Was Britney one of the most hated celebrities back in her prime? Why?

[Blackout2006]

Back in the height of her career, even though she was a huge enigma you couldnt run away from, was she a very hated figure, since along with the price of fame, comes hate? And if she was hated, why was she?

I wasnt even born when Britney peaked, so thats why i am asking, lemme know

[NBT]

I'd say the love and affection for Britney has always outweighed any hatred across the board, but throughout her career, Britney has been hated for a myriad of reasons. 

To begin with, the main reason for the hatred was her image being too **** and controversial for her young fans. Her image was considered highly inappropriate and this angered parents unbelievably so. They believed she was a terrible role model for their young children and was "everything wrong with America". 

Further hatred then came around the time she split with JT - not only did this breakup cause a huge shift in her public image and the way she was perceived, but it was also around the time pop music was seen as "uncool" and people's tastes were shifting more towards rock and R&B. It was then uncool to like Britney's "superficial image" and musical output - people hopped ship to Avril Lavigne etc.

One of the biggest turning points, however, was when she started dating K-Fed and the years that followed. The Vegas wedding, the barefoot scandal, dressing like K-Fed along with Chaotic turned Britney into a trashy figure. People hated her and considered her a talentless hillbilly by this point. Not only did people see her as trashy, but she was overexposed, had oversaturated the tabloids and the general public were generally sick of her. She hated being in the limelight by this point and people HATED her being in the limelight. 

In the Matt Lauer interview, he asks who her audience would be if she was to release further music. At that time, it was a question everyone was asking. Who still listened to Britney Spears? Her teen audience had grown up. Children were no longer interested. Adults weren't interested. For quite a while, it seemed that her musical career was essentially dead and she was no longer relevant to any demographic. 

It's why a lot of fans feel like the breakdown, in a lot of ways, saved her career. It revitalised interest in her and solidified her status as an enduring pop culture icon. It's absolutely horrible to say that, but there's definitely some truth to it. For a long time, it felt like she'd come to the end of the road of her career with no turning back. 

(I feel like I went on a tangent there. What was your question?) 

[BlackoutInTheCircus]

I'm pretty sure there were a vocal minority of people who hated her but for the most part she was well liked by the general public  

[Nickey]

I don't remember her peak that good, but I remember people (and the media) making remarks like she's a stupid, brainless popstar, a product who's just out there making good sells just because of her looks.

Her early 30s was a good time to debunk this myth, but her team has chosen otherwise.

[Blackout2006]

8 minutes ago, Damon said:

I'd say the love and affection for Britney has always outweighed any hatred across the board, but throughout her career, Britney has been hated for a myriad of reasons. 

To begin with, the main reason for the hatred was her image being too **** and controversial for her young fans. Her image was considered highly inappropriate and this angered parents unbelievably so. They believed she was a terrible role model for their young children and was "everything wrong with America". 

Further hatred then came around the time she split with JT - not only did this breakup cause a huge shift in her public image and the way she was perceived, but it was also around the time pop music was seen as "uncool" and people's tastes were shifting more towards rock and R&B. It was then uncool to like Britney's "superficial image" and musical output - people hopped ship to Avril Lavigne etc.

One of the biggest turning points, however, was when she started dating K-Fed and the years that followed. The Vegas wedding, the barefoot scandal, dressing like K-Fed along with Chaotic turned Britney into a trashy figure. People hated her and considered her a talentless hillbilly by this point. Not only did people see her as trashy, but she was overexposed, had oversaturated the tabloids and the general public were generally sick of her. She hated being in the limelight by this point and people HATED her being in the limelight. 

In the Matt Lauer interview, he asks who her audience would be if she was to release further music. At that time, it was a question everyone was asking. Who still listened to Britney Spears? Her teen audience had grown up. Children were no longer interested. Adults weren't interested. For quite a while, it seemed that her musical career was essentially dead and she was no longer relevant to any demographic. 

It's why a lot of fans feel like the breakdown, in a lot of ways, saved her career. It revitalised interest in her and solidified her status as an enduring pop culture icon. It's absolutely horrible to say that, but there's definitely some truth to it. For a long time, it felt like she'd come to the end of the road of her career with no turning back. 

