Welcome to Pop Pantheon, the podcast where DJ Louis and sometimes me, producer Russ Martin, and guests overanalyze all of your favorite pop stars, then rank them in the official Pop Pantheon.

Today we are doing something a little bit different.

We are reacting to unpopular opinions.

We did this back last fall, and it was so much fun.

Right now, Louis is on a bit of a sabbatical to do some writing for his book. Reminder, you can go to potpathyonpod.com. There's a little book section that I have set up where you can sign up to be alerted when Louis has his book all done, which will be far far into the future. This is a very slow moving process book publishing, but we may have a couple little treats

if you sign up for that. So head to poppantheonpod.com and you can get updated on Louis' book.

In the meantime, you have me for some episodes, and I have called in a friend to react to these frankly wild opinions that y'all

have sent in. I have journalist, audio producer, and cultural critic. Rihanna Cruz,

Rana, welcome back to the show. I am so happy to be here. It's crazy. I am busting at the seams

ready to talk about these opinions.

So Rihanna has got a preview of some of these. I also shared a bit of a preview on our

Instagram account. And I want to start out with that one. It is a real sizzler. It comes from a

listener named Reese, who emailed us and said,

Lady Gaga is not really a great vocalist.

She is, quote, good in a conventional sense, but I don't think she's much better than any

trained musical theater geek eighth grader.

Brittany and Madonna are often mocked for their vocals, but to me, they're both better

than Gaga.

Brittany has an amazing gift for phrasing and very distinctive tone.

She can play different characters and match music perfectly.

Madonna has a weird, over-articulated way of pronouncing words and a shrill voice that

pierces through instrumentals without her having to sing loudly.

...