The Rolling Stone Queen of Pop Index is a ranking published by Rolling Stone that aims to identify the music industry's dominant solo female recording artist through examination of nine categories.
The first Queen of Pop Index was published on June 29, 2011 and analyzed trends prevailing in the period from 2009-2011. Multi-platinum singer Lady Gaga topped the 16-name list, followed by country/pop crossover artist Taylor Swift.
However, criticism arose because the 16-name list only included artists which had been active for the past two years. It therefore excluded artists such as Madonna, who, among other things, has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the best-selling female recording artist of all time by Guinness World Records. In response the magazine opened up a readers poll to choose the Queen of Pop, which Madonna then won by a landslide on July 7, 2011.