Creative Control

[ShowdownITZ]

Did Britney have any type of creative control for her first three albums or was she a puppet?

[Isla]

Well she did have some control over some things actually. Off the top of my head:

- Chose concept for BOMT and Stronger videos

- Asked for BTMYH lyrics to be revised

- Changed the ending for Dear Diary

- Co-wrote I'm So Curious

- Co-wrote a lot of songs from Britney (although the tracklist was changed to include the Crossroads songs)

- Persuaded her label/team not to release Bombastic Love as a single as it had been originally planned 

Although most decisions were done by the label most likely as they probably saw what was best for Britney but she wasn't exactly a puppet per se. 

[BOBIBCFBG]

I think for the most part she didn't on the first two albums. I'm sure being a brand new artist, especially when she was just 15, she recorded what she was told for her first album. Then I remember an interview where she was talking about Oops and said "I just got off my first tour and that album just kind of fell into my lap." I have a feeling it was the same way with BOMT - she was told to record certain songs and she just did it. With Britney I think she was starting to take control a little bit more and then almost full control with ITZ. 

[prettylittleliar_2214]

2 hours ago, Isla. said:

Well she did have some control over some things actually. Off the top of my head:

- Chose concept for BOMT and Stronger videos

- Asked for BTMYH lyrics to be revised

- Changed the ending for Dear Diary

- Co-wrote I'm So Curious

- Co-wrote a lot of songs from Britney (although the tracklist was changed to include the Crossroads songs)

- Persuaded her label/team not to release Bombastic Love as a single as it had been originally planned 

Although most decisions were done by the label most likely as they probably saw what was best for Britney but she wasn't exactly a puppet per se. 

Agreed. It's pretty standard for pop stars. Labels don't let you control your own narrative at that point. They introduce you with GP friendly music and a particular image. When you get big enough then you can have more control over your music. 

[BoyToySoldier]

With the first two albums, music wise she was guided. As far as the visuals go, she was involved. By the third album she wanted a different direction which was the reason for Slave / Boys.

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

For BOMT, no. Maybe she would bounce some ideas around, because she was the age of her target demographic, and they trusted somethings she said, but over all they had their image and concept. It was all label driven. 

With Oops, she was comfortable to just record, and do what the label said. It was still early days, and she could deliver the performances.
With Britney, I think this was when she wanted to play around, while the label wanted to promote Crossroads. She has a lot of writting credits, and it fit her age perfectly, and she was willing to fight a bit more for singles. 
With ITZ, I think they were allowing her to take the reigns even more, which is why it is a far more mature album to Britney. A lot had happened in Britney's live since Britney, and this reflected in the music, and the label trusted her enough to make those calls.
then we have her break, which is when her creative control started to come into question: Original Doll....where there's smoke there's fire. She was working on music, she was recording, and she had a title, it probably just wasn't as marketable as Toxic, or Slave.....
 

Blackout is a weird one because she had so much going on. She was the EP of this. She had a say here to be in that position. Its a mature album, and there's a reason fans love it, and its in the Rock and Roll hall of fame, and its called one of the most influential albums.
and this is where it gets weird, and I believe the conservatorship takes effect, and we start to see a huge disinterest.....

Circus is nice, but its incredibly safe: Britney was probably happy to record and take her mind off everything, but wasn't happy. 
With Femme Fatale, Britney had control taken away from her, and wasn't in a good place, and wasn't interested.

With Britney Jean, the same thing happened and Britney refused to work, she had other priorities, which is why this was a mess.

Britney was given some wiggle room to record Pretty Girls and Tom's Diner (a pop urban track, but still, and one of her favourite songs that was her idea), and they recieved decent reviews.

Fans were literally screaming for them to trust Britney a bit more.

and so, the label decided to trust her a bit more, but have her work with someone who understood trends, but also, understood what made Britney...well...Britney, and allowed her to work with people who were marketable and trendy, but also, open enough to ideas, which is why we got Glory. Still somewhat label driven, just that Britney was working with people she liked to work with, but were also label friendly, and pleased fans.

Moving forward though, Britney needs to invest, and be open and honest, and find that groove she had with ITZ and Blackout, which i believe she kinda found with Glory, but played safe. 

 

[sarahbbyy]

53 minutes ago, ICouldntThinkOfOne said:

For BOMT, no. Maybe she would bounce some ideas around, because she was the age of her target demographic, and they trusted somethings she said, but over all they had their image and concept. It was all label driven. 

With Oops, she was comfortable to just record, and do what the label said. It was still early days, and she could deliver the performances.
With Britney, I think this was when she wanted to play around, while the label wanted to promote Crossroads. She has a lot of writting credits, and it fit her age perfectly, and she was willing to fight a bit more for singles. 
With ITZ, I think they were allowing her to take the reigns even more, which is why it is a far more mature album to Britney. A lot had happened in Britney's live since Britney, and this reflected in the music, and the label trusted her enough to make those calls.
then we have her break, which is when her creative control started to come into question: Original Doll....where there's smoke there's fire. She was working on music, she was recording, and she had a title, it probably just wasn't as marketable as Toxic, or Slave.....
 

