I think it's shifting at the moment. 5 years ago, it was undoubtedly Madonna. However, her last couple of albums have been very samey, and yet lacking a cohesiveness to the songs. I think Ray of Light was her last decent album, and that was a bit dodgy too. For me, she'll never again get anywhere near the creative genius she had around the True Blue/Like a Virgin era. To that end, I feel she is ceding her "Queen of Pop" crown to...
Kylie. Let's get it out of the way now:
Mmmm, Kylie. Kylie is, I believe, the only female artist to have had No1 hits in the UK in three consecutive decades. Her tight-permed sugar-pop days appealed to the 8-year-olds who thought that Neighbours was the height of dramatic acting. Her and her record company (Stock, Aitken and Waterman) gradually fell out, and in the early 1990s she signed to Euro (Dutch?) label DeConstruction. Here she did (in my view) her best work, with tracks like Confide in Me carrying some serious lyrics and tunes, all of which were a far cry from the SAW days. Sadly, the rest of the world disagreed, and few bought her albums (although Confide in Me was a huge single). Another switch of record company took her to where she is now. She's singing songs written by others for her (Cathy Dennis: is she a hit factory or what?!), and it's all working out really well. Live, she's excellent, even parodying her early work and the 1980s in general. Anyone who hears a trance version of The Locomotion, including a break where she sings "Chuff, Chuff Baby" to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby", knows that here is a woman who knows
exactly what she's doing.
Oh yeah, Kylie is it, no question.
Of the others, hmm. I don't think that Aretha, Gwen Stefani, Whitney, Pink or Shirley Bassey would thank you for calling them "Pop". Javine is rubbish, but somehow better than Geri. And Christina & Britney are just media whores.
You know me. As fun as gouging your eyes out with a biro
and make her 
