exhale The lead up to Britney Jean

[MmmDani]

This seems like it could’ve been the most exciting time to be a Britney fan. 

- Scream & Shout being a massive hit

- Ooh La La being released (like a fun buzz single)

- Britney appearing on SMS Bangerz (even if it’s bad)

- All of the lovely interviews 

- The suggestion that BJ was going to be Blackout 2.0

- The claims that it was “her most personal album yet”. Speculation must’ve been wild at this time

- Work ***** being an incredible lead

- Perfume being a beautiful ballad

- The release of I Am Britney Jean leading into her residency 

- The hype for the new residency 

 

It must’ve made the BJ fiasco even worse. Because there was such a lead up to the album and presumably everyone expected it to follow Circus and Femme Fatale and be a commercial success. The Myah stuff and the fact that both singles and then the album flopped must’ve been shocking.

Was it the most exciting time to be a fan (post breakdown)? 

 

 

I was 13 at the time, I only had My Prerogative, Blackout and recently bought The Singles Collection (I was aware that Circus existed (I saw it in Tesco once)). But I saw Britney Jean in HMV (expecting it to be like Blackout) and when I listened to it I hated it. I didn’t know her voice as well as y’all did, but I remember feeling like it was very manufactured. I was used to My Prerogative and Blackout exclusively so I only knew incredible songs. But I loved Work *****. What were your initial reactions to the album?

[rck92]

I agree with this one. There was so much to look forward to but when I bought the CD and listened to it, I was really disappointed. I was expecting a real personal album with good songs but this was a real anticlimax for me.

[Chaoscontrol]

I remember being SO STOKED for BJ. I had always been a casual fan but it was the first album I had a lot of hype for.

There was so much hype. Britney was looking amazing after FF. Her personality was shining in interviews. The Blackout 2.0/Personal Album thing had us all really excited. I'm still pressed Old City of Mine was a bust :/ I was in LOVE with Alien the first time I had heard it, WB didn't really do much for me ever tbh.

I think the desert fiasco was the start of the downfall. I wasn't posting here but I remember lurking and the meltdown was insane. I remember listening to the album and thinking the same thing, very manufactured and it really made me wonder if she could even sing anymore without them cutting/pasting/editing to make it sound decent. Then the Myah stuff came out and Vegas had started and you know the rest

 

It really was an exciting time though. I look back on it with fond memories and it takes me back to that time in my life. It definitely makes me nostalgic!  

[PokemonSpears]

You know what, the only thing I didn't like about it was the hint at it being Blackout 2.0, thank God it wasn't  Oh, and SMS of course... 

2013 was such a good year indeed

I think things started to get weird with Work ***** video taking so long (although the wait was worth it). I still believe the song should've debuted at the VMAs of that year (people would be talking about that instead of that Miley mess).

And I didn't really like Perfume when it was first shared on her Facebook. I thought it was so cringy and is still one of my least favorite songs from that album. But when Alien leaked, God, that was good  I still have the demo version sans the glitch  and the vocal editing on the chorus.

Then Passenger came out and was amazing too.

 

It might surprise you perhaps, that people in here actually loved it when it first came out. They might have been a few ones that are going to tell you they disliked you since the beginning but they were a minority. Every song had its team of people that supported it. We knew Perfume was the second single, so we were all supporting our favorite song.

Perfume video was the real fiasco tbh. But then with IABJ we assumed Alien was the third single coming out eventually at some point, so everybody was team ISBE or team TIG, team BA for 4th single. I was one of the few ones that supported NTIFY  Until Jordan got a boyfriend and changed the banner and started rumors about it being the next single. lol 

There were threads for radio requests. Her team was actually testing several songs on radio, NTIFY included, and even Don't Cry at some stations, but it was obvious that without an official single release none of them were gonna catch up. And since we were all divided in our opinions, we couldn't focus on requesting only one song.

The album flopped, and ONLY then people started to create these rumors about Myah Marie and the alleged leaked stems and such. But it wasn't something instantaneous as some say that they KNEW it wasn't Britney since the second they heard the first song. 

 On top of that we got the Wigney era in 2014 during POM. 

[PokemonSpears]

Omg, I totally forgot about the Desert Performance  it was SO good

[Nickey]

The hype was so big that when I listened to BJ, I was still kind of excited. I needed some time to realize... the results were shocking. Such a dissapointment. 

