Let me start in 2008 when the Lady Gaga comparisons first started.

Christina released her Keeps Gettin’ Better: A decade of hits with lead single of the same name. Despite the Lady Gaga Comparisons- The song still managed to peak at #8 in the US hot 100

Bionic was a solid album. It was different for her but she’s always switched up her sounds between albums. The debut was nothing like stripped, stripped was nothing like Back to Basics etc

Fast forward to Bionic. Unlike Gaga, Christina made it VERY clear that she was playing homage to Madonna with the Style. However, (like someone mentioned before) even though Christina made it clear that she was playing off of Madonna, people were already on the GaGa train and Gaga, Perez and their team went after her every chance you get. It was the first glimpse of “Cancel” culture. People were ready to Cancel Christina due to all the negative press. Despite this- Bionic still managed to peak at #3 in the US top 200 + being the #1 most illegally downloaded album that year. It’s also funny to me that Bionic album cover was 1/2 human 1/2 machine with heavy Dark electronic music And Born this way was 1/2 human 1/2 machine with a VERY similar sound.

So...people were still interested In Bionic. But the smear campaign along with the problems with her Label kept the album from reaching its full potential.