Britney Spears: Artist Discussion

[BOBO]

Scary (Remix EP) is now available HERE

[Ryan]

Toxic on Spotify -
US: #100 with 330,383 streams
UK: #57 with 121,718 streams
Global: #179 with 998,281 streams

Oh, and Scray needs to be released internationally.

[Eqbk]

A Britney version of Monopoly will be coming January 2023:

www.entertainmentearth.com/product/britney-spears-monopoly-game/usmn151768

[c0ldasfire]

[think pink.]

Oct 30, 2022 14:56:54 GMT -5 Eqbk said:

A Britney version of Monopoly will be coming January 2023:

www.entertainmentearth.com/product/britney-spears-monopoly-game/usmn151768

My husband and I just bought the standard monopoly version the other day for game night….I will be buying this one and we’ll use it instead 😌. I wish it came out before Christmas though because I would’ve loved to use this one this year for all the family gatherings.

[Ryan]

We were deprived of that 20th anniversary picture disc edition of this epic album last year.

[think pink.]

Imagine being a popstar in the 2000’s trying to keep up and your competition drops Slave 4 U.

They cried in the car.

[Marooned@Midnight]

Nov 5, 2022 13:54:41 GMT -5 think pink. said:

Imagine being a popstar in the 2000’s trying to keep up and your competition drops Slave 4 U.

They cried in the car.

Real talk right there.

[Ivy Leegue™]

LOL outside of Slave and a couple songs, Britney is mostly filler and fluff.

[thezatch]

First of all, “Lonely” should have been a single.

Secondly, the “Britney” album had some of the best b-sides of her career, even 21 years later. “Before The Goodbye” and “I Run Away” definitely belonged on the main album, over something like “That’s Where You Take Me” or even “I’m Not a Girl”, but I know what they were trying to do with the latter to cross-promote Crossroads and try to show Britney could do ballads.

They didn’t achieve that until “Everytime” though.

[Daenerys]

^ 

The sad part about 'Not A Girl', is that it's written by Dido, and I can completely hear Britney singing a sort of torch song love ballad that's introspective, brooding and more mature like Here With Me, White Flag, or even Thank You, which would have fit more into breaking into the Adult-Contemporary field that they were looking for. I get the shift they were trying to go for by moving her away from the sillier mid-tempos of Sometimes and Lucky, but it took Britney herself to get it right. It's sad that she hasn't been able to get another hit ballad since.

I don't think the 'Britney' album really lands. Mostly due to direction and general indecisiveness of the record. I don't think Jive (or her) really knew what they wanted the album to be except that it was due by November to keep the trains running on time. In terms of its theme, I'm A Slave 4 U and Cinderella are moments, but the album is in this in-between phase that makes most of it skippable.

I agree with Think Pink and Maroon Midnight when it comes to the Britney era performances. It felt like everything Britney was up until that point was solidified in the Britney era. Every time the camera was on her she was on fire. She became the moment and her performances and dance breaks during that time period never missed. Slave, both versions of Overprotected, Boys, and even I Love Rock N' Roll don't miss and are great highlights of her videography. For me only In The Zone is better.

[Az Paynter]

This blasphemy against the 'Britney' album I-- There are no skips, give me that album front to back please.

[Koochie]

Britney is her most inconsistent body of work and its not even close. I’m always surprised by how much people love it, not that anyone is wrong for having an opinion.

I have a few gripes with this album but the dealbreaker is its refusal to commit. It straddles the fence, trying to transition her into adulthood while indulging her former work. That in-between leaves the project sounding like two different records sewn together, lyrically and sonically, and her prior “Oops…” performance at the ‘00 VMAs made the point this album tried to in all of four minutes. “I’m a Slave 4 U” hit the sweet spot, and there are a handful of good songs out of context, but the album as a whole is pretty flat. It doesn’t help that what followed is good enough to contest Blackout as her best work, depending on who you ask. What could have been a bridge between Oops… and In the Zone ended up being more of a speed bump.

