Best-Influential-Pop-Artists-Today
                     Best Influential Pop Artists 
Today
With essays arguing that each was the biggest, brightest, and most significant star in their 
respective solar systems that year, Billboard's staff in 2019 unveiled its selections for the 
greatest pop star of each year going back to 1981 the year MTV debuted, effectively marking 
the beginning of the modern pop era. Best influential pop artists today we've also been 
selecting the top ten pop performers of the last 12 months for the past several years, and each 
one receives a year-in-review homage from one of our staff members.
BTS, Bad Bunny, and Taylor Swift have been our choices for the No. 1 greatest pop star of the 
year this decade. However, as the quarter-century milestone approaches, we thought it would 
be appropriate to take a brief look at the entire previous 25 years of pop fame. Thus, we start 
our list of the top 25 pop stars of the twenty-first century this week.
Best Influential Pop Artists Today
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Curtis Jackson, whose 2003 debut LP Get Rich or Die Tryin' came on the heels of a wave of 
mixtape and media hype (as well as one of the best lead singles in hip-hop history), may have 
had the most spectacular breakout of any rapper this century. It played like an already-minted 
greatest hits album. 
He achieved absolutely stratospheric commercial heights with his mercenary approach to rap, 
including well over a million in first-week sales for his sophomore set, The Massacre.
ALICIA KEYS
Alicia Keys, a soul singer-songwriter and piano prodigy whose lungs were as flawless as her 
writing and her overall believability, was much needed during the American Idol period.
Without her hit songs Songs in A Minor and The Diary of Alicia Keys, as well as their respective 
hit singles, it's difficult to envision the first half of the 2000s.
EILISH BILLIE
Billie Eilish, the first artist born in the 21st century to achieve a Hot 100 No. 1 hit, could not have 
felt like a more fitting example of Gen Z superstardom.
She defied trends, was incredibly dark and extremely silly, and only collaborated with her closest 
family members. Despite this, she was unquestionably, massively pop.
Cardi B
Putting aside the long-delayed release of her sophomore album, Cardi B's multi-platform 
superstardom and consistent commercial strength have only grown more amazing as fans wait 
for the follow-up to her incredible 2018 debut, Invasion of Privacy.
Bodak Yellow turned Cardi from a reality TV regular into a chart-topping rap sensation in 2017. 
Invasion swiftly took advantage of the single's popularity and sent up-and-coming Spanish-
language artists J Balvin and Bad Bunny to the top of the Hot 100 with I Like It.
Carri Underwood
Since her 2005 Idol triumph single Inside Your Heaven, which peaked at number one on the Hot 100, 
Carrie Underwood, one of the two most famous American Idol alumni in popular music, has been a 
defining voice in country music.
In the next years, Underwood achieved four Billboard 200 chart-toppers and scored some of the biggest 
crossover songs in the genre with Jesus, Take the Wheel, and Before He Cheats.
Brown, Chris
Chris Brown became the next man up in the classic triple-threat paradigm of pop&B popularity following 
Usher's mid-00s mega-dominance.
With Run It, he immediately topped the Hot 100! He soon showed that he had the tunes to go along 
with his abilities; when he and Rihanna performed together at the 2007 VMAs, it appeared that pop had 
discovered its enduring power couple.
AGUILERA CHRISTINA
What a Girl Wants, the second single from her debut album, followed Genie in a Bottle to the top spot 
and made Xtina the second-biggest solo star of the emerging TRL teen-pop era. This was the first new 
Hot 100 No. 1 hit of the 21st century. However, Aguilera would mature quickly. 
The Top 25 Aren't Enough: Aguilera never put forth another completely successful album after her 2006 
chart-topping record Back to Basics, and her only significant pop singles in the past 15 years have been 
featured songs.
DOJA CAT
Doja Cat's funny viral one-off MOOO in 2018 was a quick route to widespread fame! Thus, many anticipated her 
time in the spotlight would be brief by the time she turned it into true pop fame with her 2020 Hot 100-topper. Say 
thus. 
The Top 25 Aren't Enough: Naturally, the recentness and the fact that, despite her numerous outstanding 
performances over the years, she lacks the ability to halt the world with a release—as seen by the fact that she has 
yet to achieve a Billboard 200 No. 1 album—hurt.
LIPA DUA
After a string of hits in her home country of the United Kingdom, Dua Lipa scored her first top 10 Hot 100 hit with 
the 2017 electro-pop post-breakup playbook, writing a set of New Rules for what a pop breakthrough looks like. 
The Top 25 Aren't Enough: We're still more than radically optimistic that Lipa could return to pop's top echelon at 
any time, even though Billboard named Radical Optimism one of the best albums of 2024 so far because of its 
confident lyrics and daring productions. The project's first three singles failed to make it into the Hot 100's top 10. 
FUTURE
It's difficult to recall a period when Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn, better known by his stage name Future, made his 
national debut and was viewed as a hip-hop gimmick. His rapping and singing blended together in a post-Auto-Tune 
warble. 
The Top 25 Aren't Enough: After the 2014 crossover bid, Honest Future rapped, "Tried to make me a pop star, and 
they made a monster." 
Despite working with artists like Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, and Ariana Grande, he has largely remained pop-adjacent 
while maintaining a firm foothold in the hip-hop industry.