BRITNEY SPEARS

Born: Kentwood, Louisiana, 2 December 1981

Genre: Rock, Pop

Best-selling album since 1990: . . . Baby One More Time (1999)

Hit songs since 1990: ". . . Baby One More Time," "Oops! . . . I Did It Again," "I'm a Slave 4 U"

Britney Spears skyrocketed to stardom in the late 1990s with catchy pop tunes and a canny

PR/media blitz. Her music videos displayed a frankly sexual demeanor, playing upon the duality of youthful innocence and sexual promiscuity. Controversial as this was, considering that Spears was sixteen years old at the time of her first hit, ". . . Baby One More Time," this erotic alchemy made her a superstar. She has appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone four times, performed at the MTV Video Music Awards, and starred in the movie Crossroads (2002). Although Spears attempted to break new musical ground in her third album, Britney (2001), working with new producers and co-writing several songs, many critics have dismissed her as a manufactured pop icon.

Early Ambition

Spears was raised in Louisiana by her mother, Lynne, an elementary-school teacher, and her father, Jamie, a building contractor. The second of three children, Spears showed an early interest in music and dance, and was soon appearing in local talent shows and choirs. She auditioned for The Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club at the age of eight but was too young to join the cast. However, she was encouraged to continue her training, and she spent the next three summers in New York studying the performing arts. Spears landed a role in the off-Broadway play Ruthless, appeared in several commercials, and won as a contestant on Star Search. With this added experience, she was granted a spot in the Mickey Mouse Club and moved to Orlando, Florida, for two years. During this time she met Justin Timberlake and Joshua "JC" Chasez, also regulars on the show, who later joined the boy band *NSYNC.

Still a young teenager, Spears auditioned with Jive Records and was teamed with several songwriters and producers: Eric Foster White, who had previously worked with Whitney Houston, and the Swedish team of Max Martin and Rami, producers for the Backstreet Boys. Despite its various influences, Spears's first album . . . Baby One More Time (1999) was consistent in tone, style, and production, balanced with upbeat pop tunes and innocent ballads.

Eric Foster White contributed songs traversing different musical styles, from the frothy "Soda Pop" to the clever remake of "The Beat Goes On." The ballad "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" was especially suitable for the young singer. Buoyed by a prominent acoustic guitar, lush synthesizer textures, and backup singers, Spears projected confidence in her vocal delivery. The line "You were my first love, you were my true love" projected the image of Spears as a young woman grappling with typical adolescent ordeals and endeared her to a generation of young fans. While White offered memorable ballads and a variety of stylistic challenges, Max Martin produced the formula for her success.

". . . Baby One More Time" presents a catchy pop beat, initiated by an acoustic piano and carried into the rhythm section. The melodic line emphasizes Spears's low vocal register and cleverly displays internal rhymes in the verse: "Show me how you want it to be. Tell me baby." The bridge reiterates the piano textures from the introduction, creating an atmospheric and intimate moment that builds to the final chorus. The forceful and provocative lyrics, "Hit me baby one more time," are accompanied by an unforgettable melodic oscillation, providing the hook for Spears's first big hit.

Like many of her pop predecessors, Spears aired her songs and honed her performing skills on a brief tour of shopping malls. After the release of her first single, ". . . Baby One More Time," in October 1998, Spears earned a spot as an opening act for *NYSNC's winter tour. Although the media spotlight was directed toward boy bands in the late 1990s (especially the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and Hanson), the phenomenon of "girl power" was beginning to blossom. Building upon the success of the Spice Girls and their playful sensuality, Spears insured her iconic status with a video in which she danced through high school hallways, suggestively revealing her midriff in a Catholic-school uniform.

Spears has consistently juxtaposed these two identities—the innocent ingenue and the sexy provocateur—in her songs, videos, and numerous media publications. In 1999 she was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone in a decidedly revealing pose, lying on a bed with a black bikini top while grasping a stuffed animal and talking on the phone. This combination of teenage purity and sexuality worried many parents and, for the same reason, enraptured many fans.

Pop Phenomenon

By the end of her highly successful summer tour, Spears had become a pop phenomenon. She released three followup songs, "Sometimes," "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart," and "(You Drive Me) Crazy"; she garnered four awards at the 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards. During breaks from touring and promoting, Spears managed to record new songs for her second album. Oops! . . . I Did It Again (2000) largely features the work of Max Martin and Rami and repeats many of the song themes of the first album, from the everyday girl of "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" and "Dear Diary" to the self-assured young woman of "Oops! . . . I Did It Again" and "Stronger."

The title track proved to be the strongest hit from the album, although it barely crept into the Billboard 's Top 10. "Oops! . . . I Did It Again" was a pop proclamation of inadvertent sexual power. Spears declares, "I'm not that innocent" while repeatedly uttering "oops" in a coquettish manner. The song itself displayed typical pop textures in many ways similar to her first hit. Unique to this song is the bridge, which takes the form of a narrative sequence referring to the blockbuster movie Titanic (1997).

"Stronger" reveals her independent side with a strident beat, synthesized bass sounds, and slightly distorted vocal effects. The chorus states, "I'm stronger than yesterday" and leads into the verse with a melodic ascent and an emphasis on the word "stronger." This sentiment is repeated in the song "Don't Go Knockin' on My Door," which declares, "I don't need nobody, better off alone." Spears transforms the Rolling Stones' raucous anthem "Satisfaction" into a benign, finger-snapping song that is prefaced with a phone call dialogue between Spears and a friend. This unsuccessful cover invited harsh criticism from rock musicians and critics alike. "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" has a pleasant melody with an interesting harmonic progression, but the remainder of the songs were innocuous, hastily crafted, and numbingly formulaic.

