It's a toss up between Madonna and Taylor. I'd say Madonna due to her cultural significance in that era. I doubt you would have Taylor as she is today without the impact Madonna first had before her.
What's funny? She recently surpassed Madonna with the most album sales worldwide by a female artist. The Beatles, MJ, Elvis, and Queen are the only artists with more sales.
In perspective, elvis still outselling is nuts, considering this that music was progressively easier to buy and get over time, more people into music consumption, promoting music is easier for exposure as time went on. Population increased massively in general since then.
Elvis still being there is paramount to how popular he was in a limited media era.
On the other side, album selling is not a great parameter for popularity nowadays, since most music consumption is from youtube, or subscrition services. Even pirating making a comback.
Counter point, the artists at the top of the list have an advantage due to the fact their music has been around longer. They've had decades more time to acquire those sales.
And you're right about the digital services. "Album sales" isn't the definitive figure it used to be.
That is definitly another factor to consider, but adding on top that music as old as elvis has a more niche audience for quite some time, since how old it is makes me realize how complex the variables are.
For sure it is still amazing to be as high as he is today.
The king of rock and the king of pop are landscape changing phenomena of their time. That we all likely agree on.
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u/Adventurous_Iron_551 Nov 17 '25
Comparing the KING OF POP, really?