ADC said:

Eminem

Kelly Clarkson

Beyonce

Kanye West

Pink

Lil Wayne

Alicia Keys

Jennifer Lopez

Britney Spears

Usher (even though debuted in 1994, his success started in '97-'98)

Taylor Swift

All have been more successful than Rihanna and are more deserving to be hailed as iconic than silly ass Rihanna. To give her that kind of a citation is a joke. She's no "icon." They may as well give it to Dora the Explorer next.

[Edited 11/19/13 6:57am]

I"ll give your list a very generous B+. When RiRi accepts the FIRST ever American Music Award ICON honor this month I'll hold up my Gold-Goblet filled with Mello Yello and make a Toast to ALL her haters. She's a strong Sista doing it her way. Black female artists are ALWAYS torn down & bashed but they know how to survive the Dirty-game BETTER than any of'em....BOOM!.............

Chick can't sing worth a damn. You can paste any title you like on her but she is still mediocre in all fields of entertainment. Since musical standards have plummeted, that works more in her favor and since the media industry pretty much rules peoples' opinions these days, its no surprise that the mass marketing campaign has worked to some degree. The bottom line is, like I have said for years, awards are bought and paid for. If you are the label's golden boy/girl, its almost assured that you will get a cewrtain amount of rewards no matter how bad you suck.

At least back in the day, the general public had the capacity to smell the bullshit. Now, the public will "unapologetically" eat a bulshit sandwich and call it a delicacy.

^ Mediocre? You're being too kind Blaque.