Now, I’m not trying to say it’s a Britney Jean-level trainwreck, but every time I’ve gone back to that album it’s been a skip-fest.

[Daenerys]

Those are my thoughts on it too.

I actually think Oops!... does a better job at owning the empowerment theme when you compare them. Britney is supposed to be a coming-of-age record, but several tracks on Oops! sort of already hit that mark with Don't Go Knockin' on My Door, Stronger, the title track, I Can't Get No Satisfaction, What U See I What U Get, and Can't Make You Love Me.

Britney almost feels like a retread of that with Cinderella and Overprotected. It wouldn't surprise me if Max made them at the same time and they held those for a rainy day. I think the album could have gone into a better direction had they gone into deeper territory like Lonely, Let Me Be, Slave, Boys, and What It's Like to Be Me.

[Ling-Ling]

Koochie nailed it, she had one foot in the past and one foot in the future on Britney. And the two parts just didn't mesh. I wish she was able to give Max the boot and pursue the sounds she was clearly more interested in exploring. ITZ ended up being everything that album was attempting to be.

But Britney still had some bops though! So not a total loss by any means.

[Ginger Spice]

Re: The Britney album - there's a clear divide between what the label wanted and what Britney herself wanted to do as an artist. But regardless of whether it works as a whole or not -- it's what she needed at the time. "I'm A Slave 4 U" was a risky move that thankfully paid off, but if you didn't have the "Overprotected"s and "I'm Not a Girl"s, she would've been slated for abandoning her core audience at the time. I remember reading in her Crossroads diary book that "Bombastic Love" was supposed to be a single (and in the movie), because it's what Clive Davis thought the lead should be, but Britney pushed hard against it. Outside of the music, she was just so damn radiant during that era. Interviews from that time always end up being my favorite to re-watch.

I also think if she had made an edgier album in 2001/02, it wouldn't have been as good as In the Zone. Britney really laid the ground work. I always associate Britney with Circus, because both albums feel like important transitional steps, the latter more so to save her public image, but also cement her status as a pop icon and comeback queen.

Nov 5, 2022 13:54:41 GMT -5 think pink. said:

Imagine being a popstar in the 2000’s trying to keep up and your competition drops Slave 4 U.

They cried in the car.

I don't think anyone knew she had that up her sleeve. The fact that Willa Ford thought she could shade Britney and release "I Wanna Be Bad" with her album all sounding like Oops! rejects in the summer of 2001, only for Britney to drop "Slave" months later - legend s**t.

[It's me, bitch.]

Nov 8, 2022 18:54:58 GMT -5 Daenerys said:

Those are my thoughts on it too.

I actually think Oops!... does a better job at owning the empowerment theme when you compare them. Britney is supposed to be a coming-of-age record, but several tracks on Oops! sort of already hit that mark with Don't Go Knockin' on My Door, Stronger, the title track, I Can't Get No Satisfaction, What U See I What U Get, and Can't Make You Love Me.

Britney almost feels like a retread of that with Cinderella and Overprotected. It wouldn't surprise me if Max made them at the same time and they held those for a rainy day. I think the album could have gone into a better direction had they gone into deeper territory like Lonely, Let Me Be, Slave, Boys, and What It's Like to Be Me.

Do you think maybe the album was rushed when the movie date was decided, so they recorded the songs you mentioned at the end of your post. Then got short on time and had to add onto the album songs left over from Oops?

[Marooned@Midnight]

I don’t think anything on Britney sounds like an Oops leftover. Cinderella is one of the best tracks on the album, could have been the lead, and certainly should have been a single. Britney is miles above both Baby and Oops IMO.

[Daenerys]

Nov 9, 2022 3:23:55 GMT -5 It's me, bitch. said:

Nov 8, 2022 18:54:58 GMT -5 Daenerys said:

Do you think maybe the album was rushed when the movie date was decided, so they recorded the songs you mentioned at the end of your post. Then got short on time and had to add onto the album songs left over from Oops?

