Just catching up on what I missed in this thread, you gurls don't mind a short story do you?
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Originally posted by Delita_chan
Britney, while having successful pop hits in an era with virtually no pop music (the 2000s) didn't provide anything groundbreaking. Much like Celestial mentioned in another thread, if she truly had a powerful, legendary impact on pop music, why did pop remain in the background, hidden by R&B/Hip-hop? This is the same environment Gaga worked with and although I care not who outsells who, it was really Gaga that brought all the dancey pop stuff back to radios. I personally shunned radio between 2000-2008 because I'm a big pop fan and Britney, well, sorry, her music just didn't do it for me. It wasn't until I heard "Just Dance" in 2009 that I started with mainstream music again. Now I'm lovin' this dance stuff.
Oh yeah and it's pretty obvious Lady Gaga will steal the thunder this year (in answer to the poll question).
Sorry about the mistakes (if any). Le keyboard is misbehaving.
Notice that Britney is suddenly making the techno/club/dance beats with HIAM. Why? Because it's what's hot now Ground breakers don't follow, they lead.
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FYI, at the beginning/height of Britney's career, POP MUSIC DOMINATED music, Bubble Gum Pop to be exact. Britney Spears was a leading pioneer for that movement which invaded radio, television, and the world in general. The girl set records in the industry that were once thought to be unprecedented at the time. There is a reason for why EVERY record label were looking for "the next Britney Spears." Hell, a different breed of artist was created as a spin-off to her, "The Anti-Britney's" (Avril and P!NK). They all wanted to cash in on the movement that she helped create in the Pop landscape at the time. All this done by a teenager whose drive and passion to succeed for exceeded that of an ordinary teenager. The R&B/Hip Hop Movement didn't begin till late 2002-2006, in-between that time period, we only seen her release one studio album with "In The Zone" in 2003. Due to Billboard's format, Toxic's impact will never truly be fully understood in the US if looking back on the charts. The song, Toxic, isn't mentioned as one of the best songs to come out of last decade for no reason.
To address your talking about about Hip Hop/R&B overshadowing Pop at that time.....Pop music had no choice but to take the back-burner in that time period. All of the big artists who were apart of the Bubble Gum Pop era were all growing older and changing up their sound, style, and experiencing life in general. She was no longer that teenage girl who was the leading advocate for bubble gum Pop. Like fanbase, she was growing up and she needed to from what she was to the woman she was discovering inside. As you grow older, you experiment and change up your opinions/tastes. The "In The Zone" era, we seen her experimentation of life coming full circle with her womanhood/sexuality. She took an aggressive approach to being hands-on with the album and dabbled with reggae, electro-pop, and adult contemporary songs. Writing, producing, composing, etc...she was really developing her artistic craft at that time. Even her dancing was elevated to new heights with her most complex routine coming from the debut single of "Me Against The Music."
Eventually, she takes a break from her career to settle down and build the family she always said she wanted. Her marriage and pregnancies lead to a tragic mental breakdown, where she made bad decisions, lost a HUGE figure in her life to cancer (Her Aunt Sandra, someone she considered a second mother), and then she allowed horrendous people into her life such as a Sam Lufti. Next thing you know we have Blackout....
Also, I'm sorry to tell you, but Gaga isn't responsible for bringing Dance Pop to radio, that would go to Justin T., Beyonce and Rihanna from 2006-2008 time period. Gaga only helped magnify the appeal of mainstream appeal; not bring it back, which is still should be commended for such an impact she made in the Pop world.
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Originally posted by Celestial
That is so untrue and you know it. Britney was relevant early on in her career and she's never managed to reach that status again since her mental health deteriorated and she was placed under conservatorship. Her commercial relevancy peaked from 1998-2001, and her critical acclaim peaked from 2001-2004. Much like Chrisitna Aguilera her success is largely exaggerated in that it's heavily dependant upon her first two albums. Take those out of the picture, and Britney's career has been very ordinary since then.
Chrisitna was her main rival at the time and the two of them will always be connected, but Britney is the one who some people had hyped as Madonna's successor. She never lived up to it. Within three years GaGa has already mustered enough critical acclaim to outweigh what Britney accomplished in her entire career. Britney has always had a devout following, but whether or not the impact she made into the world of pop music was a good thing or not is questionable. Let's not forget that Britney "dominated" in an age when pop music was in decline, a decline which she could not prevent. Pop was revived in 2008, and she's not leading that revival, she's very much following. So much so that the lead single to her much anticipated 7th album was rejected by one of her rivals. Britney has become a label puppet and that's a fact that even her most devout fans will admit to.
