exhale What if Britney took the singer-songwriter route instead of pop?

[DignifiedLove]

What if Britney took the singer-songwriter route a la Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, etc.?

Would she have still made her mark on the music industry and be regarded as a legend in her own right or would she have simply faded into obscurity?

Would that have also meant artists like Jessica, Mandy and Willa would have found more success? Would Christina Aguilera have been the reigning princess of pop instead? Surely, someone would have had to fill the gap of pop’s revival if it wasn’t Britney. Thoughts?

[rawbrit]

no vma performances

no mtv

[DignifiedLove]

10 minutes ago, rawbrit said:

no vma performances

no mtv

Not if legend x released bomt and came to save the day 

[Cappycorn87]

Booooring

She most likely would not made it because it was already so many of those style of artist.  Jive put her in the right direction.

[DignifiedLove]

11 minutes ago, Cappycorn87 said:

Booooring

She most likely would not made it because it was already so many of those style of artist.  Jive put her in the right direction.

ummm but maybe she would have been more respected as an artist and lived a more tame, happier life without the manipulation of the media, handlers, press and paps. did that ever occur to you?

oh but that’s right, you’re against artists who showcase vulnerability and rawness in their music, for some odd reason. Like fave, like stan I guess.

[Mona Lisa 2.0]

Britney is not a great songwriter. She wouldn't have become an icon if it wasn't for pop music. 

Also, if Britney hadn't come out with the ...Baby One More TIme album, those artists (Christina, Jessica, Mandy and Willa) would have totally different careers, because as everybody already knows, their labels released them to be like Britney and to emulate her success; Obviously Christina was the only one that had musical talent between those and she became her own type of artist. 

[Cappycorn87]

11 minutes ago, DignifiedLove said:

ummm but maybe she would have been more respected as an artist and lived a more tame, happier life without the manipulation of the media, handlers, press and paps. did that ever occur to you?

oh but that’s right, you’re against artists who showcase vulnerability and rawness in their music, for some odd reason. Like fave, like stan I guess.

I have no problem as long as its not boring

[solo]

I don't see why she couldn't have done both. Pop star and singer songwriter. 

[DignifiedLove]

8 minutes ago, solo said:

I don't see why she couldn't have done both. Pop star and singer songwriter. 

She tried in 04-07, but was far too wrapped up in the pop machine. It just didn’t work for her even though she had a lot of potential.

[DignifiedLove]

58 minutes ago, Mona Lisa 2.0 said:

Britney is not a great songwriter. She wouldn't have become an icon if it wasn't for pop music. 

Also, if Britney hadn't come out with the ...Baby One More TIme album, those artists (Christina, Jessica, Mandy and Willa) would have totally different careers, because as everybody already knows, their labels released them to be like Britney and to emulate her success; Obviously Christina was the only one that had musical talent between those and she became her own type of artist. 

She was 16 and became a global sensation overnight so she really had no time to grow or develop into a well-established/serious songwriter type. That being said, it’s unfair to say she’s not a great songwriter, especially when she wasn’t really given the chance. Had Britney’s career not taken off in the way that it did, I could have definitely seen her being more hands-on and by 2000, that’s ultimately what she wanted. Problem is that she was far too wrapped in this global pop machine and being labeled as the pop princess that she couldn’t just full-on go Sheryl Crow or Fiona Apple, for example.

When all is said and done, you can say it worked out, but Britney struggled a lot to gain artistic freedom. 

[nonoiseplz]

2 hours ago, DignifiedLove said:

What if Britney took the singer-songwriter route a la Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, etc.?

Would she have still made her mark on the music industry and be regarded as a legend in her own right or would she have simply faded into obscurity?

Would that have also meant artists like Jessica, Mandy and Willa would have found more success? Would Christina Aguilera have been the reigning princess of pop instead? Surely, someone would have had to fill the gap of pop’s revival if it wasn’t Britney. Thoughts?

Faded into obscurity like Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow? ...maybe. Britney hasn't released enough of her self written songs for anyone to really know.

But if there were no Britney Spears, there wouldn't be a pop princess. The whole concept of a 'Pop Princess' was formed by the presence of Britney Spears. Jessica, Mandy, and Floptina careers as 'pop princesses' were built on the 'Britney Spears' model. Even their music was created or tweaked to compete with 'Pop Princess Britney Spears'. If Britney were successful as a singer/songwriter, perhaps Jessica, Mandy and Floptinas record labels would have modeled their careers as that Britney alternate too.

