On this week's episode of Glee, they paid tribute, of sorts, to some of music's top rivalries (Elton-Madonna, NSYNC-Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey-Nicki Minaj). One rivalry conspicuous by its absence was Britney-Christina.
There are a couple reasons for that oversight, the most obvious being that Glee had covered so many Britney songs already, they just had nothing left in the tank (or as Kevin McHale's character Artie said in "Britney 2.0:" "We've scrapped the bottom of the Britney barrel.").
However, there's another reason Glee passed on the Britney-Christina feud, a very simple reason that doesn't have to do with the number of songs Glee has featured from either girl. Simply put, they never had a feud.
Sure, the media would have you believe that the two blond (well, now one blond and one brunette) singers were bitter rivals from day one (and are still to this day). The girls, themselves, always painted a different picture by claiming that they never feuded. Christina, especially, liked to claim the media pitted them against each other because they were young, successful female artists.
That begs the question of who's right. Did Britney and Christina feud or did the media, as Christina claims, pit them against each other because they were young, successful girls? I think the evidence clearly shows that they never really feuded, aside from a brief spell in 2003-2004 (after the 2003 VMAs). Truthfully, even that little spat was media controlled.
After Madonna kissed both girls, the media only focused on Britney and ignored (like the MTV cameras did) Christina. Later, Christina claimed that Britney lip-synched her parts of the performance. Britney then fired back in Blender magazine that Christina was "dark and scary." And that's really all the shots they've taken at each other.
I don't know the technical definition of the word feud, but I'm confident it requires the feuding parties to attack each other more than once.
To be fair, I feel bad for Christina, because if they ever did feud (or are feuding) Britney either dominated or is dominating. Not to say that Christina hasn't had success; she has awards, plus commercial and critical love. She's just been stuck in Britney's shadow from the beginning.
Christina has two #1 albums. Britney has six. Christina has sold over 17 million albums in the United States. Britney has sold twice that amount. Christina has five #1 singles, but only one since 2001 ("Moves Like Jagger," as a featured artist in 2011). Britney has had four #1 singles since 2008 (one as a featured artist with Rihanna).
Just look at Christina's numbers and they're pretty impressive. Unfortunately, they don't compare to Britney's. If you throw away sales and just focus on critical reviews, a category you'd expect Christina to dominate with her amazing voice, she actually loses there, too. According to metacritic, which complies all reviews and assigns them a number (0-100), Christina's average score is 58. Britney's is 64.
Throw in personal problems, which both have had (Christina's been arrested, Britney lost custody of her kids), bad performances (Christina forgot some of the words to the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, Britney humiliated herself at the 2007 VMAs) and relationship problems (both are divorced), and Christina can't seem to catch Britney anywhere. Even physically, as most people would argue that while Christina is attractive, Britney's just more so.
Maybe this is why Glee didn't include the Britney-Christina feud, because if it was a feud, Britney is wearing the belt after a first round KO.
Ironically, when they both first started, the media couldn't wait to write Britney's obituary, yet never said that Christina's 15 minutes of fame were nearing. Now, the media can't pile dirt on Christina's grave quick enough, all the while marveling at Britney's longevity.
I don't think they ever feuded. I think they just happened to be two young, pretty, blond girls who sang pop music that the media lumped together. Sadly, it just makes Christina's accomplishments look weak when pitted against Britney's. Hopefully history doesn't remember her as that "other" blond girl.
She deserves better.
