Billboard has released its list of artists who have defined pop stardom since the turn of the century and some of the rankings are unexpected — especially since first place is still unannounced. Click through to see where Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, and other crowd favourites landed. Katy Perry's rule over 2010s pop culture is unmistakable, with Billboard naming her "one of the names most synonymous with pop music".
The star went mainstream in 2008 with her Billboard Top 10 hits 'I Kissed a Girl' and 'Hot n Cold', but her 2010 album Teenage Dream would cement the singer's place in the halls of pop stardom.'California Gurls', 'Teenage Dream', 'Last Friday Night', 'Firework', and 'E.T' all scored Billboard No.
1 spots and became defining pop hits of the decade. Prism (2013), which included the anthem 'Roar', was Perry's final album as a definitive superstar, and though she is no longer an overwhelming presence in pop culture, her impact shines through today's pop queens like Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Sheeran's 2017 album release Divide was the project that made him a pop superstar.
'Shape of You' became the biggest commercial hit of Sheeran's career, spending 12 weeks on top of the Billboard Top 100. While Sheeran's successive releases have not outstripped 'Shape of You', he remains a pop mainstay influencing singer songwriters of the next generation. Foreign language artists have always struggled to top the Billboard chart, yet Puerto Rican artis.