(I feel like I went on a tangent there. What was your question?) 

Wow the spillage

8 minutes ago, Damon said:

(I feel like I went on a tangent there. What was your question?) 

Was Britney one of the very very hated stars back then 

[Blackout2006]

8 minutes ago, BlackoutInTheCircus said:

I'm pretty sure there were a vocal minority of people who hated her but for the most part she was well liked by the general public  

But this thread says otherwise:

 

[Easy There]

Whenever something is popular overexposed is hated by parts of GP and ppl trying to be cool.

Britney was huge but she had lots of haters too. 

In recent years it happened to 1D although they had huge fan base,non fans hated them. Or simple disliked them for being so popular. Same thing happened to Bieber etc.

Whenever there is a pop phenomenon it is hated by ppl who are outside of their age group or ppl who hate pop music in general.

Just look back trough history from Spice Girls,Britney,JB,One D,Christina,Lindsay etc. It happens the most in teen pop circles.

 

[ShatteredBoy]

Yes. Because she was the most famous person on the planet and jealousy is a b-tch.

[Blackout2006]

3 minutes ago, Easy There said:

Whenever something is popular overexposed is hated by parts of GP and ppl trying to be cool.

Britney was huge but she had lots of haters too. 

In recent years it happened to 1D although they had huge fan base,non fans hated them. Or simple disliked them for being so popular. Same thing happened to Bieber etc.

Whenever there is a pop phenomenon it is hated by ppl who are outside of their age group or ppl who hate pop music in general.

Just look back trough history from Spice Girls,Britney,JB,One D,Christina,Lindsay etc. It happens the most in teen pop circles.

 

Yeah the thing with pop stars is that when children grow up into their teenage phase, they are more interest in different genres or having that emo phase of theirs. This causes severely famous popstars to be intensely hated at their peak.

[Blackout2006]

1 minute ago, ShatteredBoy said:

Yes. Because she was the most famous person on the planet and jealousy is a b-tch.

Welcome back to exhale @ShatteredBoy  

[MX3]

It was never cool to like Britney. Which seems strange to say considering how successful she was. I remember getting flack for it. Even now when I tell people that thats my biggest like musical influence or thats who I stan people look at me funny. And I'm like what *****????

She definitely was synonymous with 'manufactured, talentless pop' or 'everything wrong w music today'. She came up at a time when ROCK music actually dominated the charts too lol! Lots of 'punks' and 'real music enthusiasts' hating on pop in general - and because she was the biggest, HER NAME was it. 

Being 'uncool' was actually cool so lots of people would say things like "I'm not like Britney Spears" aka I'm not ****, not glamourous, not cute/happy, not bubbly, not popular, not dancing and tan and blonde...."I'M A REBEL. JUST LIKE YOU" lol barf. just as manufactured!!!! Sorry Avril lol 

So other than people rooting for her rights / being happy that she came out of the dark place she was in, people still don't really have respect for her as an artist which is ridiculous. She is inspiring in so many ways and her albums are just as good as any other pop albums released and I have no problem educating people lol. 

The long responses above mine definitely said it best but yeah....it's true. 

[Blackout2006]

7 minutes ago, MX3 said:

It was never cool to like Britney. Which seems strange to say considering how successful she was. I remember getting flack for it. Even now when I tell people that thats my biggest like musical influence or thats who I stan people look at me funny. And I'm like what *****????

She definitely was synonymous with 'manufactured, talentless pop' or 'everything wrong w music today'. She came up at a time when ROCK music actually dominated the charts too lol! Lots of 'punks' and 'real music enthusiasts' hating on pop in general - and because she was the biggest, HER NAME was it. 

Being 'uncool' was actually cool so lots of people would say things like "I'm not like Britney Spears" aka I'm not ****, not glamourous, not cute/happy, not bubbly, not popular, not dancing and tan and blonde...."I'M A REBEL. JUST LIKE YOU" lol barf. just as manufactured!!!! Sorry Avril lol 

So other than people rooting for her rights / being happy that she came out of the dark place she was in, people still don't really have respect for her as an artist which is ridiculous. She is inspiring in so many ways and her albums are just as good as any other pop albums released and I have no problem educating people lol. 

