, culture etc but in terms of sales or fan numbers they're probably nowhere near the top.
Where's Dolly and Reba? Having Swift and Twain from that genre without the Queens doesn't seem right.
I fucking love Reba, but she's not up there with Swift and Dolly.
She's one of the best female country singers of all time, but once you're outside that country circle, she isn't as well known. Everybody knows who Dolly is.
In case you missed this from YouTube comment section:
ARTISTS WITH MOST SONGS IN THE VIDEO
- 19 SONGS = Madonna
- 16 SONGS = Michael Jackson
- 14 SONGS = Mariah Carey
- 13 SONGS = Rihanna
- 9 SONGS = Britney Spears; Eminem
- 8 SONGS = Beyonce; Lady Gaga; Bruno Mars
- 7 SONGS = The Black Eyed Peas; Katy Perry; Ariana Grande; Justin Bieber
- 6 SONGS = Maroon 5
- 5 SONGS = George Michael; Whitney Houston ;Celine Dion; Christina Aguilera; Shakira; Taylor Swift; The Weeknd; Drake
#TeamSwift
14 Grammy Awards, Incredible songwriter, decent singer, amazing human being, and conventionally attractive.
I'm a big fan, and any record she has not broken, it is inevitable that she will break it given enough time.
Tay-tay is a force to be reckoned with.