The Truth About Britney's Prime

[none]

9 hours ago, Someone Who Knows said:

There is a lot of delusion among the fans about what Britney's prime was like. You really had to be there and take it all in. Yes, she was on top of the world, but it was complicated and she was dismissed by a lot of people who believed she had no chance of being a lasting star. All in all she was like Bieber but even bigger -- she had a core fanbase that made her the biggest star in the world, and a LOT of haters who despised her and wanted to see her fail. She didn't win serious and lasting credibility with the general public until after the comeback.

* When Baby One More Time came out, she was a phenom and everyone was obsessed with her. Sometimes, Crazy, and FTBOMBH weren't nearly as good as BOMT, but they were all hits because anything with Britney's name attached to it became a hit. She was America's Sweetheart.

* OIDIA peaking at #10 was a bit of a disappointment, though the song had a major cultural impact and everyone had heard it and knew about the video with the red catsuit. When the album debuted at #1 and broke sales records, she was truly on top of the world. Still, the singles continued to be a bit underwhelming on the charts, and only Stronger (barely) reached the Top 10.

* The general public started to turn on her around the time of the 2000 VMA performance. It was seen as a solid performance and kind of a coming-out for a new, racier image, but it was overshadowed by the controversy: Too ****, too soon? Is she a bad role model? Is she really a virgin? Is she a bad influence? Is she everything that's wrong with the music industry? She was also seen by now as going in the direction of being a completely manufactured act with questionable talent. These questions had always been there but they grew and grew after that performance.

* When Slave 4 U came out, it wasn't received all that well. She was seen as trying too hard, as alienating her core fanbase of young girls, of being too small and youthful a presence for the song. Her dance moves were often compared to a ********'s. She ended up growing into the song, interestingly, but if someone told you in 2002 that Slave 4 U would become a top Britney classic, they would have probably been surprised.

* The Britney album was seen as a pretty significant sales disappointment -- after two diamond albums, 4-5x platinum is a pretty serious sales drop-off. Not a Girl Not Yet a Woman, Overprotected, and Boys did horribly on the charts. And no, sorry, it wasn't just because of the radio ban. It was because people were confused about who she was trying to appeal to anymore. Not a Girl and Overprotected are all about adolescent angst and self-discovery and have no crossover appeal like BOMT or OIDIA, and Boys is just not that great a song.

* The Dream Within a Dream Tour (including the HBO special) and especially the mega-budget Pepsi commercials (especially the one with Bob Dole -- imagine if Mitt Romney or John McCain were in a commercial with Ariana Grande!) were big moments for her, and cemented her status as a cultural force.

* There were basically three core groups of Britney opinion-havers by 2001: those who thought she was a brilliant performer and the next Madonna, those who thought she was a good dancer with a few good songs but aren't 'fans,' and those who thought she was manufactured fake trash that would fade away within a few years.

* Crossroads was seen as "better than Glitter," but did nothing to increase her credibility outside of her core fan base

* 2002 was full of Justin drama, and Britney got the worse of the publicity -- she cheated on him, and Justin told the world about it with the Cry Me a River video. Britney looked terrible as this saga was unfolding. Acts like Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne were debuting, too, leading a lot of critics to wonder whether the Britney Era was ending with a reaction against it.

* The Madonna kiss a big moment for her, and there was a lot of tabloid gossip speculating about Madonna making Britney her ingenue. It bought her some credibility, although it was also seen as somewhat cynical on Madonna's part, since she had underwhelmed with American Life. Me Against the Music flopped on both pop radio and the Hot 100.

* In the Zone was seen as having strong opening sales and earned Britney her best reviews yet. It was often grouped in with Stripped and Justified as being solid teen-to-adult transition albums. From the perspective of a fan it was amazing -- she was EVERYWHERE and doing an insane amount of good promo.

