The mediation of popular musicians in the twentieth century results in the construction of cultural formations-mass mediated pop musician icons-that are, to various degrees, weighted down by the ideologies and concerns of those who receive them as mediated texts. In passing judgment on these cultural icons, the public engages in a massive act of reading, and in the process the icons become sites of personal and cultural signification. This study examines the nature of signification in and through mass mediated popular music icons by exploring the processes by which popular music icons are produced, circulated, and read as texts; and it examines, when appropriate, the significant content of these icons.