As for Willa Ford- I think Willa would have still tried to become the female version of The Backstreet Boys and would have gone the pop route regardless. Willa Fords image and music was centered around being the 'anti-' version of 1999-Goody-Two-Shoe Britney but Britney broke out of that goody-two-shoe image before Willa could release her album, which threw off Willas whole gimmick. Though, Willa Ford did date Nick Carter before she became the anti-Britney, so I believe she would have still had some sort of pop relevant music career. Ironically,  although Willa Ford ended up being the least successful with her pop career, she is the only one who didn't need Britney Spears' existence to become what we now know as a 'pop princess' .

 

I just remembered that without Britney, this whole "teenpop" music craze of 1999 to 2001 would have NEVER been an Era. Nsync and The Backstreet Boys were no where near as big as they became after Britney Spears created 'teen pop music culture'.

[CristMont]

Sis? we already have SIA so.... NO 

[Mona Lisa 2.0]

39 minutes ago, DignifiedLove said:

She was 16 and became a global sensation overnight so she really had no time to grow or develop into a well-established/serious songwriter type. That being said, it’s unfair to say she’s not a great songwriter, especially when she wasn’t really given the chance.

Fiona Apple wrote her debut album when she was 17. That argument is bullshit. Britney has wrote I'm So Curious for her first album and Dear Diary for her second, both have mediocre lyrics, but she wrote them when she was around the same age as Fiona Apple.

39 minutes ago, DignifiedLove said:

Had Britney’s career not taken off in the way that it did, I could have definitely seen her being more hands-on and by 2000, that’s ultimately what she wanted. Problem is that she was far too wrapped in this global pop machine and being labeled as the pop princess that she couldn’t just full-on go Sheryl Crow or Fiona Apple, for example.

You can't tell me what she wanted, cause you don't know her personally.

She had the most artistic control with In the Zone since she co-wrote/wrote almost every song on the album, but she released pop/dance songs anyway. And then she was executive producer for Blackout and she released pop/dance songs once again. She never tried to be a singer-songwriter type of artist.  

[jordeezy river red]

She is still pretty young... I do still have hope that we will see that side of her again some day.  

[nonoiseplz]

10 minutes ago, Mona Lisa 2.0 said:

Fiona Apple wrote her debut album when she was 17. That argument is bullshit. Britney has wrote I'm So Curious for her first album and Dear Diary for her second, both have mediocre lyrics, but she wrote them when she was around the same age as Fiona Apple.

You can't tell me what she wanted, cause you don't know her personally.

She had the most artistic control with In the Zone since she co-wrote/wrote almost every song on the album, but she released pop/dance songs anyway. And then she was executive producer for Blackout and she released pop/dance songs once again. She never tried to be a singer-songwriter type of artist.  

Ok. Britney never tried to become a full on singer/songwriter type artist but she showed interest in becoming a contemporary pop artist after she became pop royalty. In 2001, Britney wrote songs while on the DWAD tour and had her pianoist create melodies to them so she could perform them on random tour dates throughout that tour. We don't have full versions of those songs, but the snippets that she did perform were not flat out mediocre. "You were My Home" , "Mystic Man" and some other song, which I don't remember, had some pretty good lyrics.

19 year old Britney wrote- "Tell me, tell me what to feel. Cause nothing, nothing is real."  So simple but there is no other song out there that has this lyric. I love that line and , throughout the years, I find myself thinking about it. What could that song have become!?! We'll probably never know, but Thank You for that lyric Britney.

[garyBS]

No, thank you.

[Mona Lisa 2.0]

14 minutes ago, nonoiseplz said:

Ok. Britney never tried to become a full on singer/songwriter type artist but she showed interest in becoming a contemporary pop artist after she became pop royalty. In 2001, Britney wrote songs while on the DWAD tour and had her pianoist create melodies to them so she could perform them on random tour dates throughout that tour. We don't have full versions of those songs, but the snippets that she did perform were not flat out mediocre. "You were My Home" , "Mystic Man" and some other song, which I don't remember, had some pretty good lyrics.

She didn't try to change her route, she continued to do ***/dance songs even after that. She had artistic freedom to do what she wanted and she chose to continue to be the same type of artist.

