Aretha Franklin

About Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin, ranked #545 by MIT’s Pantheon project, is cemented in history as the undisputed Queen of Soul. Her pioneering blend of gospel, R&B, and pop established a vocal benchmark for generations of musicians across the globe. Her influential career spanned decades, securing her status as one of the most critically important musical figures of the 20th century, exemplified by essential works like the album *Amazing Grace* and her performance at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

When assessing modern interest, Franklin garners 2.0M annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This level of attention presents an Attention Gap of +5x, indicating she receives five times the attention relative to her historical importance rank (#545). To contextualize this overattention, we can compare her to Joan Baez, another pivotal singer whose historical importance is slightly lower at #609, yet Baez commands 3.6M views, suggesting a more significant online draw within the same musical field. Conversely, figures of much higher historical importance, such as Albrecht Dürer (#126), draw only 386K views, highlighting a stark prioritization of modern, popular culture figures in current internet traffic.

The data also reveals a recent softening in digital engagement; her 2025 Momentum shows a sharp -48% drop between Q1 and Q3 traffic, despite the overall Year-over-Year change remaining positive at +11.5%.