Originally posted by ultraviolento

Aretha is the most influential and important vocalist that's for sure. That's impressive but at the same time, she's basically stuck in there. I think Madonna's influence on modern day popstars is greater and more widespread, not only regarding music/performances but even her whole control-freak-woman-in-business attitude has inspired huge pop female acts (see Bey, Taylor and Miley etc).

However, like you said, it's all about personal opinions. Both of them are heavily considered 2 of the most important/powerful females of the past century:

http://content.time.com/time/special...029774,00.html

So we shouldn't pit legends against eachother.