In the weeks leading up to the release of her memoir “The Woman in Me” on Tuesday, Britney Spears has returned to the tabloid spotlight, yet it is almost as if the pop genius never left the public consciousness.
Amid all the tabloid clickbait, it is important to remember what truly makes her great: her music and her performances. Naturally, being a woman in the industry, Spears was overlooked by misogynist music critics for years, but the reality is she has proved to be the greatest living artist in the pop genre today, a true generational icon.
Despite not performing live in nearly five years and not releasing a studio album in over seven years, the media still cannot help themselves but cover Spears endlessly — even if it is something as simple as her getting pulled over. The Hollywood gossip media machine cannot help but take a piece of Spears any chance they get, regardless of the triviality. Therefore, it is more important than ever to reexamine her artistry and success story as a music legend.
At just 16 years old, Spears became a global superstar with the release of her debut single “…Baby One More Time” and its accompanying music video. Debuting at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November of 1998 before climbing to number one in January of 1999, Britney’s collaboration with Swedish songwriter Max Martin (who, to date, has 25 number-one singles on the Hot 100 to his name) was an iconic stroke of genius that was her inauguration as pop royalty, a pivotal moment in her career.
Among many other artistic qualities, critics have overlooked Britney’s creative vision for years. Spears expressed that vision from the get-go by scrapping the initial music video concept her team pitched to her and instead created something that would resonate with her audience.
“They had this really bizarre video idea, this animated Power Ranger-y thing,” Spears said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1999. “I said, ‘This is not right. If you want me to reach four-year-olds, then OK, but if you want me to reach my age group …’ So I had this idea where we’re in school and bored out of our minds, and we have Catholic uniforms on. And I said, ‘Why don’t we have knee-highs and tie the shirts up to give it a little attitude?’ — so it wouldn’t be boring and cheesy.”
Nearly 25 years after the fact, the music video for “…Baby One More Time” proves to be a cultural document that serves as a timeless depiction of teenage fervor, literally dancing through romantic longing while also introducing Spears to the world as a charismatic pop star and a gifted dancer.
“…Baby One More Time” is a perfect pop song with a perfect music video. The song and the video came together as a lightning-in-a-bottle pop culture moment, Spears’ debut single changed the pop landscape for years to come. The video was also one of the last iconic videos during the reign of MTV.
Critics of pop stars like Spears often overlook their artistry due to a supposed emphasis on heavy showmanship and intricate stage arrangements with a myriad of backup dancers over songwriting and lyrical substance, however, being outstanding at dancing can be the one ingredient that sets an otherwise great artist into a league of superstardom and idol status. A perfect example preceding Spears is Michael Jackson, who elevated his flawless songs, such as “Billie Jean,” to legendary status by pairing them with jaw-dropping dance moves — namely, the moonwalk.
While Britney may not have the distinct, world-famous moves Jackson had (and to be fair, no one does), she is a worthy successor to the king of pop as no other living pop star can dance as well as her — a sort of symbolic passing-of-the-torch happened when the two performed together on-stage in 2001, when Jackson was at the tail-end of his recording career and Spears’ career was still blossoming.
In the steamy music video for the 2001 single “I’m a Slave 4 U,” Spears gets intricate and edgy as she effortlessly nails every dance move and leads the group choreography, further establishing her prowess as a dancer.
In her 2003 collaboration with Madonna (yet another symbolic passing of the torch) “Me Against the Music,” Britney brilliantly brings the stacotta vocal delivery in the verses to life in the music video as she performs a stunning set of rapid-fire dance moves. Her dancing in the 2003 video shows Spears as a calculated, passionate performer as she exudes a dedication to her craft that can only be compared to the likes of Jackson.
Spears’ list of impactful singles is seemingly never-ending, as the star had a period of chart dominance from the late 1990s into the 2000s. Another overlooked aspect of Spears’ artistry, however, is how great her albums are.
Within her nine-album discography, her fifth LP, “Blackout,” stands out the most. “Blackout” is Spears’ magnum opus and a fan-favorite that has even seen some revisionist retrospectives from music journalists in recent years. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone said the album was “one of the most innovative and influential pop albums of the past decade” in 2017.
“Blackout,” Spears’ first album in four years at the time, has a flawless tracklist. Released in 2007, the 12-track dance-pop masterpiece not only boasts the radio hit “Gimme More” (the debut of Spears’ quotable catchphrase “It’s Britney, b—-”) but also shows Spears getting more experimental with her sound. “Heaven on Earth” has industrial-like distorted drums and a pulsating synth bass, and, in retrospect, feels like a precursor to the music of Grimes in the way it is menacing and ethereal at the same time. The single “Piece of Me” borders on industrial as well, with more distorted bass lines and sporadic vocal samples — the production in the chorus sounds much more in line with Nine Inch Nails’ 2005 album “With Teeth” than “…Baby One More Time”
While experimentation is a strong point of “Blackout,” the album also features a mindblowing amount of hooky earworms like “Break the Ice,” “Get Naked (I Got a Plan)” and “Ooh Ooh Baby.” All of this is to show Spears is not only an exceptional singles artist but an exceptional album artist too, even if it took critics a decade to realize it.
Since she was young, Britney has had a clear passion for performing. After Spears was freed from her father’s conservatorship, in which she was forced to perform despite her not wanting to, among many other terrible things, it is not hard to imagine that one day Spears will return to the stage on her own terms given her talent and her drive as an artist.
Not a singer-songwriter, not a rock star, Spears is the perfect culmination of a pop superstar and rises above them all. Through genius songs and impeccable dance performances, Spears has put herself in the category of pop royalty: she is the definitive queen of pop.
