Female artists eras being pitted against each other?

[StrawberryBlond 13,245]

What with AP's resurgence recently, it got me thinking back to that time when it was released a month apart from Katy Perry's Prism. The media, public and fans pitted them against each other like crazy. The media and public sided almost completely with Katy, sending Roar soaring to #1, making it quite possibly her biggest hit ever and by comparison, Gaga with Applause looked like she was failing. And lots of Katy fans laughed at us and rubbed it in our faces. Throughout the entire era, we had articles about why AP was such a disaster for Gaga, Katy fans joined right in and it was widely speculated that Gaga's career was over. It was an awful time to be a Gaga fan. And the thing was, I couldn't remember any other female artists being pitted against each other to this extent when they released albums in the same year. Was this a new phenomenon? And then I thought, I guess Britney and Xtina were pitted against each other back in the day, even when they didn't release albums in the same years and the comparison was mostly fuelled by fans. Is anyone here old enough to remember how Madonna and Cyndi Lauper were compared when they debuted at the same time? I do know the critics praised Cyndi a lot more but I don't know the level into which is became a rivalry fuelled by the media.

I hope we're now moving on past this sexist practice. I don't see male artists being held up to this pressure when they release albums in the same year. They're just allowed to co-exist without comment, even when they actually are similar. Because not all female artists who get compared are similar. The only similarities between Gaga and Katy are that they're female, make pop music (though very different types of pop) and are of similar age. But similarities like this don't really cause male artists to be compared.

[bionic 37,584]

Women being pitted against other women is a tale as old as time, unfortunately  

Britney and Xtina were too very different types of popstar and they were pitted against each other solely for the reason of being women AND because it SELLS MAGAZINES

And sadly its not exclusive to popstars either. Look at how the media have fictionalized a 'feud' between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton when no doubt the real beef is between Harry and William. The female 'cat drama' sells.

A dark part of society

[FfFfFfFF 54,014]

Let's not forget about Beyonce & Raini Rodriguez 

 

[Blahwhatever22 7,991]

 

[The Child 18,994]

This one

 

[Soliloquy 112]

Ayumi Hamasaki's Greatest Hits album, A Best and Hikaru Utada's Distance were pitted against each other against Ayumi's will:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Best

At the time, both albums broke several records: 

Hikaru Utada sold over 3 million copies in album sales in Japan alone in the first week (Record not broken until Adele's 25 for highest first week sales in a single country) 

Ayumi Hamasaki sold around 2.8 million copies in Japan alone the first week. 

Even though Ayumi has explicitly told the label she wanted to release the Greatest Hits album after a few more albums as she did not have materials to even justify one yet. 

Actually, during the ARTPOP vs. PRISM fuel, I saw some members mention this lol, guess women being pitted against other women is truly a tale as old as time 

 

 

[Agunimon 20,113]

Female artists being compared to the extent they are and being pit against each other is the pop cultural equivalent of male athletes having the same thing done to them. Male artists are compared as well, but not as prominently by the media, just as female athletes are compared.

[StrawberryBlond 13,245]

Of course women have always been pitted against each other but what I'm pointing out specifically is are there more examples, other than Katy and Gaga, of female artists having their albums pitted against each other if released in the same year? I hadn't seen that full-on "which side are you on?" take on things where every part of 2 women's eras were compared as they were happening until Katy vs. Gaga in 2013.