[Stefi Hilton]

the hype ended for me when perfume was a single 

[Britneyarmy8]

33 minutes ago, PokemonSpears said:

Omg, I totally forgot about the Desert Performance  it was SO good

Wtf it the best pop performance yet there was theatrics a bomb costume live singing with the track proper hair and makeup britney changed her face tht night to primeneys face and she had rock hard abs and had fire choreo LEGEND QUEEN queen of desert honestly 

[Nickey]

I remember they did a countdown on her website. Such a wrong thing... I think they knew already that the album is going to sound like ****, why create false hope? They only caused massive meltdowns, which was sad because the Army has reduced... 

[Roger]

It was the most exciting times to be a fan for me.

Before Femme Fatale I was a casual fan so bought her albums, her singles, read about her on the internet, but I was not a "stan": I was not following her every move, checking KWORB, looking for new demos etc. It was only after FF that I started all of this. And Exhell.

So when she started to look like a resurrecting goddess in early 2013 on candids, interviews, appearances, music videos; all at the same time, I had so much hopes for the next era. Then Work ***** leaked and I was sooo happy because on BSN back then we were all eating up the Danger mix some fan made up on here, and it sounded kind of similar. It was some "hard EDM" and I wanted that.

But then, one of the biggest drama in Britney's career happened: desert fiasco. The countdown leading up to the release of WB and the Secret Event, the confirmation of a performance from TMZ, the event scheduled before dawn... Everyone had the the rights to have hopes. 

I remember that day like it's yesterday. Right after the event ended and that everyone realized that the only thing we had that day was a sick Britney, the 1st ever red updates started on iTunes for WB. Fans were pissed and were no longer supporting the song.

This was the beginning of the end for this era, and the "performance in the form of a music video" thing was the final nail in the coffin. 

The hate for the album grew on people, at first they were not as harsh as today. It was the era itself that started to turn people off at first.

[Roger]

51 minutes ago, PokemonSpears said:

It might surprise you perhaps, that people in here actually loved it when it first came out. They might have been a few ones that are going to tell you they disliked you since the beginning but they were a minority.

 

The album flopped, and ONLY then people started to create these rumors about Myah Marie and the alleged leaked stems and such. But it wasn't something instantaneous as some say that they KNEW it wasn't Britney since the second they heard the first song. 

[3IsACharm33]

I was also 13 when BJ came out, work ***** made me a stan tbh I was already a fan of her old vma performances I used to watch them on YouTube all the time but it was Work ***** an IABJ that brought me In to the fandom and I back on YouTube watching pom videos (back when it was good) I will admit when I first listened to bj I also didnt like it but I didnt listen to it in full until like a year after its release 

[zxcvb]

There were other factors at play too in addition to the correct points already:

There's just no getting around it, Britney Spears' latest, Britney Jean has failed to launch. The singer's eighth studio album hit the Billboard 200 album charts with a whisper this week, landing at an all-time-low #4 with the softest first-week numbers in Spears' career at 107,000 copies, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan. That marks only the second time Britney has not shot straight to #1 and it bests her previous first week low, set in 1999 by her debut, ...Baby One More Time, which moved 121,000. So, what happened?

MTV News spoke to some experts to dissect why Spears' loyal fans sat on their hands during week one. "There are a couple of things here that are out of her control," said Jeff Rabhan, chairman of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University and former manager for artists ranging from Kelly Clarkson to Jennifer Lopez. "There's such a glut of female pop stars right now with Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna and pop radio is dominated by solo female artists, which is has been for several years. Culturally, people are getting a bit tired of it and they're looking for other stars." But perhaps the bigger problem for Spears, 32, he said, is that after nearly 15 years in the spotlight, her audience is not necessarily one that has grown with her, and, perhaps, has moved on to other music, if they're buying music at all. "Who is her demographic now? It's very hard to say," Rabhan said.

But, in an age where MTV's Artist of the Year , Miley Cyrus, mostly M.IA , has set the new standard for tireless promotion, it also didn't help that Spears was mostly M.IA. before the album came out. "Except for some morning show appearances, she just hasn't been that visible," said Rabhan, noting that shows like "Ellen" and "Good Morning America" appeal to a demo that is probably outside Spears' sweet spot. "[Back in the day] nobody would promote like she would," he said of Spears' early career, likening her stamina to that of Beyoncé's legendary PR fortitude. "But if Britney's not out there, people will not be paying attention. Career-wise she's in a different place where she's more reliant on promotion to make noise and she just didn't do that."

