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| |
Britney Spears - Music Videos |
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| Britney
Spears - Music Videos |
| Britney Spears Slideshow from
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| Britney
Spears - Biography |

More than any other single artist, Britney Spears was the driving force
behind the return of teen pop in the late '90s. The blockbuster success
of the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys certainly paved the way for her
own commercial breakthrough, but Spears didn't just become a star --
she was a bona fide pop phenomenon. Not only did she sell millions of
records, she was a media fixture regardless of what she was (or wasn't)
doing; among female singers of the era (many of whom followed in her
footsteps), her celebrity star power was rivaled only by Jennifer
Lopez. From the outset, Spears' sex appeal was an important part of her
image; the video for her debut single, "...Baby One More Time,"
outfitted her in full Catholic-school regalia, and sent her well on the
way to becoming an international sex symbol. Yet Spears' handlers
seemed to be trying to have it both ways -- there was a definite
tension between the wholesome innocence Spears tried to project for her
female audience, and the titillating sexuality that enticed so many
male fans. Those marketing tactics made Spears a somewhat controversial
figure, the subject of endless debates concerning appropriate role
models for teenage girls. Early on, Spears tried to defuse the
controversy by preaching abstinence until marriage, and even denied
that she was consciously cultivating such a sexualized image. Of
course, the more provocative and revealing her on-stage wardrobe
became, the less plausible that claim seemed. But apart from her
ability to tiptoe the line between virginal coquette and brazen tart,
Spears had a secret weapon in Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin, who
had a hand in the vast majority of her hits as a writer and/or
producer. With Martin crafting the sort of contemporary dance-pop and
sentimental ballads that made stars of the Backstreet Boys, Spears kept
on delivering the goods commercially, as her first three albums all
topped the charts.
Britney Jean Spears was born December 2, 1981, in the small town of
Kentwood, LA, and began performing as a singer and dancer at a young
age. With a nationally televised appearance on Star Search already
under her belt, Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel's The New
Mickey Mouse Club at age eight. The producers turned her down as too
young, but one of them took an interest and introduced her to an agent
in New York. Spears spent the next three years studying at the
Professional Performing Arts School, and also appeared in several
television commercials and off-Broadway plays. At 11, she returned to
The New Mickey Mouse Club for a second audition, and this time made the
cut. Although her fellow Mouseketeers included an impressive array of
future stars -- *NSYNC's Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez, Christina
Aguilera, and Felicity actress Keri Russell -- the show was canceled
after Spears' second season. She returned to New York at age 15 and set
about auditioning for pop bands and recording demo tapes, one of which
eventually landed her a deal with Jive Records.
Spears entered the studio with top writer/producers like Eric Foster
White (Boyzone, Whitney Houston, Backstreet Boys) and Max Martin (Ace
of Base, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC). In late 1998, Jive released her
debut single, the Martin-penned "...Baby One More Time." Powered by its
video, in which Spears and a troupe of dancers were dressed as
Catholic-school jailbait, the single shot to the top of the Billboard
charts. When Spears' debut album of the same title was released in
early 1999, it entered the charts at number one and stayed there for
six weeks. Once the ubiquitous lead single died down, the album kept
spinning off hits: the Top Ten "(You Drive Me) Crazy," the near-Top 20
ballad "Sometimes," and the Top 20 "From the Bottom of My Broken
Heart." By the end of 1999, ...Baby One More Time had sold ten million
copies, and went on to sell a good three million more on top of that.
Its success touched off a wave of young pop divas that included
Christina Aguilera, Pink, Jessica Simpson, and Mandy Moore. Spears was
a superstar, drooled over in countless magazines, including a Rolling
Stone cover that prompted immediate speculation about the still-17 year
old having gotten breast implants.
By the time ...Baby One More Time finally started to lose steam on the
singles and album charts, Spears was ready to release her follow-up.
Oops!...I Did It Again appeared in the spring of 2000, and the title
track was an instant smash, racing into the Top Ten. The album entered
the charts at number one and sold over a million copies in its first
week of release, setting a new record for single-week sales by a female
artist. Follow-up singles included "Lucky," the gold-selling
"Stronger," and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know," which was
co-written by country diva Shania Twain and her producer Mutt Lange. A
year after its release, Oops!...I Did It Again had sold over nine
million copies. Rumors that Spears was dating *N Sync heartthrob (and
fellow ex-Mouseketeer) Justin Timberlake were eventually confirmed,
which only added to the media attention lavished on her.
For her next album, Spears looked ahead to a not-so-distant future when
both she and much of her audience would be growing up. Released in late
2001, Britney tried to present the singer as a more mature young woman,
and was accompanied by mild hints that her personal life wasn't always
completely puritanical. It became her third straight album to debut at
number one, although this time around the singles weren't as
successful; "I'm a Slave 4 U," "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," and
"Overprotected" all missed the Top Ten. In early 2002, Spears'
feature-film debut, Crossroads, hit theaters, but its commercial
performance was somewhat disappointing; moreover, her romance with
Timberlake fizzled not long after. Spears next made a cameo appearance
in Mike Myers' Austin Powers: Goldmember, and contributed a remix of
"Boys" to the soundtrack. Meanwhile, sales of Britney stalled at four
million copies, perhaps in part because a new breed of teenage female
singer/songwriters, like Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne, was
emerging as an alternative to the highly packaged teen queens. Spears
took a break from recording and performing for several months, and
began work on a new album in early 2003. The results, In the Zone,
reflected a wish to be taken seriously as a mature (though still highly
sexualized) adult. Predictably, it topped the charts and launched
several singles into orbit, including the musically adventurous
"Toxic," "Everytime," and "Me Against the Music."
In the Zone hit number one on the Billboard 200, and "Toxic" snagged a
Grammy for Best Dance Recording. But by 2004 there were no longer any
illusions of Britney's personal life being all wholesome candy canes
and kisses. First there was the star's bizarre two-day marriage to
childhood friend Jason Alexander, followed by the controversial, highly
sexualized Onyx Hotel tour, which was eventually canceled (allegedly
because of a knee injury) despite positive financial numbers. Starbucks
and cigarettes were Britney's constant accessories in the endless
paparazzi photos, and the revelation of her relationship with former
backup dancer Kevin Federline made the tabloids even more ravenous.
Spears and Federline married in September and were tabloid regulars in
the months after the ceremony. (A photo of a barefoot Britney leaving a
dingy gas station bathroom made the Internet rounds.) The couple also
starred in Chaotic, a UPN reality show consisting mostly of their own
home videos that was met with howls from the critics and blogs.
2005 was no less eventful for Spears. She released Greatest Hits: My
Prerogative that January, but it was the announcement of her pregnancy
that really garnered the headlines. Sean Preston Federline was born in
September, and a bidding war ensued for first rights to the baby
photos. As the hubbub surrounding Sean's birth continued, Britney
released a remix album just in time for the holiday season. In
2006,Spears discovered she was pregnant again; shortly after the birth
of her second son, Jayden James Federline, she divorced Federline.
Early in 2007, Spears went to Malibu, CA's Promises Treatment Center;
when she left, she began working on her comeback album and performed a
few small shows at House of Blues locations in Los Angeles, San Diego,
Anaheim, and Las Vegas that May. Later that summer, however, plans to
release an album were pushed back to 2008. |
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