The LIFE Picture Collection/GettySince 1927, TIME magazine has been naming a Man or Person of the Year. To mark International Women’s Day and the 100th anniversary of American women getting the right to vote, the publication has now compiled a list of the women who defined a century, choosing one woman per year from 1920 through 2019 — and some top female musicians made the cut, including Madonna and Aretha Franklin.
The Material Mom and the late Queen of Soul represent the years 1989 and 1968, respectively.
As TIME notes, in 1989, Madonna was already a superstar, but the release of Like a Prayer — as well as the title track’s controversial video — “marked [her] an artist in it for the long haul, one whose marriage of provocation and pop would inspire future generations to shape their careers in her image.”
TIME says Aretha owned 1968 because the three albums she released that year were “a salve for a torn nation” grieving after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The other female music artists who made the list were Beyoncé and Sinead O’Connor, who represent the respective years 2014 and 1992.
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