14 minutes ago, nonoiseplz said:

19 year old Britney wrote- "Tell me, tell me what to feel. Cause nothing, nothing is real."  So simple but there is no other song out there that has this lyric.

Actually La La Land by Demi Lovato has a similar lyric: "Tell me do you feel the way I feel, cause nothing else is real". 

[DignifiedLove]

1 hour ago, Mona Lisa 2.0 said:

Fiona Apple wrote her debut album when she was 17. That argument is bullshit. Britney has wrote I'm So Curious for her first album and Dear Diary for her second, both have mediocre lyrics, but she wrote them when she was around the same age as Fiona Apple.

You can't tell me what she wanted, cause you don't know her personally.

She had the most artistic control with In the Zone since she co-wrote/wrote almost every song on the album, but she released pop/dance songs anyway. And then she was executive producer for Blackout and she released pop/dance songs once again. She never tried to be a singer-songwriter type of artist.  

oh.... you wanna argue argue again? girl i-

anyway..she was marketed as teen pop, naughty-but-nice, girl-next-door Lolita turned *** vixen since the beginning, as you know. During a rs interview in 2000 with Rob Scheffeld, she literally admitted that she wanted to release a Sheryl Crow-esque type of record and found her Baby/Oops albums to be very controlling by her record label so you cannot tell me otherwise. Then again, the music industry, then, was very ***-driven and she ultimately fed into the hype surrounding her success/popularity that there wasn’t really any way she could have turned the tables around.

Yes, she was never a songwriter type, per se, like Fiona Apple who was classically trained in piano as a child and came from an upscale musical family, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t master that skill.

Songs like Everytime, To Love Let Go, Someday, Little Me prove my point that Britney had potential and tried to be a recognized songwriter, but unfortunately, a lot of her material was swept under the rug and she ultimately fell deeper into the pop machine where *** and dance-pop continued to be the priority.

anyway, it’s not a big deal. what’s done is done and by the end of the day, Britney made her mark in the industry and became pop royalty. 

[Mona Lisa 2.0]

Just now, DignifiedLove said:

oh.... you wanna argue argue again? girl i-

anyway..she was marketed as teen pop, naughty-but-nice, girl-next-door Lolita turned *** vixen since the beginning, as you know. During a rs interview in 2000 with Rob Scheffeld, she literally admitted that she wanted to release a Sheryl Crow-esque type of record and found her Baby/Oops albums to be very controlling by her record label so you cannot tell me otherwise. Then again, the music industry, then, was very ***-driven and she ultimately fed into the hype surrounding her success/popularity that there wasn’t really any way she could have turned the tables around.

Yes, she was never a songwriter type, per se, like Fiona Apple who was classically trained in piano as a child and came from an upscale musical family, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t master that skill.

Songs like Everytime, To Love Let Go, Someday, Little Me prove my point that Britney had potential and tried to be a recognized songwriter, but unfortunately, a lot of her material was swept under the rug and she ultimately fell deeper into the pop machine where *** and dance-pop continued to be the priority.

anyway, it’s not a big deal. what’s done is done and by the end of the day, Britney made her mark in the industry and became pop royalty. 

I thought you made threads so people could discuss. But when I'm trying to discuss you complain? 

She could've said that in the Oops era but she didn't try to change her music even after having so much control in ITZ album. She didn't try changing it with Blackout. Even when she recorded those songs she didn't release it anyway. Do you think people were controlling her so much she couldn't have a say?  

[DignifiedLove]

9 minutes ago, Mona Lisa 2.0 said:

I thought you made threads so people could discuss. But when I'm trying to discuss you complain? 

She could've said that in the Oops era but she didn't try to change her music even after having so much control in ITZ album. She didn't try changing it with Blackout. Even when she recorded those songs she didn't release it anyway. Do you think people were controlling her so much she couldn't have a say?  

I explained in my post before this why she didn’t and really couldn’t fully transition into a singer-songwriter type. Britney was already pop royalty by 2000 and one of the biggest music phenomenons the world had seen, so it didn’t make sense for her to go full-on Sheryl Crow due to being on such a high pedestal, even if that’s what her heart had longed for.

Ultimately, she fed into the hype of the pop machine circulating her career and pursued the direction her label had planned for her. That, and over the years, Britney enjoyed being more ****, as well as discovering her sexuality.