Hilary Duff says she got into music because of Britney Spears

As if we didn't need another reason to hate Madonna...

Disney basically saw the opportunity to make Hilary into a Britney 2.0 for tweens. She was big for a time. They did try this before with Alexz Johnson (a cute blonde girl singer) from So Weird, they tried breaking the Latino pop market with Myra and they tried making their own boy band with Youngstown who sang the ending theme for The Famous Jett Jackson though none of them were succesful. Jesse McCartney was their attempt at creating a male counterpart to Hilary AKA their Justin Timberlake and he did well for a time. The Cheetah Girls was basically Destiny's Child/TLC lite and are memorable. The Jonas Brothers and Aly & AJ were somewhat successful and can still tour. Raven, Vanessa Hudgens, Emily Osment, Mitchel Musso and Corbin Bleu all flopped like bad. Then when they started pushing Miley, Selena and Demi they actually had some real stars.

Makes perfect sense.

Her songs didn’t do that well. The next big Disney generation (Miley, Selena, Demi) have done much better than her in pop music.

Yeah Hilary was basically Britney 2.0. She even followed the same strategy. Start out all upbeat and wholesome then turned dark and sexual with Dignity. She then tried to pull a folk pop sound with Breathe In. Breathe Out. Even though Hilary cannot sing, her music is very catchy and enjoyable for what it is. Beat of My Heart and Wake Up are pure pop candy. Jesse McCartney and Aly & AJ are also my guilty pleasures.

Ashley Tisdale and Lindsay Lohan weren't signed onto Disney/Hollywood Records but their music wasn't bad either. Rumors by Lindsay Lohan and He Said, She Said by Ashley are good pop songs and would have been more successful if someone like Gwen, Britney, Fergie or Ciara had recorded them instead.

For a long time it was impossible to find a single video of Duff singing live - I was beginning to think she has a ghost singer but then finally this clip of her actually performing live appeared. She does have a very limited range but she's not entirely untalented. And she's Tebaldi compared to some other tone-deaf Disney songbirds (like Selena Gomez).

Hilary has a very tiny voice. She's like Janet, Ashanti and Kylie Minogue. Tiny baby voice that can carry a tune and sound pretty and melodious but not going to win any singing contests. Her voice is much more pleasant than Selena, Camila, Katy and Miley who give me headaches. I do find it comical that in [italic]Raise Your Voice[/italic] they tried to write Hilary to be this amazing singer.

I wonder what would have happened to Zac Efron if he took that Disney music contract like his HSM cast members did. I imagine Zac would have gotten the Hilary, Jesse and Miley treatment and given the best songwriters, producers and marketing due to how solely popular and hot he was. Even if he couldn't sing to save his life, he may have given Bieber a run for his money.

More talented than Aaron Carter and Justin Bieber.

Can’t stand this girl.

She really had her moment between 2003 and 2007. MTV and Disney Channel really loved to push her music videos. "Come Clean" was even the theme song for Laguna Beach and she was always winning #1 video of the day on TRL. But still she was of the era when most teen stars still stayed in their lane so to speak. It was when Miley, Selena, Demi and Zendaya came around that we really saw Disney stars actually become mainstream names. The guys still struggle to break into mainstream except for Shia and Zac.

[quote] Duff once again attracted media attention in May 2020 after a thread posted by a user on Twitter claimed Duff to be sex trafficking her son. The user caused Duff to be a trending topic on Twitter for the entire day. The rumour stemmed from a since-deleted Instagram story upload by Duff back in March 2020 of her celebrating her son's birthday which involved her preparing a photo collage. One of the photographs showed her son partially nude and covered in lotion. Responding to the allegations, Duff tweeted on her Twitter account saying, "Everyone bored af right now I know..but this is actually disgusting..... whoever dreamed this one up and put this garbage into the universe should take a break from their damn phone. Maybe get a hobby". Her statement has since been retweeted more than 23,000 times, and both the Twitter and Reddit threads falsely accusing her have been deleted

This and that dead Lizzie reboot is the most press she has gotten in years. She needs to take advantage of this and release music now.

R11 = Faye Dunaway

Imagine if they did make that Bonnie & Clyde movie with Hilary Duff in it. Would Hilary actually ended up being a Hollywood A-lister for a period of time? Imagine how angry Lindsay Lohan would have been.

Her song ‘Stranger’ - and the video - was and still is my fucking jam.

Ilove the blend of Bollywood beats and the delirious techno swirls, and it’s cool to hear Hilary doing that low smoky sinister speak-singing thing. Apparently the song was composed with the divorce of Hilary’s parents in mind.

The revenge-plot concept of the video is killer, too. And Hills looks so gorgeous, especially in the belly-dancer outfit. She can dance, we never talk about that.