* Toxic was a HUGE moment for her and she FINALLY earned serious credibility among the general public -- people just couldn't deny that song. It went to #1 on Pop Radio but was held back to #9 on the Hot 100 (urban tracks were big back then -- hence Boom Boom and Outrageous). Toxic and to a lesser extent Everytime made her look good -- and she won her first (and only) Grammy at this time, too

* The Onyx Hotel Tour was a bit underwhelming, sales-wise, frequently selling to 70-90% capacity and rarely selling out. Critics blasted the overly-****** nature of the show.

* By the time Toxic came around, she was universally known as the Queen of Lip-Syncing

* Between the Vegas marriage and marrying K-Fed, it confirmed her 'trailer trash' status in the eyes of the haters and she lost a lot of the credibility she won with Toxic

* By 2006, she was a punchline, and by 2007 she was a public freakshow act

 

So there you have it. Tell me if I missed anything and I will add it, but that is about how Britney's career went. 

THANK YOU!!!

most people think it was all peaches and cream until 2007, and that all her songs were hits on the charts cuz everyone knew them

you should add that by the end of the DWAD in 2002, she got more hate because of the whole Mexico "fiasco" of her flipping off the paparazzi on the car and cancelling the last show (cuz of weather)

[MX3]

I didnt read the whole post but yeah, she was chirped and parodied alot back in the day; pop music in general wasnt respected as much. like bsb, nysnc, etc.... the talent just wasnt taken as seriously as it is today.

and man, no wonder her interviews are so scripted and restricted now; i watched some old interviews and the interviewers ask the most point blank nasty questions, trying to trip her up, prove she is stupid etc. 

[prettylittleliar_2214]

57 minutes ago, neel21 said:

It wasn't oversexualized. the only slutty or pornographical part of it was the BOM, TOMH section. Shadow,  Everytime, Toxic, OP, IGT(BB) and the rest weren't any more sexualised than her Circus performances of POM, Womanizer, IUSA or POM's WB, IAS4U, MM or SP performances. And I feel that Gaga's tours witch all their violence and goriness et al are much more uncomfortable to watch than the OHT

People also have to look at her career during those times and the music she was making. OHT Tour fit the In the Zone album and DWAD fit the Britney album. They both served two different purposes in her career. ITZ made Britney an adult pop star and Britney was the transitional album to prepare her for the next level. These embarrassing pop stars we have today could only hope to do something one billionth as well as Britney did back then. 

[neel21]

18 minutes ago, prettylittleliar_2214 said:

People also have to look at her career during those times and the music she was making. OHT Tour fit the In the Zone album and DWAD fit the Britney album. They both served two different purposes in her career. ITZ made Britney an adult pop star and Britney was the transitional album to prepare her for the next level. These embarrassing pop stars we have today could only hope to do something one billionth as well as Britney did back then. 

EXACTLY! I couldn't imagine ITZ having a DWAD like performance for any of its songs...

[inthefields]

11 hours ago, Someone Who Knows said:

There is a lot of delusion among the fans about what Britney's prime was like. You really had to be there and take it all in. Yes, she was on top of the world, but it was complicated and she was dismissed by a lot of people who believed she had no chance of being a lasting star. All in all she was like Bieber but even bigger -- she had a core fanbase that made her the biggest star in the world, and a LOT of haters who despised her and wanted to see her fail. She didn't win serious and lasting credibility with the general public until after the comeback.

* When Baby One More Time came out, she was a phenom and everyone was obsessed with her. Sometimes, Crazy, and FTBOMBH weren't nearly as good as BOMT, but they were all hits because anything with Britney's name attached to it became a hit. She was America's Sweetheart.

* OIDIA peaking at #10 was a bit of a disappointment, though the song had a major cultural impact and everyone had heard it and knew about the video with the red catsuit. When the album debuted at #1 and broke sales records, she was truly on top of the world. Still, the singles continued to be a bit underwhelming on the charts, and only Stronger (barely) reached the Top 10.

