Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century Podcast: Adele (No. 10)

On today’s (Oct. 16) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we kick off the top 10 of our list with a singer-songwriter who defied pretty much every trend that defined pop music at the outset of the 2010s — and still zoomed past everyone else to become the best-selling artist of the era.

Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard executive director Joe Lynch and director of music Jason Lipshutz to discuss Adele’s potentially controversial No. 10 position on our list, and debate the quintessential question regarding her ranking: What matters more, the fact that Adele’s only released four albums in her career, or the fact that two of them ended up becoming two of the biggest albums in pop music history?

We also relive our memories from Adele’s skyscraping peak, discuss what ultimately made her both fit in with and stand out from a golden age for pop music in the early ’10s, and let our minds be blown all over again by some of the still-unthinkable numbers she put up at her commercial apex. We also unleash some ill-advised Adele impressions, get into some arguments over her later years (“Easy on Me”: classic or disappointment?), and theorize about what may still yet to be come in her future (a Taylor Swift duet? A supporting turn in a Martin Scorsese movie? 80 or 81?)

Listen to our latest below, catch up on 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! (New episodes will be revealed on Wednesday and Friday for the next couple weeks, following the publishing of our Tuesday and Thursday Greatest Pop Star rankings for that week, before moving to a once-a-week schedule for the rest of the list.)