Of all places, I stumbled across this article on cnbc.com and I wondered who will have the biggest impact this year in music out of Britney, Gaga, Rihanna, Beyonce, Katy Perry, etc... What says the org?

Here's the link and article:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42301160/

Published: Monday, 28 Mar 2011 | 3:55 AM ET

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As Britney Spears prepares to launch her seventh studio album "Femme Fatale" on Tuesday, the pop star faces keen competition from Lady Gaga, Katie Perry and Rihanna, who reign atop Billboard's Hot 100 singles ranking.

AP Britney Spears

Her younger rivals' dominance this week may be coincidental — indeed, Spears also topped the ranking recently with "Hold It Against Me." — but the chart is a reminder of how crowded the pop diva market has become since Spears rose to fame as a teenager.

There is little doubt her fans will ensure brisk sales — Spears has sold nearly 70 million albums, according to label Jive Record — and her music is making headlines again instead of personal meltdowns, a custody battle and rehab stints.

Spears kicked off a string of promotions for the album on Friday with a performance at a Las Vegas nightclub.

On Sunday in San Francisco she will record a sold-out mini-concert to be aired on ABC's "Good Morning America" TV show on Tuesday.

Yet after more than 10 years in the music business, Spears, now 29, may have to do more to remain relevant in the era of Gaga, critics say. "As far as novelty goes, her natural demographic now has an icon as quirky and characterful as Lady Gaga to fascinate and fuss over," said Andy Gill of Britain's Independent newspaper.

"Gaga's music, let's be frank, is not that much better than, or even different to, that on 'Femme Fatale', but she knows the lingering appeal of playing dress up," he added in a two-out-of-five star review of Spears' record.

Adrian Thrills of the Daily Mail added: "The one-time gymslip diva has had to contend with the emergence of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna — a brash new wave of female performers who have made their mark while seemingly exercising far more creative control."

Reviews Range Widely

Reviews of "Femme Fatale" have been mixed. Among the most positive was Rolling Stone Magazine, which awarded the album four stars.

"Femme Fatale may be Britney's best album," wrote Jody Rosen, describing it as "a party record packed with sex and sadness." Hitmaking producers Dr. Luke and Max Martin were responsible for seven of the 12 tracks, while the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am was behind "Big Fat Bass" and Sweden's Bloodshy worked on "How I Roll" and "Trip To Your Heart."

Critics singled out "Hold It Against Me", with its dubstep influence, and "Inside Out," as well as "Till the World Ends," which Spin magazine called Spears' "first truly synapse-sizzling single since (2004's) 'Toxic.'" While there was broad agreement that the electro-pop, ballad-light record would be a dancefloor hit, critics felt Spears was in danger of disappearing as a voice and personality.

Alexis Petridis of Britain's Guardian newspaper awarded the album three stars, giving much credit to the producers for creating music that was "genuinely exciting." But he reflected negatively on Britney's voice, saying it was "as anonymous as ever, a state of affairs amplified by the lavishing of Auto-Tune." Spears' has said little about the album that has been two years in the making, although she has called "Femme Fatale," "my best work yet" on a recent radio appearance and stressed its dance roots.

"It's definitely something that you want to work out to," Spears said. "I'm a dancer so it's definitely something I can work with. It's just really fun."

[Edited 3/28/11 8:44am]

Britney is so blue collar and ordinary. Uninteresting.

Wowugotit said:

Britney is so blue collar and ordinary. Uninteresting.

I'd agree that she's not the most unpredictable act. I think if you love her already, you're probably buying it and will support the era. But I just don't see her winning over many new fans. Gaga seems to be the new kid on the block that's generating the most buzz. Do you think that Beyonce can compete with Lady Gaga? Again, I'm not limiting "big" to sale numbers but overall impact on the music industry. B's problem is similar to Britney's to me, familiarity. It seems like once they've been bitten with "success", they or their label or (father) won't allow them to deviate too far from what made them "successful". They stick to familiar patterns...

