We’re done recapping the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century — find all of our past episodes for that series here — but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty of Greatest Pop Stars Podcast discussion to be had, as we begin to dive into our annual top 10 Greatest Pop Stars of the Year list for 2024!

As we begin with our 2024 rollout, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard staff writer Kyle Denis and magazine features senior editor Eric Renner Brown to talk about all the most important pop stars of 2024 who didn’t quite make the cut for our top 10. First, we zoom out on 2024 in general and talk about what made it such a special year for pop music — comparing it to some of the other greatest years in modern pop history, and looking at the factors that combined to make this such a fun 12 months for music fans to live through.

Then, we do a quick run through the four artists who made our top 10 for 2023 but couldn’t quite make our proper list or our runner-ups this year, before discussing all 10 of our Honorable Mention picks for 2024. We go through each of their cases, offer some dissenting opinions, and talk about what they might have to do to either return to the top 10 or make it for the first time next year. Then, we also remember the year in Shaboozey and Hozier, our respective Rookie and Comeback of the Year artists, and analyze what their pop prospects might be like moving forward. Finally, we talk about some of the honorable-mentions-to-the-honorable-mentions — some artists who it killed us to have to leave off, and some who aren’t really in the discussion yet, but we expect (and/or hope) to be elbowing their way in there soon.

Check it all out above, and be sure to check back next week as we start to recap the artists who did make our top 10 — truly, the most stacked year for pop star greatness that we can remember — before revealing our brutally difficult decision for the top two Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 on Monday, Dec. 23.