Her third album, Britney (2001), reveals a different side of Spears. Rather than repeating herself, she teamed up with the producers N*E*R*D (formerly the Neptunes), who infused her album with dance-club textures and R&B grooves. In "I'm a Slave 4 U," Spears adopts a darker vocal tone with a repeated vocal slide on "slave." This approach is repeated in "Boys," with its overt references to Janet Jackson's "Nasty Boys" and "Control." These darker textures allowed Spears to adopt a self-assertive stance, singing "Let's turn this dance floor into our own little nasty world." Spears contributed to the songwriting process in "Lonely," "Anticipating," "Let Me Be," and "That's Where You Take Me." For the rest of the songs, Spears again relied upon Max Martin and Rami, who crafted "Overprotected," with its hip-hop-influenced bridge, and "Bombastic Love." Unfortunately, Martin and Rami produced yet another coming-of-age ballad for Spears in the insipid "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman."

Spot Light: 2000 MTV Video Music Awards

In support of her album, Oops! . . . I Did It Again, Britney Spears performed at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Spears began her act sedately, singing her pop rendition of the Rolling Stones's "Satisfaction." Wearing a suit and tie costume, she appeared to be taking a dignified approach. With a quick gesture, Spears shocked the audience with an onstage costume change, tearing off her black suit to reveal a glittery skin-toned outfit. The music immediately shifted to "Oops! . . . I Did It Again," allowing Spears to proclaim, "I'm not that innocent."

This momentary façade of nudity reaffirmed and epitomized the image of Spears as a youthful provocateur who had capitulated to the commercial imperatives of a sex-driven music industry. Although Christina Aguilera adopted Spears's method of sexual exhibition, a host of other female performers consciously avoided this mode of frank display.

Although Spears attempted to break new musical ground in Britney, the album did not sell as well as its predecessors. Moreover, she had to contend with an anti-Britney movement that perceived her as a manufactured pop icon. Gossip columns ruthlessly charted her relationships with Justin Timberlake, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, and others, while new female stars challenged Spears's preeminence. Christina Aguilera stressed an R&B aesthetic, Avril Lavigne produced music with a harder edge, and Pink stated outright in her single "Don't Let Me Get Me," "Sick of being compared to damn Britney Spears." Spears contributed to the music industry's renewed focus on female performers and songwriters. In meeting these personal and professional challenges, Spears sustained a booming and unflagging popularity.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

. . . Baby One More Time (Jive, 1999); Oops! . . . I Did It Again (Jive, 2000); Britney (Jive, 2001).

SELECTIVE FILMOGRAPHY:

Crossroads (2002).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

B. Spears, Stages (Chicago, 2002).

WEBSITES:

www.britneyspears.com; www.britney.com.

wynn yamami

Spears, Britney (b. 1981)

"Pop Princess," "Teen Queen," and "Video Vixen" are all terms that have been used to describe Britney Spears since she burst onto the music scene at the age of seventeen in 1998's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video. Not since Madonna in the 1980s had a young female artist been as scrutinized for her appearance as for her music. Unlike Madonna, however, the only vote Britney Spears was old enough to cast at the time of her debut was for a video to appear on MTV's Total Request Live, a show on which viewer requests determined video airplay.

Britney Spears made her first foray into the entertainment industry at the ripe age of eight, when she applied for Disney's The Mickey Mouse Club and was rejected on account of her age. This would be the first of many times Spears's youth would be more of a concern than her music. Though at eleven she finally became a Mouseketeer, it was not long before mouse ears gave way to Spears's "wardrobe" staple, the bare midriff.

Some found it difficult to see Britney Spears, with her songwriters, stylists, and choreographers as anything but a pawn of the entertainment industry. She was a young girl performing songs written largely by men (though she co-wrote five songs on her third album) for boys under the pretext of being the voice of girls everywhere. By 2003 Spears had sold more than thirty-seven million albums. She had also appeared on countless magazine covers, won numerous awards and endorsements, written two autobiographies, and starred in the 2002 film Crossroads. Spears garnered a wide fan base, with old and young alike having responded to something in her image, if not her music.

The teen idol, his/her fans, and their disapproving parents date back to Elvis Presley, with his censored hipswinging. The same element of a teen idol's persona to which the young look up is that which parents criticize–their sexuality. Britney Spears, herself, attested that her over-the-top sexuality as expressed in her clothing (or lack thereof) and dance moves was just a performance, that she was really an innocent young woman whose virginity would be staunchly upheld until marriage. In so doing, her sexuality was debased to a marketing ploy, which brought on even more criticism.

Her commercial success prompted the music industry to crank out numerous Britney Spears derivatives according to the same formula of the sexy young girl next door. With television rather than radio as the dominant source for music, image rather than talent dictated success.

Born in 1981 in Kentwood, Louisiana, Britney Spears made a career of entertaining the listener rather than engaging him or her, which proved successful in the wake of the brooding, hard-edged form of rock and roll known as grunge that had been popular in the early 1990s.

See also: Teenagers; Youth Culture.

internet resource

Official Britney Spears Website. Available from <www.britneyspears.com>.

Nika Elder