Mandy Moore did the quasi-Bollywood thing better with "In My Pocket".

R4 Hilary Duff left Disney too early. Lizzie McGuire was a huge hit, as big as Hannah Montana was for Miley. As usual, money negotiations got in the way and she left after only two seasons. If she would have worked something out with Disney I think she may have been much more successful.

I always liked LaLaine. Disney screwed her over. She apparently left Lizzie McGuire (and absent from the movie too) to film You Wish and had a record deal with Disney but they didn't promote her music at all. Just like with Raven and Christy Carlson Romano but to make it worse Lalaine didn't even get music videos. Lalaine was also signed on to do a Lizzie McGuire spin-off focused on her young sister and herself with the younger sister character being played by Selena Gomez. It got scrapped and Selena instead got cast in Wizards of Waverly Place. I still can't believe Lalaine had a meth addiction. She seems to be doing well now.

Who?

🙄🤔

R20 Hilary Duff. She was my generation’s equivalent of Annette Funicello.

Who’s Annette Funicello? Maybe sh was my generation’s Olivia Newton John?

Can Duff actually sing?

They have been doing this for decades. Giving a teen actor a music career. Britney, Christina, JC and Justin were all on The Mickey Mouse Club as kids and became popular singers in the late 90s. Then in the days of ancient past, Annette Funicello, Ricky Nelson, Paul Peterson and Frankie Avalon. In the 1970s and 1980s, The Brady Bunch Kids and The Partridge Family, Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garret, Scott Baio, Janet Jackson, Alyssa Milano, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. The 90s had Jennifer Lopez, Joey Lawrence, Mila Jovavitch, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tatyana Ali and Alanis Morisette.

[Quote] She even followed the same strategy. Start out all upbeat and wholesome then turned dark and sexual with Dignity.

I like Reach Out but the video is awkward. Her attempts at being sexy just didn't work.

R24 That video must have been filmed during her veneer disaster era, because her teeth look huge in it. Luckily she had those things fixed later.

R19 LaLaine is so pretty, and seems like a cool woman now she’s grown. I had a crush on her as a babydyke watching LIZZIE.

R16

Cultural appropriation! Thief!

So much of the Early 2000s teen music scene is documented on GapKids In-Store Playlists, of which I have several from 2001-2005 on my blog.

On the April 2005 GapKids playlist, Hilary has "Sweet Sixteen" and "Working It Out." On January 2005, she has "I Am" and "Shine." For the December 2005 GapKids playlist, Hilary had THREE songs: "Wake Up," "Why Not," and "Santa Claus (NorthPole Mix)!"

So many of the artists mentioned in this thread were GapKids staples, even the ones who never caught on, like Myra.

Myra had songs on the August and September 2001 GapKids In-Store Playlists, like "Candy Boy," "25 Hours A Day," and "Where You At."

She was on many GapKids playlists but she never really made it to mainstream radio airplay in the USA.

LaLaine at R19 also had a brief GapKids run around 2004-2005.

The May 2005 GapKids In-Store Playlist has LaLaine's "If You Wanna Rock" and "You Wish."

And Hilary is on there, too, with "The Math" and "Mr. James Dean!"

Plus Christy Carlson Romano, Jesse McCartney, Youngstown, Cheetah Girls, Angela Ammons, Gay Billy Gilman, and DL Legendary Fave, Aaron Carter!

I really should put more of the GapKids In-Store Playlists on my Spotify. Unfortunately, many of the artists are not represented well on Spotify.

Here's September 2001:

The March 2004 GapKids In-Store Playlist is a great sampling of the era, with songs by Mandy Moore, Raven-Symoné, Youngstown, Amanda, Nick Carter, Christina Milian, Angela Ammons, and DL Legendary Fave, Aaron Carter!

Listen to it on Spotify!

I've always felt Hilary's dance-pop music career could have continued on. She could have been the American Kylie Minogue or something. But I get that she took breaks to focus on raising her kids, she got knocked up pretty early. She's only 33.

Yes OP, it's a vicious unrelenting cycle...

Raven Symone released some music last year. It's not bad at all. It's alternative R&B/neo-soul if you're into that. We need more lesbian pop/R&B music.

I got into acting because of Suzanne Somers!

Hilary is more like a 21st century Maureen McCormick. Pretty, blonde, sweet, happy and wholesome with a sing-song voice. Her TV brother Christopher Knight was like the Shia LaBeouf of the 1970s. They even tried to make them into singers.

Acting and singing talent were not the two reasons we hired Annette.

Hilary has some good songs. She's campy and sappy but endearing. A lot of her stuff kind sounds like a throwback to 80s new wave/pop rock.

Again, another 80s-inspired kitschy bubblegum pop song.

Kylie Minogue vibe

I got into prison because of Donald Trump.

R41 she failed at it.

