honorific nicknames in popular music

Aretha Franklin, "Queen of Soul", honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2005

Honorific nicknames in popular music are often [religious] , [familial] or (most frequently) [royal and aristocratic] in nature and are used as a form of expression in the media, or to identify the significance of an artist by fans. Honorific [nicknames] were used in [classical music] in Europe as early as the early nineteenth century, with figures like [Mozart] being called "The father of modern music" and [Bach] "The father of modern piano music". They were also particularly prominent in [African American] culture in the post- [Civil War] era, perhaps as a means of conferring status that had been negated by [slavery] , and as a result entered early jazz and blues music, including figures such as [Duke Ellington] and [Count Basie] .