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Top 10 Highest Earning Musicians of the Decade

You'll be surprised by number 1.


The trope of the struggling musician exists for a reason; it's undoubtedly hard to make a living in music.

But once you hit the big time and can easily sell out arenas, the money starts rolling in. The 2010s were a transformative time for music and a lucrative time for these 10 musicians. Most of these statistics are from Forbes, who "measures the industry's top-earning musicians annually for the Celebrity 100 by looking at touring data from Pollstar, music consumption numbers from Nielsen and interviews with managers, agents and many of the stars themselves."

10. Lady Gaga ($500 Million)

lady gaga

Lady Gaga has had a lucrative decade. She released five albums: Born This Way, Artpop, Cheek to Cheek, Joanne and the A Star Is Born album. She also had a performance residency in Las Vegas that contributed to her hefty net-worth of $500 Million.

9. Katy Perry ($530 Million)

katy perry

Katy Perry can mostly attribute her wealth to three successful world tours: California Dreams, Prismatic, and Witness, as well as her stint as a reality TV judge.

8. Paul McCartney ($535 Million)

paul mccartney

Paul McCartney has amassed a huge fortune in his decades-long career, and the 2010s continued that trend, earning The Beatles superstar a cool $535 million thanks to his first number one album since 1982 and an ambitious touring schedule.

7. Jay-Z ($560 Million)

Jay-Z is the first musician in history to become a billionaire thanks to the various companies he's built. But in the 2010s he earned $560 Million more thanks to his tour with Beyoncé and other musical pursuits.

6. Elton John ($565 million)

Thanks to massive world tours and a Las Vegas residency, the "Bennie and the Jets" singer has raked in over $500 million since 2010.

5. Diddy ($605 million)

The singer formally known as Puff Daddy has Ciroc vodka to thank for his lucrative decade.

4. U2 ($675 million)

U2's 360 Tour earned nearly $800 million, making it the highest-earning tour of all time.

3. Beyoncé ($685 million)

Beyoncé had smash hit after smash hit this past decade, a platinum album, and multiple hugely successful tours and festival performances.

2. Taylor Swift ($825 million)

Taylor Swift has the enduring popularity of her music and her rigorous stadium-packing tour schedule to thank for the millions she's made since 2010.

1. Dr. Dre ($950 million)

Despite barely releasing music this decade, Dr. Dre tops our list thanks to Apple's $3 billion buyout of Beats by Dre, a company Dr. Dre had a 20% stake in.

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Pom Pom Squad Celebrate Love's Gut Punches on "Red With Love"

The Brooklyn rockers seem poised to blow up in the indie world.

Pom Pom Squad has everything you could want from a Brooklyn-based indie-punk outlet—wailing guitars, searingly confessional yet simultaneously original lyrics, and music videos loaded with glitter and neon lights.

Their latest offering, "Red With Love," is a wide-eyed celebration of love, in all its overwhelming bittersweetness. The video plays with classic symbols of femininity—cheerleaders, prom queen crowns, wedding dresses—refracting them through glitchy filters and smashing them against streamer-covered diner counters. It perfectly encapsulates the sugary head-rush of desperation and glee that defines the sweet chaos of romance.

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The band might be most comfortable writing about the sharpest, bloodiest edges of romantic and emotional angst, but "Red With Love" is a marked change from that niche. It's an exploration of what it might mean to accept love for yourself and someone else. The product is tender and fierce and also extremely danceable.

"'Red' is my first proper love song and a pretty unguarded look into my heart, my relationship anxiety, and my acceptance of my own queerness," lead singer Mia Berrin told Paste.

"Red With Love" comes on the heels of the band's slow-burning cover of FKA twigs' "Cellophane," which offers a different kind of ecstasy. On that track, Berrin's voice breaks over fiery guitar and whirring synths, which sound like they're on the edge of shattering–until they do, collapsing into the song's aching final chorus.

The best indie rock bands have something far more than just catchy songs and emotional messages. Maybe it's a sense of forward motion combined with a deep internal ache, or a synergy that just clicks. Pom Pom Squad has whatever that magical X factor is, and it's no wonder that they've experienced so much success in the Brooklyn scene. Both "Red With Love" and "Cellophane" are examples of indie rock at its most golden, raw, and blindingly alive. It's likely that Pom Pom Squad won't stay a local gem for long.


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