Her dancing is memorable.

Hilary had a bunch of kids and relationship drama. Which is probably the biggest reason she didn't push her music career further. She's still young enough to get back in the game. A Carly Rae type pop album could work

She has my esteem for blowing her ex husband on a balcony when he proposed.

Why add to Britney's mental burden, Hilary?

R46 I don't think she actually did.

Wasn’t there a huge scandal about her posting a picture of her underage son nude tied to the bed? She’s sick.

Her son wasn't tied to the bed. He apparently was lying naked with lotion on because he had a rash. The picture was on her fridge. It's not weird to me because parents will overshare about their kids. It is embarrassing and inappropriate though especially on social media. But I don't see nudity especially of children as innately sexual.

Why did no one make a big deal when 16-year-old Hilary was dating Joel Madden who was 25. They clearly were fucking and doing drugs together. Were people that lax back then?

Madonna and Janet led to Britney, Christina and Pink who led to Hillary and Lindsay Lohan. Now that's a downgrade!

Hilary Duff is more like Alyssa Milano but with good producers and songwriters and a less awful voice. Cute teen star who got a record deal because little girls looked up to her and would pay to see her (and creepy old men too). Janet was also a teen star from Diff'rent Strokes and Fame and her first two albums were bubblegum and sounded just as bad as Alyssa's.

Ariana Grande is the current version but actually has talent.

R53 you’re comparing apples to oranges

R52 Christina Aguilera and P!nk can at least sing. Sure their music sounds repetitive and the vocal gymnastics can be grating but they can sing.

Madonna and Janet aren't good at singing but they stay in tune and didn't have autotune so they had to sound decent. Madge is very shaky and Janet you can barely hear.

Britney struggles to sing and remain on key. Had a decent voice at first but destroyed it. Now is heavily autotuned and sounds like a robotic chipmunk.

Hilary and Lindsay cannot sing at all, never had voices to begin with and needed autotune. Hilary is slightly better because she sounds pleasant and soft and had good songs. Lindsay sounds hoarse and yells too much.

R55, that's what I mean (regarding the singing). Janet and Madonna were both far more interesting and made better music than Pink, Christina or Britney.

R56 I agree. They had more creative freedom and actually a background in performance arts from studying dance. They worked hard to prove themselves and navigated their own careers. Madonna and Janet have timeless albums that were critically lauded and addressed social issues. Their music videos told stories with depth.

Also music production was more complex and diverse back then. Pop music has gotten more homogenous over time and current pop sounds the same.

Max Martin was kind of like the SAW of the 90s and 2000s. Britney and Backstreet sounded very similar just like Rick Ashley and Kylie Minogue.

Britney has a background in dance. Has been dancing since she was 3.

R57, EXACTLY! That's why I hate Max Martin's music. It ALL sounds the same. That's why I really don't have any nostalgia for mid or late 90s pop music. But my peers dont' feel this way, they stream this stuff like crazy. And it drives me crazy that Madonna and Janet don't stream well in comparison to their male counterparts. Janet's music is long forgotten which makes no sense to me. She was massively influential and has inspired loads of artists. You would think younger people would want to hear her music more.

People love saying Madonna has a background in dance. She doesn’t, and was never ever a good dancer. She was not a trained singer either. She just knew how to sell herself and knew what would sell and used shock value to make headlines. GaGa did the same thing years later.

Britney actually has been dancing her whole life, and singing. Was she a big vocalist? No. But she could sing back then and was not the auto tuned robot we know now 20 years ago.

Here she is recording I Will Be There from her debut album. Whether you like her voice or not, that’s her voice.

I hear All For You on the radio or playlists all the time still to this day. How is she forgotten? She isn’t. Some of her hits still get played.

R60, Madonna may not have studied singing but she had a stronger voice than Britney. Much stronger. Unlike Britney, she didn't sing the same way on every single song. Britney had a better voice as a kid honestly.

R61, that's true of Janet and especially Madonna. Seriously, I still hear like 10 of the songs on the Immaculate collection on the radio. But this isn't translating into streams for them which so weird to me. I would think more people would want to hear their music given how legendary both are.

I consider Madonna, Janet, Whitney and Mariah in their own class of pop royalty.

Britney though I would put her more with Kylie Minogue, Carly Rae Jepson and Lady Gaga though because they made some really solid pure pop albums.

R64 um are you nuts? Look at Britney’s album sales and tell me she’s in the same category as Carly Rae Jensen or Kylie lmaooo

[quote] I consider Madonna, Janet, Whitney and Mariah in their own class of pop royalty.

Yup, definitely. These were women who completely changed the music industry.

R65 I'm talking about the production and sound quality of Britney's music itself. Blackout and In The Zone are very well-produced albums and even her 3rd album Britney had a lot of high moments in it. Glory was also very well-produced.

