Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century Podcast: List Recap With AJ Marks & Final Thank Yous

On today’s (Dec. 6) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we’re finally out of new rankings and pop stars to discuss — so we take a look back at the top 10, and the entire Greatest Pop Stars project, with some help from AJ Marks, moderator of Reddit’s r/Popheads forum and host of the stellar Main Pod Girl podcast. (AJ previously joined the podcast to talk about the list’s first half, find his previous podcast appearance here.)

Host Andrew Unterberger talks with Marks about his big-picture takeaways from our rankings — what parts of the ordering did or didn’t make sense to him, and if he feels like he has a better understanding of the Billboard editorial staff’s definition of pop star greatness than he did when the project started. We also of course talk a little Taylor Swift and Beyoncé — and about the r/Popheads reaction to the entire rollout of the top 10, leading up to our No. 1 reveal — and look forward a little to our upcoming 2024 Greatest Pop Stars rankings, with AJ offering his predictions for some of the most likely artists to be in the mix for the top spot.

We close with AJ by asking him the questions we’ve asked for every pop star on this list so far — making him choose between the total pool of choices for all 25 artists. Then, Andrew closes by offering some much-deserved thanks to the dozens of folks on staff who helped make this entire list possible.

Check it out above, find all our past episodes here, and be sure to subscribe to Billboard‘s Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century series wherever you get your podcasts! (And definitely remember to check back next week as we begin the rollout for our Greatest Pop Stars of 2024.)