* The general public started to turn on her around the time of the 2000 VMA performance. It was seen as a solid performance and kind of a coming-out for a new, racier image, but it was overshadowed by the controversy: Too ****, too soon? Is she a bad role model? Is she really a virgin? Is she a bad influence? Is she everything that's wrong with the music industry? She was also seen by now as going in the direction of being a completely manufactured act with questionable talent. These questions had always been there but they grew and grew after that performance.

* When Slave 4 U came out, it wasn't received all that well. She was seen as trying too hard, as alienating her core fanbase of young girls, of being too small and youthful a presence for the song. Her dance moves were often compared to a ********'s. She ended up growing into the song, interestingly, but if someone told you in 2002 that Slave 4 U would become a top Britney classic, they would have probably been surprised.

* The Britney album was seen as a pretty significant sales disappointment -- after two diamond albums, 4-5x platinum is a pretty serious sales drop-off. Not a Girl Not Yet a Woman, Overprotected, and Boys did horribly on the charts. And no, sorry, it wasn't just because of the radio ban. It was because people were confused about who she was trying to appeal to anymore. Not a Girl and Overprotected are all about adolescent angst and self-discovery and have no crossover appeal like BOMT or OIDIA, and Boys is just not that great a song.

* The Dream Within a Dream Tour (including the HBO special) and especially the mega-budget Pepsi commercials (especially the one with Bob Dole -- imagine if Mitt Romney or John McCain were in a commercial with Ariana Grande!) were big moments for her, and cemented her status as a cultural force.

* There were basically three core groups of Britney opinion-havers by 2001: those who thought she was a brilliant performer and the next Madonna, those who thought she was a good dancer with a few good songs but aren't 'fans,' and those who thought she was manufactured fake trash that would fade away within a few years.

* Crossroads was seen as "better than Glitter," but did nothing to increase her credibility outside of her core fan base

* 2002 was full of Justin drama, and Britney got the worse of the publicity -- she cheated on him, and Justin told the world about it with the Cry Me a River video. Britney looked terrible as this saga was unfolding. Acts like Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne were debuting, too, leading a lot of critics to wonder whether the Britney Era was ending with a reaction against it.

* The Madonna kiss a big moment for her, and there was a lot of tabloid gossip speculating about Madonna making Britney her ingenue. It bought her some credibility, although it was also seen as somewhat cynical on Madonna's part, since she had underwhelmed with American Life. Me Against the Music flopped on both pop radio and the Hot 100.

* In the Zone was seen as having strong opening sales and earned Britney her best reviews yet. It was often grouped in with Stripped and Justified as being solid teen-to-adult transition albums. From the perspective of a fan it was amazing -- she was EVERYWHERE and doing an insane amount of good promo.

* Toxic was a HUGE moment for her and she FINALLY earned serious credibility among the general public -- people just couldn't deny that song. It went to #1 on Pop Radio but was held back to #9 on the Hot 100 (urban tracks were big back then -- hence Boom Boom and Outrageous). Toxic and to a lesser extent Everytime made her look good -- and she won her first (and only) Grammy at this time, too

* The Onyx Hotel Tour was a bit underwhelming, sales-wise, frequently selling to 70-90% capacity and rarely selling out. Critics blasted the overly-****** nature of the show.

* By the time Toxic came around, she was universally known as the Queen of Lip-Syncing

* Between the Vegas marriage and marrying K-Fed, it confirmed her 'trailer trash' status in the eyes of the haters and she lost a lot of the credibility she won with Toxic

* By 2006, she was a punchline, and by 2007 she was a public freakshow act

 

So there you have it. Tell me if I missed anything and I will add it, but that is about how Britney's career went. 

Ok, that was really fair!  I'm impressed with your summary!  I have been there since 1999 so I can confirm this.  Maybe you missed mentioning SNL which looked really good on her for making fun of herself and she was good at the skits.  Also, her performance of DLMBTLTK was one of her best vocal performances ever.  I personally think her peak was with the HBO special and Pepsi commercial.  I think that was around the time of the performance with Michael Jackson?