Hard to say at this point who'll have the bigger year, but Britney is off to a much better start than Gaga.

"Born This Way" is just so mediocre. And it's the title track! That doesn't bode well. I expected a lot more from her.

Militant said:

Hard to say at this point who'll have the bigger year, but Britney is off to a much better start than Gaga.

"Born This Way" is just so mediocre. And it's the title track! That doesn't bode well. I expected a lot more from her.

LOL! "Born this way" is, after 6 weeks, still number 1.

When it comes to sales, i can't think of a better start for an album than that.

Musicslave said:

Of all places, I stumbled across this article on cnbc.com and I wondered who will have the biggest impact this year in music out of Britney, Gaga, Rihanna, Beyonce, Katy Perry, etc... What says the org?

If that is the question.................music is DEAD!

Graycap23 said:

Musicslave said:

Of all places, I stumbled across this article on cnbc.com and I wondered who will have the biggest impact this year in music out of Britney, Gaga, Rihanna, Beyonce, Katy Perry, etc... What says the org?

If that is the question.................music is DEAD!

Music has been dead (commercial music that is).

Musicslave said:

Of all places, I stumbled across this article on cnbc.com and I wondered who will have the biggest impact this year in music out of Britney, Gaga, Rihanna, Beyonce, Katy Perry, etc... What says the org?

Please...none of the above. Amen!

I hope P!nk releases music soon.

tritoncin said:

I hope P!nk releases music soon.

That would be cool.

Im so glad I tuned my radio to NPR 10 years ago.

lazycrockett said:

Im so glad I tuned my radio to NPR 10 years ago.

Yeah, NPR has blessed me with countless discoveries throughout the years.

I'm so glad I got my computer.

I don’t know I think they both would do good the thing hurting Gaga was is that Born This Way was a mediocre song but it’s been doing so well on the charts so if Gaga can do good with a wack first single I can imagine if her next single is actually very decent how well it would do. I think Gaga's might be more anticipated.

Obviously Gaga should have a better year. She's much more talented. Attention whore? Yes but she's still talented. Shitney's vocals on these 2 songs are so processed and just don't sound good. The beats alone are carrying her songs

Militant said:

Hard to say at this point who'll have the bigger year, but Britney is off to a much better start than Gaga.

"Born This Way" is just so mediocre. And it's the title track! That doesn't bode well. I expected a lot more from her.

Are you serious? Check the charts. Shitney's first song came in at #1 but then quickly fell out of the top 10 and top 20. Her second single cracked the top 10 and fell out again. Gaga's first song is STILL #1. How is Shitney doing better than Gaga so far this year?

[Edited 3/28/11 14:21pm]

Gaga already surpassed Britney.

Britney needs to hang it up. How many times do we have to hear people makes excuses for her mediocrity?

Oh lawd

robertlove said:

Militant said:

Hard to say at this point who'll have the bigger year, but Britney is off to a much better start than Gaga.

"Born This Way" is just so mediocre. And it's the title track! That doesn't bode well. I expected a lot more from her.

LOL! "Born this way" is, after 6 weeks, still number 1.

When it comes to sales, i can't think of a better start for an album than that.

I was going to say something like that, Robert. Again, I'm not fond of Born This Way, but it's definitely been seemingly more successful than Britney's single.

musicjunky318 said:

fantastic

There's at least 4-5 hits on Britney's album. "Til The World Ends", "I Wanna Go" and "Big Fat Bass" are going to be fucking huge.

I like Gaga a lot, but "Born This Way" is quite easily her worst single to date. Blatant pandering to her gay audience, and a complete musical rip of Madonna's "Express Yourself". I expected much better.

Militant said:

There's at least 4-5 hits on Britney's album. "Til The World Ends", "I Wanna Go" and "Big Fat Bass" are going to be fucking huge.

I like Gaga a lot, but "Born This Way" is quite easily her worst single to date. Blatant pandering to her gay audience, and a complete musical rip of Madonna's "Express Yourself". I expected much better.