Blackout is a weird one because she had so much going on. She was the EP of this. She had a say here to be in that position. Its a mature album, and there's a reason fans love it, and its in the Rock and Roll hall of fame, and its called one of the most influential albums.
and this is where it gets weird, and I believe the conservatorship takes effect, and we start to see a huge disinterest.....

Circus is nice, but its incredibly safe: Britney was probably happy to record and take her mind off everything, but wasn't happy. 
With Femme Fatale, Britney had control taken away from her, and wasn't in a good place, and wasn't interested.

With Britney Jean, the same thing happened and Britney refused to work, she had other priorities, which is why this was a mess.

Britney was given some wiggle room to record Pretty Girls and Tom's Diner (a pop urban track, but still, and one of her favourite songs that was her idea), and they recieved decent reviews.

Fans were literally screaming for them to trust Britney a bit more.

and so, the label decided to trust her a bit more, but have her work with someone who understood trends, but also, understood what made Britney...well...Britney, and allowed her to work with people who were marketable and trendy, but also, open enough to ideas, which is why we got Glory. Still somewhat label driven, just that Britney was working with people she liked to work with, but were also label friendly, and pleased fans.

Moving forward though, Britney needs to invest, and be open and honest, and find that groove she had with ITZ and Blackout, which i believe she kinda found with Glory, but played safe. 

 

I think it has ALWAYS been the music where she had the lack of control. Her gift as a visual artist was undeniable. Plus, as a young girl, the label probably knew that it would be her specialty and once Baby One More Time payed off, they kind of let her have ALL control over that.

Remember that Britney started to really write for the Britney album but even then, there were songs that did not make it on the album in favor of Crossroads, which was most likely her label's idea when she probably wanted all of her songs she had co-written on there and some that she just preferred over the ones released, even if not written by herself. 

In The Zone definitely was when she could go all out but even then, Britney left a cryptic message to her fans about how either her label or management were making her do things for the album that were not in her best interests. Blackout and Glory seemed to be the only ones where music wise, it was far more positive than a negative experience. (Obviously, Blackout was not all positive but I am talking about the music solely)

[sarahbbyy]

15 hours ago, Britneyfan1334 said:

Did Britney have any type of creative control for her first three albums or was she a puppet?

Uh, I think it is a little harsh to call any human being a puppet. We live in a very ****** society and everyone thinks that all females(actors and singers) just sit there, give *********, while the industry just hands them their success. 

What they do not know is that since the beginning of music, there has always been a separation between songwriters and singers. It was very rare that they ever blended together. There are songwriters that give demos out to all labels and have their singers listen to them. With the help of A&R and music executives, artists pick what are the best songs for the album

Now, it is very different though when artists come in as songwriters as well. What I mean by that is they are signed as artists but had always planned to write their own material because they had done it by themselves for so many years prior. Taylor Swift is a pretty good example of that. Usually in that situation, labels do not fully trust the artist they do not know, so they will get them in a group with a bunch of professionals that they trust to help the artist write songs. 

Since Britney did not come in as a songwriter(she just wanted to be a singer and did not explore the songwriter side of herself yet), she was way in over her head when the label kind of just took the reins and made a lot of decisions for her such as which songwriters she would be able to choose and what direction she would take in terms of sound. When it came to the music video though, the label did not know what they were doing when they gave her the video of her playing a super hero fighting an animated monster, which is why she went straight to Larry and fought for that not to be her video. She knew she would be laughed off and her label was just crazy at that point. 

Now, remember, she might have not completely chosen her sound but just like any artist, she did listen to the demos and have a say on what song she liked and did not. The label was not going to risk not giving her some sense that she had control over what music she would be releasing. They would just fight her on it or convince her otherwise on her choices they did not approve of(but Britney caught on that she was never really in control). It is something they are now very used to with Britney because she is one of the few artists who does not stand up for herself. Lots of artists go through this but always speak up. I mean, look at Kelly Clarkson. 

I know this is the devil's name on Exhale but Christina Aguilera came in the industry just like Britney did. She was a singer first and probably did not know songwriting was even an option for her but being the strong mind that she was, not only did she change Genie in a Bottle to an R&B/ pop song instead of just a pop song, but she made it very well known that she was frustrated with her direction. She bit the hand that fed her(which Britney still does not). It ended up paying off because she took time to sue her manager after firing him and went back into the studio when she was ready. She created Stripped, which had her songwriting credits for all but two songs and now she writes/has control for/of all of her albums since then.