Aretha Franklin

About Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin (1942–2018) is ranked \#545 in historical importance by the MIT Pantheon project, reflecting her monumental global cultural impact as the "Queen of Soul." Her career was defined by a powerful, versatile voice that made her a crucial figure in gospel, R&B, and soul music, influencing generations of artists across various genres. Her repertoire includes definitive versions of songs that became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and feminism, cementing her status as a key cultural icon of the 20th century.

In terms of modern digital attention, Franklin garners 2.2 million Wikipedia views in 2025, which results in an "Attention Gap" score indicating she receives overattention relative to her historical ranking-a factor of $+6 ext{x}$ over her importance score. To contextualize this, her attention is comparable to that of Joan Baez (\#609 importance, 3.4M views), but she is significantly less viewed than contemporary musician Bob Dylan (\#736 importance, 12.0M views), despite his lower historical ranking. While her importance is high, her digital presence is proportionally stronger than many figures ranked higher on the HPI.

Data from 2025 suggests this attention is slightly fluctuating; while her overall views grew by $21.8\%$ year-over-year, the quarter-over-quarter momentum from Q1 to Q3 dropped by $13\%$, suggesting a cooling from peak recent interest.