Part of the reason could be that Spears, a working mother of two young boys, is in intense rehearsals for the upcoming opening of her two-year Las Vegas residency and just might not be in the mood to do six weeks of intense late show and radio promo. "She's making a s----ton of money from that residency, so her model has changed," he said of Spears' reportedly multi-million dollar payday. A simpler factor is that the album's first single, "Work *****," just didn't seem to connect at radio or retail, according to Entertainment Weekly music writer Kyle Anderson. "It didn't help that even hardcore Britney apologists were just okay with [the song]," said Anderson of the track that failed to hit the top 10. "You kind of live and die by the first single and people decided early on that the album wouldn't work if that was the first single." Spears might get a second shot with the just-released "Perfume," which Anderson said was a much stronger candidate. You can't really blame her for gearing most of the promotion toward the Vegas show, he said, noting that the money is in Sin City now and that her long timeline of paydays with her residency is more reliable than the shakier album sales model.

Timing might also be a factor. After the herculean promo push for Gaga's ARTPOP and the equally strong efforts from Perry and Cyrus, it's possible that Britney's bid just came too late in the season. "We already got these full-court presses from [those three women] and Britney's was not nearly as large as any of them and it came at the very end of the year. It may just be de facto diva exhaustion." - Rabhan said he's not so sure Britney's team didn't know going in that Jean was not the kind of hit machine she's produced in the past and he suspects radio was not a huge part of their plan to begin with. "They probably figured they'd make their money [on the residency] and use the record to get people to Vegas," he said. "It's like Celine Dion or Elton John, you get your fans to come to you and use the record as a business card to get people in the door." Either way, both said what's indisputable is that Spears is one of the leading heritage artists of her generation and even if album sales don't reach their previous highs there will always be people willing to pay money to have Britney hit them one more time.

https://www.mtv.com/news/1718903/britney-spears-britney-jean-worst-debut/

The album was just a recruiting ploy for Vegas, which if the bottom line is your main concern is absolutely understandable.  

Obviously their bringing up her lack of promo correlates with the lack of a desert performance everybody talks about.

[BOBIBCFBG]

The main reason BJ was bad was bc it was rushed to get it out before POM started. They wanted to use an album release to promote the residency vs letting them take their time with it to make a quality album. Will is a great producer - he's proved it so many times. And there were a lot of other great contributors to the album - Sia, William Orbit, David Guetta... You can tell it's not finished, it even sounds unfinished. That would explain the Myah vocals too.

[Million Billion]

There are so many things I'd like to write but I would only say: the never separated POM stuff from the music projects. The focus was the Vegas show because that's where the money was. 

Even though having constant hits on the radio and having Britney in people's minds would have helped 200 times more the high sales they already had. Such a wasted opportunity. 

[Stifler's Mom]

Once I listened the previews, I knew she was done. And to be honest, I was already disappointed with the FF album... alot of her essence was gone, and was literally killed with BJ.

[Guest]

For me, the excitement was short-lived. WB video definitely had me gagged with the amazing visuals. Which really helped the song grow on me. At first, I wasn’t too thrilled about the song itself. Britney looked amazing and not like her FF era. 

When the first images from rehearsals of the residency came out, I cringed. Some of the outfits were extremely unflattering. And the hair/wigs gave me mom vibes. I wanted to be excited for this new era, but these images were not promising.

Then came opening night. Pictures and clips surfaced on social media, and my heart sank. The first thing I noticed were the horrendous wigs. And the nude body stockings with the clunky shoes, did nothing for her figure! I tried watching WB PoM live performance, and couldn’t make it to the end. I did like her IABJ documentary.

 

Today, WB as a song has a weird place in my heart. While I can see that it’s not a quality single, and it’s not a song I listen to for enjoyment,  I appreciate it for other reasons. The video looked expensive and was a career high for Britney. I love the campiness to it, and how it’s become a major gay anthem around the world. If I’m out with friends at a gay bar or club, it’s a song that instantly elevates the mood wherever. As the years go by, I almost feel like it’s become a timeless gay anthem!

[OrganisedChaos]

I remember forcing myself to love Work ***** more than I did, but that was the first sign for me that this album wouldn’t be the return to form that I had hoped for. Then I listened to the album and hated it. I’ve never hated a Britney album before.

It was hard coming off the back of the FF era where Britney seemed oddly distant, even for her. So I was so excited that she was writing and “invested” again, but then we got Britney Jean 

Thank god for Glory tbh.

[Born2Die]

Britney Jean is my favorite album from Britney. It turned me from casual listener to stan! 

[Inuyasha]

I wasn't a stan back in 2013 (thank god). I was 11 at the time and I avidly stanned Miley Cyrus, so my *** was bopping to this masterpiece: 

(Yes lmao this is the original CD I bought like 5 years ago). However, this album did spark my interest in Britney Spears because of SMS, so I decided to illegally download Britney Jean. It was alright, but pretty forgettable for me tbh. I only kept Alien, WB, Perfume, and Passenger. (And then I forgot about Britney until 2016 where I became a stan)