Britney's record "I Wanna Go" sounds like a straight Madonna "Hung Up" rip...

SideNote: At the Staples Center right now awaiting Lady Gaga's concert. Starts in about 2 hours

Even though Britney annoys me, I will give her songs credit when deserved, but her new work is total garbage. Gaga is more interesting than her now. Having that said, I don't listen to Born This Way voluntarily, I prefer her music before it.

ViintageJunkiie said:

Militant said:

There's at least 4-5 hits on Britney's album. "Til The World Ends", "I Wanna Go" and "Big Fat Bass" are going to be fucking huge.

I like Gaga a lot, but "Born This Way" is quite easily her worst single to date. Blatant pandering to her gay audience, and a complete musical rip of Madonna's "Express Yourself". I expected much better.

Britney's record "I Wanna Go" sounds like a straight Madonna "Hung Up" rip...

SideNote: At the Staples Center right now awaiting Lady Gaga's concert. Starts in about 2 hours

I don't think it sounds much like "Hung Up". The chord progression is mildly similar, but the Madonna song is built around the Abba sample anyway.....

Just listened to the whole Britney album (because it's free and i'm bored), uh yeah. I don't like Lady Gaga at all and I totally think 'Born This Way' is the biggest biting song I've ever heard (c'mon it's 'Express Yourself' from beginning to end u'd have to be deaf and blind not to see and hear it) but this Britney album is basically a weak techno album at best. I've heard waay better techno/trance albums than this back in the early 90s from un-heard of producers just randomly spinning in a club and recording it. Nothing new about Britney's new album unless u never listened to techno/trance/electronica in ur life. Her voice is soo altered and over-processed it could be 3 different people on this album singing or sing-talking (whatever - didn't we dog Ke$ha for this shit not to long ago). There are several producers and songwriters with their stamp on this album, none of them being Ms. Spears herself...what a shocker Guess somethings will never change so yay for her for sticking to her usual formula....paying others to do all the real hard stuff. Nothing spectacular about this album unless you are a dedicated Britney fan. I love techno/trance/electronica/house but this isn't worth the CD it's burned onto sorry but this writer said it best when it comes to Britney at this point in her career:

'She recognizes that she's a product and a brand.' ~ Producer Peter Zizzo from MSN.com article

Personally, I don't want either of them to get the biggest album sales this year crown but if I have to pick one of them I'll go with Gaga. At least she's not a total puppet and can write, play an instrument, and has vocal talent. But it's gonna be a close one so Just my

ViintageJunkiie said:

Militant said:

There's at least 4-5 hits on Britney's album. "Til The World Ends", "I Wanna Go" and "Big Fat Bass" are going to be fucking huge.

I like Gaga a lot, but "Born This Way" is quite easily her worst single to date. Blatant pandering to her gay audience, and a complete musical rip of Madonna's "Express Yourself". I expected much better.

Britney's record "I Wanna Go" sounds like a straight Madonna "Hung Up" rip...

SideNote: At the Staples Center right now awaiting Lady Gaga's concert. Starts in about 2 hours

Criminal sounds like a bootleg version of Madonna's Miles Away

trueiopian said:

Criminal sounds like a bootleg version of Madonna's Miles Away

Criminal does nothing for me, it's my least favorite song on the album.

I kinda like Britney's new album. I don't think it's as holy fucking awesome as Blackout was, but I do think there are some strong songs on it. I really don't like Gaga's 'Born This Way', at all, but I hope that her other material on her new album is way stronger.

Will Beyonce make a bigger impact on the industry and culture than Gaga? Is she even on her level? I heard on the radio this morning that Beyonce's dad won't be managing her anymore and I thought, "I guess the Beyonce machine is about to get cranked up again. It was fun while it lasted."

Its going to be fun seeing how this year in music plays out. Like others mentioned, I hope other genuinely talented artists catches on and make a significant impact other than the usual suspects of crap.