R60 Britney's downfall was Max Martin's obsession with singers distorting their voices to fit his melodies. He wants singers to sound nasally and high pitched and enunciate weirdly. It could be the fact he is not a native English speaker idk. But Justin Timberlake's stylized singing in "It's Gonna Be Me (May)" and Nick Carter's weird nasally tone in Backstreet Boys songs .

Jive liked that sound and pressured Britney to keep using that artificial voice from Baby... One More Time in order to give her a "trademark voice" even though it wasn't her natural tone. Years of singing in that fake baby voice destroyed her vocal chords. She showed more range in her debut album too actually, "Bottom Of My Broken Heart", "Soda Pop", "I Will Still Love You" and "Beat Goes On" have her singing in a deeper darker natural voice.

Anyway, if Britney had proper vocal coaching during her formative years she could have become an excellent singer.

[Quote] Were people that lax back then?

Yes

R69 I don't get why he couldn't just date an 18-year-old woman and do drugs with her instead. It's weird he risked getting arrested for statutory rape and endangerment of a minor. I'm pretty sure California has very strict laws regarding that too since it's the entertainment industry center

R70 well he moved onto Nicole who was very familiar with the party scene. It was a similar situation with Hayden Panettierre and Milo Ventimiglia. No one really gave a shit and they weren't really hiding it either.

The rules are different in Hollyweird. Always will be 😔

I like that Hilary took her money and saved and invested it. It helps her father was a businessman. Hilary is set for life, she doesn't need to work and she still acts and occasionally still does music for fun. She's of the last generation of child and teen stars who knew their place and didn't try to extend their fame longer than necessary. Social media changed this.

[quote] Gotta love how all these artists and celebs have others who they idolize. Britney idolized Janet and Madonna and then she influenced Hilary. It’s an ongoing cycle

Gee, do you think?! But I always imagined they just came out of the womb singing, with no influences whatsoever.

She's a failure. She can't sing on key and she's also a completely terrible actress. Watch the Law and Order: SVU episode to see her "adult" acting. I can only imagine how terrible her role as Sharon Tate was.

....

Hilary's a poor singer but she mostly made dance music so it wasn't noticeable. She should have kept doing pure dance pop music a la Kylie Minogue. Their career paths are quite similar same with Janet too. Hilary was never embraced by Top 40 radio though and was mostly stuck on kids radio stations or MTV like many other Disney pop stars of the time. She and Jesse McCartney matured their sounds for their third albums (Dignity and Departure) but they still got ignored by the radio. Honestly I think they both had pretty good discographies as far as pop goes.

[quote] Hilary's a poor singer but she mostly made dance music so it wasn't noticeable

The only people who didn't how awful her singing was were her fans. If Paula Abdul's lack of range is noticeable then so Hilary's is like a fucking nuke.

Her fans were stupid tween girls and tween faggots, enough said!

[Quote] Her fans were stupid tween girls and tween faggots, enough said!

Isn't that most teen pop stars? Usually they have to mature their sound in order to achieve an older audience like Beyoncé and Timberlake did when they went solo.

Hilary tried with Dignity but the mainstream radio ignored it and her Disney association hurt her prospect. Honestly I just don't see how her music was any worse than what else was popular in the mid-2000s. I think her songs like "Come Clean" and "So Yesterday" aged quite well and are refreshing compared to the garbage pop and mumble singing today that is targeted to kids.

[Quote] I can only imagine how terrible her role as Sharon Tate was.

I hope it isn't true she had to fuck someone for that role.

[Quote] I think her songs like "Come Clean" and "So Yesterday" aged quite well and are refreshing compared to the garbage pop and mumble singing today that is targeted to kids.

Come Clean will forever be associated with Laguna Beach.

Hilary was slated for a big Hollywood role actually with her being cast as Bonnie in a remake of The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde. Faye Dunaway was pissed and Hilary gave her shade in an interview.

The film never took off and nobody knows why. I think Hilary chose the Sharon Tate role because she really wanted to play a old Hollywood glamour role but unfortunately that film was a poor choice and the Tate family felt it disrespectful.

Wasn't there some gossip that she's a secret conservative?

Hilary is from Houston, Texas and her parents are business people. So I would not be surprised if they leaned conservative. Her sister Haylie is open about her Christian faith and did 7th Heaven and Hallmark movies. Hilary though was part of a bunch of anti-homophobia ads and she had some romance scenes with a black guy in Younger I think. So I dont get the homophobe or racist accusations. She does give of a suburban Karen vibe though with how she blasted her pot smoking neighbor on social media and overexposes her kids.

[Quote] Her sister Haylie is open about her Christian faith and did 7th Heaven and Hallmark movies.

Haylie's high point was Napoleon Dynamite.