The boundaries of pop music are amorphous, since it incorporates elements of seemingly every other genre. Yet for a genre of music that borrows from so many different traditions, there are a handful of artists who stand out as being the most influential. The work of these 10 pop icons has had a clear influence that extends far beyond their own careers.
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10. Phil Collins
So much ‘80s music was shaped by Collins, in part, because he was playing on it. Whether it was on his four solo albums, his movie soundtrack hits, the four albums he made with Genesis, or his collaborations with Philip Bailey, Howard Jones, Robert Plant, and others, Collins’ vocals and drums were all over the airwaves. As with anybody who achieves great success with a particular sound, Collins’ style—and especially his gated drum sound—has also shown up in plenty of other artists’ songs.
9. Beyoncé
Even before Beyoncé embarked on her solo career in the early 2000s, she was a dominant force in pop music with Destiny’s Child. It turns out she was just getting started. Beyoncé continued writing, singing, and producing hits across seven solo albums, and even nearly two decades after her solo debut, Dangerously in Love, her album releases are widely anticipated events—with her songs the topics of discourse.
8. Chic
In the late ‘70s, Chic had a brief run of hit singles, including a pair of No. 1 smashes, “Le Freak” and “Good Times.” But their impact extended far beyond this period. Many early hip-hop artists rapped over “Good Times,” and the song was the basis for the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” which was the first big mainstream rap hit. Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, and Tony Thompson played a particularly important role in defining the sound of the ‘80s through their playing and production work outside of Chic.
7. Madonna
Madonna’s career really took off once her “Lucky Star” video hit MTV, but it would hardly be the last time that one of her videos created a sensation. Madonna’s knack for writing hit songs would have likely propelled her to stardom anyway, but her ability to create compelling—and often controversial—videos elevated her to another level. At a time when getting into heavy rotation on MTV was key to success in the music business, no one was better at using the medium of music videos to create buzz. Deep into Madonna’s career, videos for songs like “Ray of Light” and “Hung Up” helped her to reinvent her image along with her music.
6. Taylor Swift
Swift made a staggeringly successful crossover from country to pop, and somehow, the bigger she gets, the more her fans feel a personal connection to her and her songs. Swifties have become a phenomenon unto themselves, having created their own subculture. They are a sufficiently large and mobilized group to have spearheaded government action against Ticketmaster and other ticket sellers after fans contended with high ticket prices and crashed online ticket queues for Swift’s Eras Tour shows in the U.S.
5. Michael Jackson
Any conversation about Jackson’s music starts with Thriller. After all, it’s the best-selling album of all time, and it boasted seven Top 10 singles. We’d be remiss, though, if we forgot that, before Thriller, Jackson had seven more Top 10 singles as a solo artist and another 10 with The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons. Still, it was Thriller that made Jackson a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, and four decades after its release, the moonwalk and zombie dance are still a part of the culture.
4. Carole King
King’s 1971 album, Tapestry, topped the Billboard 200 for 15 straight weeks, but that represents just a small portion of her achievements. She wrote numerous hits for other artists, mostly with her first husband, Gerry Goffin, as a member of the famed Brill Building songwriting crew. The Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” Little Eva’s “The Locomotion,” and The Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” are just a few of the hits penned by King and Goffin. She also released six Top 10 albums besides Tapestry, the most recent being Live at the Troubadour (with James Taylor).
[RELATED: The Meaning Behind “It’s Too Late” by Carole King]
3. Elvis Presley
Everything we have come to expect from our pop stars, Presley pioneered in the ‘50s and ‘60s. His music was too loud and his dance moves were too suggestive for older generations, but he was a teen idol. His music was a blend of multiple genres. Presley made movies and, late in his career, he commanded a residency in Las Vegas (a novel pursuit at the time). He is still a cultural icon, and only The Beatles have sold more records. Yet Presley’s greatest contribution to pop music is the important role he played in integrating guitar-driven R&B into pop music, which also helped to bring music created by Black musicians to a white audience.
2. The Beatles
For decades after they broke up, everybody was looking for “the next Beatles.” While countless bands have borrowed from or been influenced by the Fab Four, there has been nothing quite like them since their split. Though The Beatles were a unique phenomenon, they created a template for pop bands that has survived over the ensuing decades. Fans still get invested in a band’s individual members, dissect the meanings of their songs, and view the release of each album as an event.
1. Little Richard
While Little Richard didn’t sell records at anywhere near the volume The Beatles did, he was a big influence on them, as well as on James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Prince, and legions of other pop and rock acts. It’s not hard to draw a through-line between Richard’s energetic and dynamic performing style and the stage antics of so many of the most beloved pop performers who followed him. His popularity spanned racial barriers at a time when that was rarer, and his androgynous look has been emulated by countless pop and rock stars.
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