Enough of teenyboppers; we recently got to wondering about the most popular pop/rock females over the age of 40.
We scanned last week's search results for the names of these musical grande dames. The 20 mosts earched over-40s are below. (Percentages show the popularity of each among the group of 20.)
The list:
23.8% Tina Turner
21.4% Cher
6.4% Stevie Nicks
5.7% Emmylou Harris
5.5% Marie Osmond
4.5% Cyndi Lauper
4.3% Annie Lennox
4.3% Joan Jett
4.1% Aretha Franklin
3.7% Grace Jones
3.6% Linda Rondstadt
2.8% Belinda Carlisle
2.4% Joni Mitchell
1.9% Deborah Harry
1.4% Patti Smith
1.2% Chrissie Hynde
1.0% Bonnie Raitt
0.7% Pat Benatar
0.7% Rita Coolidge
0.6% Wendy O. Williams
Surprise! The oldest rocker, Tina Turner, was also the most popular with Lycos users. Ol' Tina is the only woman born before 1940; she came into this world howling in 1939.
Three more of the top five were born in the 1940s: Cher ('46), Emmylou Harris ('47) and Stevie Nicks ('48). You read that right: Stevie Nicks now qualifies for an AARP card. Marie Osmond is more of a curiosity than a rocker, but she's also the youngest of the group at age 41.
The other oldest women in order: Aretha Franklin ('42), Joni Mitchell ('43), Rita Coolidge ('44) and Debbie Harry ('45).
In general one can say that the gen-yoo-wine rockers (like Smith and Williams) didn't fare as well as the pop stars like Cher and Lauper. Well, that's no surprise.
But we were surprised that neither Ann or Nancy Wilson of Heart made the top 20; aren't they supposed to be icons of rock? Two other notables who didn't make the list: Grace Slick and Rickie Lee Jones.
Sharp-eyed readers will note that we have omitted Madonna just to keep things interesting. There's no doubting she's over 40, but she also gets about four times as many searches as the rest of this group combined.
For more on musical women (and men), take a gander at Lycos Music, won't you?
