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 AguileraBeyoncéKelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, P!nkRihanna, Robyn, ShakiraBritney SpearsTaylor 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.

Read the entire article on Rolling Stone here.

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