[confidentnotcocky]

Well, she was the biggest star in the world, so she had a lot of haters. She was controversial, so she had a lot of haters. The only person that matched her success at the time was Eminem and guess what, he had a lot of haters, possibly more. She was bubble gum pop, saying she was a virgin even when slave dropped people would have obviously thought she was fake. It doesn't really matter cos she ******* slayed. It was amazing being a fan, when she was booked on an an award show, you KNEW she'd steal the show, you knew the video would be awesome. Everything WAS awesome. It's not being delusional, it's just remembering how awesome she was. Also the world doesn't end after America's shores, oops was #1 in many other countries. You're right about slave, but yeah it was a risk, that's what good artists do, they take risks, it's not a bad thing. It was very different for her an not everyone took to it, but no pop girl was putting out an r&b song at the time, and the black community were slayed by it, I remember. 

You're going on about credibility, she was a teenager singing pop songs she didn't write, dancing ****, and saying she was a virgin when most people thought she wasn't, of course she didn't have credibility as an artist, she was marketed at children. Who's gonna take an artist like that seriously? And it didn't matter at the time. Were you an adult at the time, why would you have cared?

It's not that what you're saying is wrong. I just don't think it matters, she's the star that she is because of everything that you have listed. That's basically why people were here for a comeback, I don't think most would have even been given the chance. The prime had drama but it's all part of her legacy. I personally think the Justin thing was the worst thing, but Toxic came and she survived it. My prerogative slayed Europe. The music did fine, that's the main thing. She was known as a **** vocalist but her dancing and performance couldn't be denied through her whole prime.

[Guest $elfish]

Nice read I didn't know some of these 

boys is a legendary song btw

But You forgot to mention my prerogative "era" her come back and femme fatale tho they are technically her prime 

And primeney died in 2012 

she probably won't be back 

 

[ALLEYESONUS]

3 hours ago, Scrappy said:

I will be the first to say it, the Onyx Hotel Tour was trash. I've always felt uncomfortable watching it from the time it happened to now. It was definitely too much in the wrong direction.  Unlike DWAD, it reeked of softcore smut rather than a legit artistic or entertainment enterprise.

Onyx wasn't really trash. Just maybe a bit too much (based on the footage ive seen)

[none]

1 hour ago, Blackout in the Glory Zone said:

Nice read I didn't know some of these 

boys is a legendary song btw

But You forgot to mention my prerogative "era" her come back and femme fatale tho they are technically her prime 

And primeney died in 2012 

she probably won't be back 

 

Even though fans loved MP, the GP wasn't a fan of it as they were thinking that she was trying too hard to be **** and that the Bobby Brown's version was better. I remember a commentator talking about MP and saying that it wasn't really representing rebelling and taking control, but she was just flipping people off in a childish way

[none]

5 hours ago, Scrappy said:

I will be the first to say it, the Onyx Hotel Tour was trash. I've always felt uncomfortable watching it from the time it happened to now. It was definitely too much in the wrong direction.  Unlike DWAD, it reeked of softcore smut rather than a legit artistic or entertainment enterprise.

finally! someone with logic!

even though the promo performances were still sensual, they weren't over the top like on the tour

[F.a.u.zish]

5 hours ago, Scrappy said:

I will be the first to say it, the Onyx Hotel Tour was trash. I've always felt uncomfortable watching it from the time it happened to now. It was definitely too much in the wrong direction.  Unlike DWAD, it reeked of softcore smut rather than a legit artistic or entertainment enterprise.

I wouldn't call Onyx trash. The TOMH-BOM segment was definitely a bit much but I enjoy quite a few of the performances. I think what makes me dislike the tour is the production. They were trying to go for a small theater broadway show vibe but to me it just came of as cheap. The dancing and costumes were amazing but the stage would look too small, too crowded or even too empty at times, the only time I felt there was a balance was the opening segment with Toxic. Also who's idea was it to have britney's male backup singer to be so much louder than her lip synced vocals it made her lip syncing even more obvious.

