music ‘Blackout’: A Salute to Her Misunderstood Punk Masterpiece

[nakedsoldier]

This is by far the best review I have ever read. Ill highlight some parts

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-blackout-a-salute-to-her-misunderstood-punk-masterpiece-121525/

On Tuesday, October 30th, 2007, when the world was trying to write her off as a joke – not for the first time, not for the last – Brit dropped music way too weird for the radio, all alien and distorted, warping her Southern drawl into a surly electro-punk sneer. Within a couple of years, everybody was trying to sound like this. It’s Britney, *****.

Blackout is an avant-disco concept album about getting famous, not giving a ****, getting divorced, not giving a ****, getting publicly mocked and despised and humiliated. It’s an album about dancing on tables in a cloud of glitter and Cheeto dust. But mostly it’s an album about not giving a ****, which is why it sounds perfect for grim times like these. Especially since America in 2017 is less sane or stable than Britney was in 2007. If our girl could emerge from the wreckage with an album like Blackout, there’s hope for us all.

Nobody has ever been able to explain how Blackout happened – how a star in mid-meltdown managed to document it all so vividly. It’s not like anybody sat down and decided to make a great album. Blackout had an all-star team of circa-2007 hitmakers: Danja, Jim Beanz, T-Pain, Bloodshy & Avant, Freescha, Fredwreck, Henri Jonback, the Neptunes, the Clutch. Yet they all outdid themselves. Sonically, the abrasive robo-screech was years ahead of its time. It’s almost as if the producers and writers were using Blackout as a beta test, trying out their craziest ideas on the assumption that the album would bomb and nobody would listen.

But it’s ironic that of all the turmoil Britney went through in 2007, the one thing people remember today, the thing that turned out to be lasting, is the music. As the lady once sang, she’s got nine lives like a kitty cat. The trilogy of Blackout, Circus and Femme Fatale is the summit of Britdom; in so many ways, it’s comparable to Bowie’s Berlin trilogy

Pop artists keep building whole careers on the Blackout sound

 

“You wanna piece of me?” sounds like she’s either pimping herself out or taunting you into a bar brawl. Either way, it’ll cost you. No wonder Taylor Swift quotes this song (“another day, another drama”) in “Look What You Made Me Do.” “Piece of Me” remains the template for every pop girl who decides it’s time to wreak her evil vengeance on a world that made the fatal mistake of pissing her off. Are you sure you want a piece of Britney? After ten years, Blackout still makes that sound like a thrillingly dangerous question.

[Marcanthony]

I love the article but it seems like it belongs in Buzzfeed rather than Rolling Stones

[IfUSeekRadar]

37 minutes ago, Marcanthony said:

I love the article but it seems like it belongs in Buzzfeed rather than Rolling Stones

Well, kinda true, but all in all, they're praising the **** out of Blackout, and that's all that it matters 

[blackoutbixxh]

It’s a shame the album didn’t get the recognition it deserved when it came out... it took years for the media and general population to acknowledge it as the masterpiece it is. 

[Brat]

2 hours ago, blackoutbixxh said:

It’s a shame the album didn’t get the recognition it deserved when it came out... it took years for the media and general population to acknowledge it as the masterpiece it is. 

It got a lot of acknowledgement, it's her only album in the hall of fame 

[MissSpearsSaysSo]

That’s a really good review. Too bad it took like a decade for anyone to realize how genius the album is. 

[Lorenzo]

I love Blackout and I’m glad it’s receiving all this praise but it’s kinda disappointing that major publications and music critics rarely cite or praise In The Zone these days... to me it’s a way more brilliant and experimental album 

[nakedsoldier]

4 hours ago, Lorenzo said:

I love Blackout and I’m glad it’s receiving all this praise but it’s kinda disappointing that major publications and music critics rarely cite or praise In The Zone these days... to me it’s a way more brilliant and experimental album 

I agree, but I think that's because Blackout really made a shift in the sound landscape of music at the time. It's influence is undeniable and like the review said: artists build their career on Blackout's sound. I always though Lady Gaga's The Fame and The Fame Monster were an imitation of Blackout. That doesn't make them bad, but it shows the influence off Blackout when Gaga was THE IT girl at that moment.