#Say something christina aguilera cd series#

(“It’s Britney, bitch,” were the first words of her comeback.) Her appeal narrowed.

The song was an important harbinger of her new style, which my colleague Lindsay Zoladz ably described as “posthuman.” But it also signaled that the winkingly not-that-innocent girl of the previous era had been changed. Following a four-year hiatus wracked with personal struggles, she returned to the spotlight with a disastrous performance of “Gimme More” at the 2007 Video Music Awards. It was Britney’s must-see-TV status that was ultimately her undoing, though. Her ballads from that period, such as “Lucky,” “From the Bottom of My Broken Heart,” and “Sometimes,” generally clock in with way fewer streams (though “Everytime” from 2003’s In the Zone has managed 27 million spins). Spears is an entertainer first and foremost, and there was no artist commanding attention the way she was in the early 2000s.

Then there was Britney in the red jumpsuit on Mars (45 million streams) and, of course, Britney with the snake (20 million streams). There was Britney in the Catholic schoolgirl outfit (63 million streams). The songs from the first Britney era that are still getting major spins are the ones most defined by visuals. Her streaming stats reflect this difference. Spears has lived two careers - one as a teenage/early-20s pop idol who reigned as a megastar of the late-CD era, and one as an older, diminished veteran who maintained a ravenously devoted fan base but couldn’t keep the fractured music-listening public of the digital age in her orbit. But whose music is resonating with listeners 17 years later? Spotify, the envelope please. Point is, even though their discographies and career arcs are wildly different, Britney and Christina are stuck together in the pop-culture pantheon. As their stardom faded, they both decided to be judges on televised singing competitions. Before they were famous, they both curved Justin Timberlake on the set of the Mickey Mouse Club (probably). Both sprang into the public consciousness with sexed-up, innuendo-laced music videos that were beamed to millions of tweens via the Disney Channel, for some reason. The two teen idols released debut albums seven months apart before the turn of the century, with Britney’s becoming a standard-bearer for bubblegum pop and Aguilera’s taking an R&B bent to show off her range. Pepsi of 1999 - no, really, Christina repped Coke and Britney shilled for Pepsi. How are today’s young people connecting with the legendary artists of yesteryear, and what does it say about the way these artists will be interpreted in the future? The Rivalryīritney Spears vs.

#Say something christina aguilera cd series#

Pac or Biggie? Britney or Christina? Beatles or Stones? In the series Pop Battles, The Ringer tries to settle long-standing music rivalries using listener data from Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming service.

One of the most rewarding parts of being a music fan is picking a side and arguing for it to the ends of the earth.