The long responses above mine definitely said it best but yeah....it's true. 

Yeah people really undermine her artistry and i wish people knew her true potential

[SpaceFunk]

Between 99 and maybe 04 she was everywhere. People couldn't escape into their phones back then so if you weren't a fan it could get annoying.

[NewDisplayName]

I will quote my own word:

"

Media and people starting tearing her apart from the very beginning.

And as the time went - haters numbers grew and people opinion that she was talentless,  just a doll, couldn't sing, couldn't act and even was a bad dancer comparing to a professional dancer like Jlo (never understood that side), Then VMA oops happened and adding Billboard cover she become a very bad role model very fast. Then slave and then a kiss with Madonna. 

Number of the haters (regardless to Media) was so HUGE I can't even express with words. 

Everyone wanted to say something bad about her, most of them did. 

The main narrative was that it was a really embarrassing to listen to Britneys music because she was talentless, basic, childish and people started no aware her in the beginning of oops era. But she still was unstoppable cause she captivated people back then so much.. even people say that she was the worst out there they were still listening to her, searching her in internet but started hiding that.  That's why in Britney era she sold so much less even she was #1 trend in the world.

It's just sad that people made of her the easiest target for abuse..  and when she got married and stopped releasing music the only thing left to the media was her personal life. 

Still don;t understand that narrative - why media and people hate her so much and trying to abuse her/lie about her/injur her reputation - The most logical explanation for me is that media was paid cause she was too huge.."

 

If the hate wouldn't be huge from other artists (who were just shaking of her impact) and media - gp wouldn't hate her as much as they did. Imagine when your favourite singer is telling that she/he will kill that talentless b***. your opinion would be like "Ou Britney is talentless, how can I like her music/movie/videos/personality. Cause my Fav is shading her (so does media). I should stop liking her, its not right thing to do "

 

[Easy There]

44 minutes ago, MX3 said:

It was never cool to like Britney. Which seems strange to say considering how successful she was. I remember getting flack for it. Even now when I tell people that thats my biggest like musical influence or thats who I stan people look at me funny. And I'm like what *****????

She definitely was synonymous with 'manufactured, talentless pop' or 'everything wrong w music today'. She came up at a time when ROCK music actually dominated the charts too lol! Lots of 'punks' and 'real music enthusiasts' hating on pop in general - and because she was the biggest, HER NAME was it. 

Being 'uncool' was actually cool so lots of people would say things like "I'm not like Britney Spears" aka I'm not ****, not glamourous, not cute/happy, not bubbly, not popular, not dancing and tan and blonde...."I'M A REBEL. JUST LIKE YOU" lol barf. just as manufactured!!!! Sorry Avril lol 

So other than people rooting for her rights / being happy that she came out of the dark place she was in, people still don't really have respect for her as an artist which is ridiculous. She is inspiring in so many ways and her albums are just as good as any other pop albums released and I have no problem educating people lol. 

The long responses above mine definitely said it best but yeah....it's true. 

Ppl have no respect for Britney spears the artist is partially her (her team fault). Especially since FF era.

[ColdAsFire88]

I’m gonna sound old but I was 10/11 when she came out and I remember Britney during BOMT and how quickly she became America’s darling. Parents raised eyebrows during the BOMT video and then she toned it down for Sometimes but she was sexualized again when people started asking if she had, had a **** job 

I feel the RS stone cover is when she started getting a lot of backlash. After that it was her cat suit in Oops and then the performance. Then the belly ring in the stronger video. After that it was her slave for you performance with using animals, basically being naked and her outfits & photoshoots got even sexier. Mind you this was during the time that she preached about staying a virgin... she assumed some responsibility but some of it was also assumed on her...during the Britney era is when Britney started to show us the real “Britney” and not the manufactured all american Britney. She started cursing, showing up late, refusing to answer some of the medias questions (thats when the media turned).

