Postwar/which war doesn't mean much to me. However people take that term is up to them.
I was interested in the fact that David Remnick's comments about popular singers seemed to only include r&b and soul singers. My first thought was, what about country singers? - Hank Williams, Merle Haggard - gospel singers? - Rev. Claude Jeter and Sam Cooke (actually, there are many, many gospel singers I'd rather listen to before I'd want to listen to Aretha singing gospel) - or singers from non-American cultures? - I immediately thought of Cesaria Evora - and Billie and Louis can't be denied. If someone thinks that Aretha is "the greatest" - I wouldn't go there myself, there are just too many fine singers who are still with us and who have left us - that's ok for them, but I feel that there's too large a musical world out there to make that statement.
I enjoy listening to Aretha Franklin at times, but I feel that she's been riding on the coat tails of her Atlantic recordings from the late 60's since that time. Just my opinion on that.