Lady GaGa will outsell Britney, but that's not because she's a "fresh act". She's been in this industry for three years, like Britney people expected her to be a one hit wonder yet time and time again she proves them wrong. GaGa is here to stay and those that don't like it will have to put up with it. She's relevant in every corner of the planet right now, in some places she has reached a height that Britney never quite did. I think Britney can be successful for years to come, but the extent of that success is largely going to depend on her own actions. She has to promote if she wants to compete. The pop market is more competitive than it has been in a long time. She may be able to open with 410k because of her large following, but if she wants to prevent future releases from declining at a rapid pace then she will have to work a little harder. She is a "bad bitch" after all. 
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False, her commercial success peaked in 2002, not 2001. The "Britney" era was where she became the spokesperson/face of several endorsements and splattered all over the front page of magazines around the world. Her career isn't exaggerated, what so ever. When your first two albums have achieved something along the lines of what they did, being some of the best selling female albums of all-time, it becomes understandable that one may never be able to match or exceed that commercial success. Only so many other big name women in music history have done better than her at moving records worldwide through their reign. As for albums following the first two, they were heavily effected by the emergence of "illegal downloads." Though the impact of illegal downloads were felt, selling 11 and 7 million worldwide was still an amazing feat for "Britney" and "In The Zone" to have achieved. Those numbers were very much some of the best selling albums released at that time. Maybe, not THE best selling album, but one of them nonetheless. With that emergence of illegal downloads, Britney was named a few times as the most illegally downloaded artist in the world....that definitely makes a difference in sales.
Side note, her critical acclaimed work did not peak in 2004, she had highly acclaimed work in Blackout (that she was THE Executive Producer for) with publications such as Time and Rollingstone magazine. They named "Blackout" as one of the best things to come out of the 00's. Let's also not forget recently, "Hold It Against Me" has been a HIT with the critics and was well-received.
When she first started to become big, Gaga was definitely thought to be at first a one-hit wonder after Just Dance and Poker Face smashed, but she kept proving people wrong with the release of more songs. People here on ATRL in 2008 expected her to be a one-hit wonder and as a member back then, I know you remember such talk being said. Pop music did not revive itself in 2008, in 2007, Rihanna released an amazing Pop album in "Good Girl Gone Bad" which was had MASSIVE appeal worldwide and let's not forget Mr. Timberlake with "FS/LS," where he constructed a perfect blend of Pop and a dab of R&B in his work. As I stated above, Gaga only helped "magnify" the Pop music genre in 2009. Just Dance wasn't anything ground-breaking, I think that honor would go to "Poker Face." Oh and Britney didn't come into the business at the downward spiral of Pop Music, the genre was very much so doing fine for itself. Such artists like, Janet, Mariah, the Spice Girls, BSB, etc held down the fort in the 90's till Britney came.
Surely you aren't comparing a person's career from being 12 and a half years in to a career bing 3 years in? THAT'S A HUGE difference. People don't stay consistently at the level of their career peak, like gravity, what goes up must come down. Gaga isn't an exception to that rule. She's still living good at the top right now which may be possibly her career peak, who knows...only time will tell. I fully expect her to still be a force in the music industry a decade from now, just like Briney was/is to this day. Like you said, the extent of her success will lie in how she supports the new material. Unlike Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Rihanna, and such....Britney is a mother of two small children. Children who she shares custody with their father. The girl can't even take the kids out of the state without weeks worth of court petitions and permission of a judge, all because of what transpired during her breakdown. Britney's priorities have shifted since her prime, she values motherhood more than anything in this world right now...as she should. The constraints in which she operates under are amazing, yet she's doing what she can under them. I am appreciative of whatever she does because she doesn't have to do what she does.
Her importance and popularity can still be seen in such things as her tour numbers from, "The Circus...Starring Britney Spears." The tour grossed 131.8 million worldwide from ticket sales alone, within 100 dates. For an artist under 40 years old, that's an AMAZING feat to accomplish. None of her contemporary counterparts have grossed the amount she has in the under 100 dates. People have to tour over a 110-300 show dates just to get to 100 million grossed WW. The demand and amount of money spent on her is a testament to the force and legacy that the legendary, Miss Britney Jean Spears has built.
) is understandable, but sometimes you need to determine which battles are worth fighting as some may be lose-lose. 
. Foxay spille the tea 
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