Greatest Pop Stars Podcast
Last week (June 11), the brilliant writer, producer, composer and singer Brian Wilson died at age 82. Wilson leaves behind a singular catalog of pop and rock music, which is of course headlined by his work in the ’60s and ’70s with The Beach Boys, alongside his brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. The Beach Boys cruised to pop stardom from 1963 to 1965 with a string of smash hits about surfing, cars and girls that grew increasingly complex as Brian rapidly developed as a songwriter and studio wizard. In 1966, all the group’s artistic ambitions were realized, with perhaps both the Boys’ most beloved album and most beloved single — though it all came at a tremendous cost to Wilson, and to the band’s long-term future.
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On this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard executive digital director, west coast Katie Atkinson, to talk about the greatest year by the ultimate west coast pop band. We talk about everything that led up to the Beach Boys’ singular legacy year in 1966 — which ultimately resulted in the LP masterwork Pet Sounds and the unanimously acclaimed pop smash “Good Vibrations” — as well as why the group was ultimately unable to reach those commercial or artistic heights again.
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And of course, along the way, we ask all the big questions about the Beach Boys’ greatest (and in many ways last) year in the sun: Why did Brian Wilson enlist an ad man he barely knew as his primary collaborator on Pet Sounds (and why did that guy end up hating working with him so much)? Is “Sloop John B.” secretly the album’s perfect thematic centerpiece? Is “Good Vibrations” really more head than it is heart? Would 1966 Brian have dealt with f–kboy or industry plant allegations in 2025? And of course: Is this the greatest year in pop music that any American band has ever had?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from The Beach Boys’ 1966, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org — and if you’re in the D.C. area this weekend (May 30-31), definitely check out Liberation Weekend, a music festival supporting trans rights with an incredible lineup of trans artists and allies.
It’s been a week of “Weird Al” on Billboard.com. Our recent cover star and indie spirit award recipient comes to us at a fascinating place in his career, where despite having recorded only sporadically over the past decade, he’s in many ways at a career peak — culturally ubiquitous, about to embark upon the biggest […]
This May, only a handful of pop stars made major movement on the charts — including one with a historically huge Hot 100 album bomb, and one with a rare runaway breakout smash for 2025 — but we still saw some big names making big waves, with massive new tours and game-changing news announcements. And […]
It would’ve been a big-enough weekend for Morgan Wallen simply from the release of his fourth album Friday’s (May 16) I’m the Problem — his third album this decade to consist of 30+ tracks, this time with six of them already ranking as pre-release Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits. But the biggest star in […]
Longtime alt-pop star Lorde boasts two new entries on the Billboard Hot 100 this week (dated May 10). One of them is predictable: “What Was That,” her first totally new solo song in nearly a half-decade (and presumed lead single from her upcoming Virgin album, due in June) bows at No. 36, following a big […]
This April, the Billboard charts have been largely static — with a couple big exceptions, for which we are thankful — but pop music keeps moving. This was a month for big festivals, with two weekends of Coachella and one of Stagecoach all back to back out in Indio, Calif., and of just-as-big tour kickoffs, […]
We’ve been talking about it on the Greatest Pop Stars podcast for nearly half a year already, but it didn’t actually get here until last weekend: The Grand National stadium tour, co-headlined by Billboard‘s No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of 2024 (Kendrick Lamar) and our No. 2 Greatest Pop Star of 2023 (SZA) finally began […]
This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2005 Week starts here with a discussion of 50 Cent’s game-running 2005 — possibly an even higher commercial and cultural peak than his hallowed 2003 run, but also the clear beginning of the end for his superstardom.
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With his inescapable Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album and its Billboard Hot 100-topping smash “In Da Club,” 50 Cent became the hottest rapper in the game in 2003, matching even his mentor Eminem for ubiquity and cultural dominance. After expanding his G-Unit empire in 2004, 50 returned in 2005 with his second album The Massacre, a couple smash collabs with his new West Coast lieutenant The Game, a huge tour with Eminem, new business ventures, new beefs, and even a film debut in his very own prestige quasi-biopic. He was arguably bigger than ever — but after two years where it felt like 50 couldn’t miss, his strike rate was finally starting to slip a little.
In this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by a pair of Billboard Hip-Hop staffers and GPS regulars in Carl Lamarre and Michael Saponara to talk about the year that ended up being the top of the rollercoaster for the artist born Curtis Jackson. We start at with 50 playing kingmaker with his G-Unit crew in late 2004, including those couple classics alongside The Game, and then move into his ’05 — beginning with an album that sells over a million copies in its (abbreviated) first week, launches feuds with half of the hip-hop world and returns him to the top of the Hot 100 with his second straight lead single smash, and ending with a film debut that doesn’t totally do any of the things he hopes it will.
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And of course, along the way, we ask all the big questions about 50 Cent’s too-big-to-fail sophomore campaign: Could 50 and Game have been the Dre and Snoop for another generation? Is a “Candy Shop” even really a thing? Were the deep cuts on The Massacre better than the singles? Was 50 Cent: Bulletproof worth playing? Can you actually hoop in G-Unit sneakers? And if you catch the Get Rich or Die Tryin’ movie on cable, should you bother sticking around for the whole thing?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from 50 Cent’s 2005, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider subscribing to the trans legislation journalism of Erin Reed, and giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.
This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2005 Week continues here a discussion of Ciara’s dominant 2005, a year full of huge, beloved hits that set the tone for mid-’00s pop music, but proved pretty hard for the breakout artist to later match.
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After hitting the mainsteram in late 2004, with her debut album Goodies and its Billboard Hot 100-topping title track, Ciara stayed winning all throughout 2005. From peaking at No. 2 on the Hot 100 with the Missy Elliott-assisted “1, 2 Step” that January through to matching that success with her Ludacris-featuring spring smash “Oh!” to returning the favor to Missy on the latter’s smash “Lose Control” and teaming up with her real-life paramour Bow Wow on “Like You,” Ciara ended 2005 with five consecutive top five hits, and four top 30 entries on the year-end Hot 100. It was an incredible year, one that played a huge part in defining that era in pop — though, perhaps understandably, Ciara never equaled it again.
In this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by former Billboard writer and current freelance journalist (and Nothin’ But North Texas radio host) Natalie Weiner to officially kick off our 2005 week with a deep dive into The First Lady of Crunk & B’s biggest year. We start at the beginning of the Goodies era, when Ciara emerged as the ideal new pop star for a top 40 world that had become increasingly rooted in hip-hop and R&B, and run through her awesome streak of still-beloved smashes, and some of the collaborators who helped make her year what it was.
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And of course, along the way, we ask all the big questions about Ciara’s All-Star rookie season: What made her such a can’t-miss pop star for that moment in time? How weird was it that she was constantly cast as the one woman surrounded by a bunch of dudes? Did it hurt her in the long-term that she was never able to be a solo headliner on any of her early singles? How did Carmelo Anthony end up getting cast in the video for Goodies‘ lone flop single? And perhaps most importantly: Why don’t we ever seem to get pop star years as fun and simple as Ciara’s 2005 anymore?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from Ciara’s 2005, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider subscribing to the trans legislation journalism of Erin Reed, and giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.
Green Day entered 2005 at the center of popular music for the second time in its career — but the first time in a decade. The legendary pop-punk trio had taken over rock music and MTV from 1994-95 with its RIAA diamond-certified debut album Dookie, and had fortified their status as alt-rock fixtures in the […]