I don't hate the tour though, her energy, costumes, and passion are some of the best she's ever had. Britney herself as a performer was really good during OHT.

 

[britneymegamix]

2 hours ago, Blackout in the Glory Zone said:

 

But You forgot to mention my prerogative "era" her come back and femme fatale tho they are technically her prime 

And primeney died in 2012 

she probably won't be back 

 

 

in what world FFney can be considered as Primeney? I... I... 

[Guest $elfish]

5 minutes ago, britneymegamix said:

 

in what world FFney can be considered as Primeney? I... I... 

Mine because femme fataleney slayed

(besides dancing and depression) 

she had her facial features 

she seemed really happy at times 

she gave us a album full of bops 

she had a world tour ... kind of sucked but at least we had one 

the mvs were amazing 

she collabed with relevant people like Rihanna and Will I flop ( that was for scream and shout which isn't really from femme fatale but I consider it as being a part of the era) 

femme fataleney needs more appreciation y'all 

 

 

[Blackout2006]

On 3/22/2017 at 9:16 AM, brit4u1998 said:

Her third album WAS NOT a disappointment in the end. Only critics and haters really think that now. But these are just my opinions.

By the end of 2001, the third album, 'Britney', sold 2.9 million copies. But what critics and haters forget

was that it was only seven weeks into the album's sales. 2.9 million copies in seven weeks is not a disappointment,

even though writers said it was then.  It has sold 4.4 million copies now, which is really good.

People also forget that SHE RELEASED THREE ALBUMS IN A ROW. It's rare for a third album, released in a row

to sell 10 million copies. Of course her third album isn't going to sell as much, Britney was kind of saturated then, and

it was her third album, in a row.

Exactly! People act like as if Britney sold hardly any copies back. How could you deem that album as a dissapointment when it managed to sell 5 million copies WW in the end of 2002. Britney was the second-best selling album of 2001 or 02 after Alicia Keys. 

BOMT sales in end of 1999- 10 million copies

OIDIA sales in end of 2000- 9 million copies

Britney sales in end of 2002- 5 million copies

So, there was only a 4 million sales difference. Compared to other artist third albums performances in its first year, this was even more better. Plus, are we going to forget about its first week sales? The album sold 709k sales in the US alone, and 1.7 million copies WW.

[Blackout2006]

On 3/22/2017 at 9:14 PM, Guest $elfish said:

she had her facial features 

she seemed really happy at times 

Who told you that? Lou taylor? 

[FullyDattAndDatt3full]

OMG This reminds me of how much I love Slave 4 U

[Fab britney]

As a baby britney stan I kinda agree. What I remember was constantly asking my parents to buy the stuff with her face on it in every single store and that she was ALWAYS on tv and magazines. Her videos and performances were soooo big. But honestly I feel like her music wasn’t actually taken too seriously. I remember hearing Eminem, pink, all for u by Janet, Justin Timberlake and even Christina on the radio more than britney. 

[YannFrance]

In The Zone saved her career tbh, it was her golden era. everything from that time was epic, from the album itself to the performances and she was more confident also in that era. 

[fays1]

The only thing I would add is she was attacked for her sexuality since her first single. It was first the BOMT video, then the Rolling Stone Video, then the **** job, then her virginity..

[ColdAsFire89]

you're forgetting her singles up until ITZ were smashes world wide.. true the singles didn't do that well in the U.S. but that was their strategy to sell more albums rather than singles. since blackout her singles are doing well in the U.S. but flopping in Europe... 

 

she needs a proper song to get her back into the game. I wish she would have done "Future nostalgia". "Physical" would be so Britney with a nice workout video. that would be authentic to her and would be so good sung by her