Music: "Your" top 5 greatest 'pop music' solo artists?

[Rpenny]

Pop music by definition is popular music. Just shortened to pop music

 

[Cloned]

Lady Gaga is a strong bet to make this list by the end of her career. Incredible talent, vocalist, performer, lyricist, producer and tremendous variation in song style.

 

[Chili]

David Bowie
John Lee Hooker
Neil Young
Sting
Van Morrison

Easy to choose 5, hard to narrow it down though. Good to see Billy Joel mentioned.

 

[Osprey]

I just read a rather interesting definition of "pop music" on Wikipedia:

According to British musicologist Simon Frith, pop music is produced "as a matter of enterprise not art", and is "designed to appeal to everyone" but "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste". Frith adds that it is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward [...] and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative". It is, "provided from on high (by record companies, radio programmers, and concert promoters) rather than being made from below ... Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged".

At first, I was rolling my eyes at this musical hipster dissing pop music, but, the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that it's kind of true. When my favorite pop artists stray from the bubblegum and try to be experimental, artistic and meaningful, I get irritated .

 

[Know Your Enemy]

Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Bowie

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Pop music by definition is popular music. Just shortened to pop music

That doesn't help me. Going back to my Alice Cooper example, he sold over 50 Million albums, he's been kind of popular.

I just read a rather interesting definition of "pop music" on Wikipedia:

At first, I was rolling my eyes at this musical hipster dissing pop music, but, the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that it's kind of true. When my favorite pop artists stray from the bubblegum and try to be experimental, artistic and meaningful, I get irritated .

Well, I guess that settles it for Alice. Altough to me he made a lot of stuff that sounds like what I would tend to understand as "pop", he didn't really make it to "appeal to everyone" - I guess his little venture to more accessible "hard rock" leading to the Trash album (one of his worse IMO) had this goal in mind, but none of the rest...

Beatles
Rhianna
Elvis Presley
Elton John
Madonna

I guess you meant the Beatle. ;-)

 

[Rpenny]

That doesn't help me. Going back to my Alice Cooper example, he sold over 50 Million albums, he's been kind of popular.



Well, I guess that settles it for Alice. Altough to me he made a lot of stuff that sounds like what I would tend to understand as "pop", he didn't really make it to "appeal to everyone" - I guess his little venture to more accessible "hard rock" leading to the Trash album (one of his worse IMO) had this goal in mind, but none of the rest...



I guess you meant the Beatle. ;-)

Alice Cooper is the band

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Alice Cooper is the band

Well, for 1/3 of the albums, ok, but is that really the point I was going for?

 

[Lshap]

Have we gone two pages without mentioning Stevie Wonder?

Yes, he started as a Motown act, but his career overlapped the pop charts almost from the beginning. One of the greatest voices in music, and a brilliant songwriter.

 

[Say Hey Kid]

Elvis Presley
Elton John
Madonna
Rhianna
Eminem

 

[Fantomas]

I really like Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Prince, Brian Eno and Kate Bush. Never get tired of their music.

Among non-Anglophones I would list Zhanna Aguzarova, Toto Cutugno and Joe Dassin. Mostly artists I was exposed to in my childhood and still like.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Joe Dassin

My mother has been his #1 fan for as long as I can remember

I'm a big fan of Miossec, so this one hits home: