Most of us have heard this before. Some gum-snapping airhead expresses how great Britney Agulara and the Back Street Spices are, and you scoff. “They suck ass”, you say. And the airhead replies “They can’t suck. They’re popular! If they’re popular, they must be good!”
How do you reply to that? The best response I’ve heard is that popular doesn’t equte to good. And it ain’t much of a response. What’s a better comeback?
If becoming popular required no talent at all, would Jessica Simpson be second tier to Christina and Britney?
Coool, the McDonalds of music!
Actually, I’ve never had a conversation such as you describe in the OP.
Perhaps you need to seek out a better caliber of friends? 
Well, there is a certain amount of talent involved in shaking your ass. Most of today’s chart-topping bimbos and himbos seem to be good at that. Doesn’t mean they can sing worth a hoot, but I don’t doubt that many sows’ ears have been recrafted into silk purses with electronic manipulation of voices.
My mom’s husband said the same thing, literally. “Britney Spears sold a lot of albums. Therefore, she’s immensely talented.”
That just about made my metalhead brain implode.
“If popular equates talent, it’s no wonder you’re not famous…”
What talent does Britney have, pray tell? Absolutely zero as far as I can tell. Her voice is so computer-affected it makes me want to throw up.
So why do you think that her albums consistently outsell those of Jessica Simpson?
Marketing?
She’s sluttier.
That’s a good one.
I also might point out that Shawn Cassidy is no longer popular. Did his talent wane at the exact rate that his popularity did? How does that happen? Or that pop stars must have short-lived talent, equal to that of their short-lived careers.
Their popularity is not proof that they have talent, but that there is no God.
Not because of talent, but because she knows how to market herself and she knows how to do things to stay in the spotlight that are have nothing to do with talent, such as marry her little friend from LA for 24 hours. When Britney was at her prime, you couldn’t avoid her. She was all over magazines, commercials, etc. Finally Jessica Simpson is learning how to market herself, such as her reality show, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her albums will sell much more than Britney’s in the near future.
Better marketing. Britney has something like four albums and a greatest hits compilation, and each one released several radio singles and music videos. She has been around since 1998 or so, so she’s had several years to become popular.
Jessica started out singing Christian contemporary music, if I’m not mistaken, and transitioned to pop around the same time Britney and Christina Aguilera were becoming huge. Jessica had a few singles (including a horrible song that sampled the music from John Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane”), but was never as big as the other two – she and Mandy Moore always seemed to be distant third and fourth. Jessica also wasn’t as openly sexy as Britney or Christina, and her videos were more demure and less provocative. That all changed when she became the reality show darling, sexed up her public image and played the part of the “dumb blonde,” and was all over the media all of a sudden. But that phenomenon is only a couple years old, long after Britney was a household name.
She’s had an ace marketing team behind her since day one. In pop, marketing is everything.
Yes - there good at doing the things that lead to sales; that doesn’t translate to musical quality
McDonald’s does things that lead to sales - e.g., marketing, consistent operations in every store, highly replicatable foods - but that doesn’t translate in to cuisine quality.
“Built for broad consumption” rarely equates with “quality art”
“Only among the shallow. Everyone else looks for actual talent”
Isn’t knowing how to do things the definition of talent? I’m not saying that Britney has musical talent, but she must have something going for her if she’s consistently the top seller.