Then came the break up and Justin being a **** about taking her V card. People **** shamed her and she hid until The Kiss Performance and thats when all hell broke loose  In 2004 she got married to Jason so during the ITZ era Britney was Britney and she wasn’t America’s darling anymore. A lot of fans became haters or grew up and didn’t resonate with her. I still loved her though 

When she married Kevin it was kind of...seen as trashy and she was caught smoking more and drinking. She wasn’t a role mode anymore...She got pregnant (imagine a free woman in her 20s 🙄) and people made such a big deal about it. People said she was a one hit wonder and by then it was cool to hate her. They questioned her parenting skills and yeah...after that no matter what Britney did she couldn’t win. When she announced her divorce people cheered for that. Can anyone imagine America cheering for your own failed marriage  So yeah thats kind what I grew up seeing my pop idol go through 

[Blackout2006]

2 minutes ago, Easy There said:

Ppl have no respect for Britney spears the artist is partially her (her team fault). Especially since FF era.

Yet ironically, FF was the last era the GP checked for her

[Blackout2006]

1 minute ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

I’m gonna sound old but I was 10/11 when she came out and I remember Britney during BOMT and how quickly she became America’s darling. Parents raised eyebrows during the BOMT video and then she toned it down for Sometimes but she was sexualized again when people started asking if she had, had a **** job 

I feel the RS stone cover is when she started getting a lot of backlash. After that it was her cat suit in Oops and then the performance. Then the belly ring in the stronger video. After that it was her slave for you performance with using animals, basically being naked and her outfits & photoshoots got even sexier. Mind you this was during the time that she preached about staying a virgin... she assumed some responsibility but some of it was also assumed on her...during the Britney era is when Britney started to show us the real “Britney” and not the manufactured all american Britney. She started cursing, showing up late, refusing to answer some of the medias questions (thats when the media turned).

Then came the break up and Justin being a **** about taking her V card. People **** shamed her and she hid until The Kiss Performance and thats when all hell broke loose  In 2004 she got married to Jason so during the ITZ era Britney was Britney and she wasn’t America’s darling anymore. A lot of fans became haters or grew up and didn’t resonate with her. I still loved her though 

When she married Kevin it was kind of...seen as trashy and she was caught smoking more and drinking. She wasn’t a role mode anymore...She got pregnant (imagine a free woman in her 20s 🙄) and people made such a big deal about it. People said she was a one hit wonder and by then it was cool to hate her. They questioned her parenting skills and yeah...after that no matter what Britney did she couldn’t win. When she announced her divorce people cheered for that. Can anyone imagine America cheering for your own failed marriage  So yeah thats kind what I grew up seeing my pop idol go through 

Wow, i can already image what a crazy time it was to be a fan. Despite all the hate, she was still selling albums, still breaking records and still was the most searched celebrity in 2005 & 06, even when she wasn't releasing a new album. Her star power was truly something someone cannot deny.

3 minutes ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

When she announced her divorce people cheered for that. Can anyone imagine America cheering for your own failed marriage 

The thing is that people werent celebrating SHE having a failed marriage, but getting away from Kfed

Because lets be honest, KFed is no George Clooney or Hrithik Roshan and when people saw one of America's most gorgeous and beautiful woman with a guy like him, despite the hate she had, they really wanted her away from that man

[Blackout2006]

12 minutes ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

Then the belly ring in the stronger video.

That was "controversial"?

[ColdAsFire88]

2 minutes ago, Blackout2006 said:

Wow, i can already image what a crazy time it was to be a fan. Despite all the hate, she was still selling albums, still breaking records and still was the most searched celebrity in 2005 & 06, even when she wasn't releasing a new album. Her star power was truly something someone cannot deny.

The thing is that people werent celebrating SHE having a failed marriage, but getting away from Kfed

Because lets be honest, KFed is no George Clooney or Hrithik Roshan and when people saw one of America's most gorgeous and beautiful woman with a guy like him, despite the hate she had, they really wanted her away from that man

The thing is though...even when Britney tried to “disappear” and go live happily ever after people still mocked her. When you have a failed marriage it burns. It hurts and I mean put yourself in her shoes. Hearing people cheer for her pain? Like yeah Kevin wasn’t good for her but still. She even says in FTR how hurt she was after her split with Kevin.