Editing Linda Ronstadt (section)

==== Highest-paid woman in rock ====
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| quote=Rock is the thumping heart of Linda's music, and the rock world is dominated by males. The biggest stars are male, and so are the back-up musicians ... rock beats are ... phallic, and lyrics ... masculine.&nbsp;... [[Janis Joplin]], the first great white woman rocker, rattled the bars ... but she died.&nbsp;... [[Joni Mitchell]] ... stylish (but can't) compete in drawing power with men ... (however) Linda Ronstadt ... has made herself one of the biggest individual rock draws in the world.|source=—''Time'' magazine, in 1977<ref name="Time" />}}
[[File:LindaRonstadtPerforming.jpg|thumb|left|Ronstadt at the [[New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum]], August 16, 1978<ref name="NEWHAVEN1978">[http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/linda-ronstadt/photography/fine-art-print/NHC780816-02-16.html "Linda Ronstadt: Black & White Photo Aug 16, 1978 New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum (New Haven, CT)"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192801/http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/linda-ronstadt/photography/fine-art-print/NHC780816-02-16.html |date=March 4, 2016}}, ''wolfgangsvault.com''</ref>]]
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans,<ref name="tiptheirhat" /> Ronstadt became the "highest-paid woman in rock".<ref name="doubleplatinum" /> She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the ''Billboard'' album chart, and numerous charting pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12&nbsp;million<ref name="tiptheirhat" /> ({{Inflation|US|12000000|1978|fmt=eq|r=-6}})<ref name="CPI1">{{Cite web |title=The Inflation Calculator |url=http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529155647/http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl |archive-date=May 29, 2008 |access-date=August 10, 2009 |website=The following form adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index}}</ref> and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17&nbsp;million{{snds}}grossing over $60&nbsp;million<ref name="Ward1978">{{Cite web |last=Ward |first=Ed |date=February 21, 1978 |title=The Queens of Rock: Ronstadt, Mitchell, Simon and Nicks talk of their men, music and life on the road |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DHJkAAAAIBAJ&pg=1859,3122645&dq=none+of+the+beatles+are+female+neither+are+any+of+the+rolling+stones+nor+were&hl=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016215805/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DHJkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7X0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1859,3122645&dq=none+of+the+beatles+are+female+neither+are+any+of+the+rolling+stones+nor+were&hl=en |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |access-date=November 25, 2012 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> ({{Inflation|US|60000000|1978|fmt=eq|r=-6}}).<ref name=CPI1 />

As ''Rolling Stone'' dubbed her "Rock's Venus",<ref name=RocksVenusSuccess /> her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 ''[[Greatest Hits (Linda Ronstadt)|Greatest Hits]]'' album would sell consistently for the next 25 years, and it was certified by the [[RIAA]] for seven-times platinum in 2001<ref name=RIAAsearch /> (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, ''[[Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (Linda Ronstadt album)|Greatest Hits, Volume 2]]'' was released and certified platinum.<ref name=RIAAsearch />

In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the [[Melbourne Cricket Ground]] in [[Melbourne]], and the [[Nippon Budokan|Budokan]] in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend [[Lowell George]], held at [[The Forum (Inglewood, California)|the Forum]], in Los Angeles.

By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPs{{snds}}''Hasten Down the Wind'' and ''Heart Like a Wheel'' among them.<ref name="PeopleMagazine">{{Cite web |date=October 24, 1977 |title=On the Charts and in Men's Hearts Linda Ronstadt is No. 1 With a Bullet |url=http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artpeo77.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808043812/http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artpeo77.htm |archive-date=August 8, 2007 |access-date=May 7, 2007 |website=[[People (magazine)|People]]}}</ref> ''[[Us Weekly]]'' reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, [[Joni Mitchell]], [[Stevie Nicks]], and [[Carly Simon]] had become "The Queens of Rock"<ref name=Ward1978 /> and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."<ref name=Ward1978 />

She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting [[The Great American Songbook]]{{snds}}made famous a generation before by [[Frank Sinatra]] and [[Ella Fitzgerald]]{{snds}}and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.