Why did Ayumi channel Britney Spears so much in the Rainbow era?

[mowbli]

Discuss.

[Andrenekoi]

Sound-wise and image-wise (personal style aside) she actually chanelled Ray of Light Madonna...

About following Britney style-wise, probably because she was the biggest popstar in the world at the time... Between 2001 and 2004 Britney had her peak.

[tbarnes10]

Rainbow is one of my all time favorite albums, and I can see some Brittney in her Rainbow era image (not music), but I think its more her channeling late 90s early 00s US pop than Brittney in particular (although Brittney is basically the description of early 00s pop).

Also Andrenekoi, I can't speak for Brazil, but Brittney's peak in the US was 1998-2001.

[Andrenekoi]

^Toxic was released during 2003 and is considered to be her best and most important song (her only grammy)... Also, The Onyx Hotel Tour would be her biggest tour at that time if she didn't had her knee injury... She was still the biggest popstar in the world back then.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Paris Hilton was also another style icon at the time. The Von Dutch phenomenon is largely contributed to her (at least for women...), along with the track suits.

Jennifer Lopez was another one

But it's the same reason why once Lady Gaga got popular everyone started dressing "weird"--just trying to keep up with what's selling/cool.

[tbarnes10]

I love toxic and I think a lot of people know that song, but if you ask anyone what her biggest song is everyone in the US will say either "Oops!...I did it Again" or less likely "...Baby One More Time". Between 98 and 01, she was basically the definition of US Pop Culture.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

^Toxic was released during 2003 and is considered to be her best and most important song (her only grammy)... Also, The Onyx Hotel Tour would be her biggest tour at that time if she didn't had her knee injury... She was still the biggest popstar in the world back then.

Toxic was way past her "peak", by that time there was already talk of her beginning to go down in popularity in comparison to where she was.

[tbarnes10]

I wouldn't say way past her peak. I'd say it's more Oops was her peak, and toxic was the next big thing she tried to release. It worked to keep her relevant and extremely popular but didn't keep her as the unquestionable biggest singer in the country.

But seriously "Oops...I did it again" was truly a phenomenon back when it was first released

[Andrenekoi]

You guys are aware I said "world's biggest" and not "america's biggest" right? There are a lot of people who got huge there but couldn't tour Europe or Asia or Latin America...

[Chibi-Chan]

I have to agree that her peak was around 2000 and 2001. Also here in Germany everyone remembers her for "Oops... I did it again" and when "Boys", "I'm a slave for U", "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman" and so on were released, she was VERY popular. My whole class went to watch her movie. But when "Toxic" and "In the Zone" were released, she basically was "over" and people weren't interested in her anymore. In Europe and the US "Britney" sold around 7 million copies whereas "In the Zone" sold about 4 million copies. And if you look it up, "Britney" also sold in most other countries also more than "In the Zone". In Japan it was plus minus the same (250k) and if she didn't manage to sell in China and Korea alone around 2.000.000 copies I'm pretty sure for Asia it was the same like in Europe and the US. At least my friends from Indonesis say the think she was most popular around "Britney" was released.