}

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.)

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.

ALBUM SALES


DIGITAL TRACKS


YOUTUBE

That quartet of solid smashes is what gives Rihanna the top slot on our YouTube survey, rather than relying on a single blockbuster. For example, her top clip "What's My Name" has been outviewed by three other videos counted in our survey: Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (390 million), Shakira's 2010 World Cup anthem "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" (357 million) and Miley Cyrus's "Party in the U.S.A." (228 million). But in each case, Gaga's, Shakira's and Cyrus's second-place clip ("Alejandro," "Whenever, Wherever" and "7 Things," respectively) is off by at least one-third from the leader by that act.

In Shakira's case, the gap is massive: "Whenever" is off more than 80 percent compared to the global blockbuster "Waka Waka." Still, our YouTube list is where Shakira performs best – she placed third, giving her a boost in our overall ranking. The World Cup anthem turned out to be the bright spot in the 2009–11 period for the Colombian superstar; she also released both English and Spanish albums during the period, but neither She Wolf nor Sale el Sol went gold in the United States or produced a major radio hit. (Each did better globally.)



AIRPLAY


BILLBOARD HOT 100


SOCIAL NETWORKING



TOURING



AWARDS


ALBUM REVIEWS

Shakira takes third place again, thanks in part to the four-star rating earned by her underappreciated 2009 She Wolf disc. Her outranking of Lady Gaga among critics is something of a fluke, likely brought on by the impassioned pro-and-con debate Gaga inspires.




MASTER RANKING


Ja, det där gick väl kanske inte jättebra, men vi vet ju att Shakira är bäst!! :) + Att hon är känd i delar av världen där folk inte har hört talas om Lady Gaga osv, skulle kunna räkna upp 100 olika anledningar till att Shak är "queen of pop", haha.
Nåja, det här spelar ingen roll. Grattis Shak!