To me the biggest indicator that Max might have given a few songs made during the Oops! era to fill out Britney is Overprotected and Bombastic Love. Both are songs that Britney didn't have writing credits on and were in close partnership with Rami who also wrote Oops and Stronger. I could see those tracks fitting on Oops! personally. Cinderella is the first song Britney has writing credits on with Max. Britney is the album which she has significant writing credits on, so I think it's clear that one was new. 

I don't think timing should have been an issue she was given more time to record Britney than Oops! I think it was more Jive pushing a specific sound and Britney had to play the game. My sense is I Love Rock N' Roll and I'm Not A Girl were for the film and Jive just added them. Those songs were included in the film if I remember correctly.  

[Push The Button]

I can’t believe she went after Fe. 😭 My bb is so troubled.

[Ryan]

[Az Paynter]

The ITZ era would've been perfect here if the album itself had gone to #1 but for whatever reason it only peaked upon debut at #10(?!). All three singles released in Australia were back-to-back-to-back #1 debuts.

[think pink.]

Nov 11, 2022 21:54:03 GMT -5 Ryan said:

This album 😭. You just had to be there.

I remember being shocked seeing Jessica Simpson buying this album on Newlyweds 💀😭.

[Push The Button]

Nov 12, 2022 9:48:11 GMT -5 think pink. said:

Nov 11, 2022 21:54:03 GMT -5 Ryan said:

This album 😭. You just had to be there.

I remember being shocked seeing Jessica Simpson buying this album on Newlyweds 💀😭.

LOL yes, and then talking about the Onyx Hotel Showtime special. Jessica was Britney stan public enemy #1 for a little bit after that.

[think pink.]

Nov 12, 2022 13:05:34 GMT -5 Push The Button said:

Nov 12, 2022 9:48:11 GMT -5 think pink. said:

This album 😭. You just had to be there.

I remember being shocked seeing Jessica Simpson buying this album on Newlyweds 💀😭.

LOL yes, and then talking about the Onyx Hotel Showtime special. Jessica was Britney stan public enemy #1 for a little bit after that.

What did she say about the Onyx Hotel tour!?

[Positive Tension]

Yup, In the Zone is such a good record, and unlike Britney, it's a cohesive body of work and such a maturation from what came before. IIRC, she got a lot of unfair and undeserved flack at the time for going with a new, edgier sound and image- it's like her core fanbase wanted her to keep making albums like BOMT and Oops! and never grow up or mature. I thought she pulled it off very well.

On another note, 2x platinum for that album seems low to me. I thought it sold 3 million copies ages and ages ago.

[think pink.]

The In The Zone era was released right after Justin Timberlake had lit the match to the Britney hate train. She had always received criticism and been under a microscope, but the CMAR video/“cheating” scandal kicked things into high gear. And it became really cool to hate her. More so than ever before because now people wanted to see her downfall. Mix that in with her more ~sexual~ & grown image, and people had a field day.

[c0ldasfire]

Nov 12, 2022 20:21:59 GMT -5 Positive Tension said:

Yup, In the Zone is such a good record, and unlike Britney, it's a cohesive body of work and such a maturation from what came before. IIRC, she got a lot of unfair and undeserved flack at the time for going with a new, edgier sound and image- it's like her core fanbase wanted her to keep making albums like BOMT and Oops! and never grow up or mature. I thought she pulled it off very well.

On another note, 2x platinum for that album seems low to me. I thought it sold 3 million copies ages and ages ago.

The last sales figures I’ve seen say In the Zone has sold 3,060,000 physical copies. Allegedly it’s eligible for 5x platinum with streams figured in.

[bat1990]

I can't wait to feature ITZ next year on the 20th anniversary on Diva Deep Cuts!!!!!

Tis my favorite Britney album to this day.

[think pink.]

This still sounds fresh today. I would love an album with this vibe.