The Moment Britney became a Pop Icon...

[Blackout2006]

So when it comes to this topic, many people give their own opinions of when Britney established herself as a Pop icon. Some will say OIDIA, some will Britney, Some will say In the Zone, and some will even say from her debut. However, for me (and also many people in the Britney fandom), the moment I believe Britney TRULY cemented herself as a Unstoppable force of a Pop icon, was in the "Circus". For why I think so, here is a timeline to why she became the legend we know of today, with the "Circus" era:

A Quick Run-through her Prime era:

Back then, Britney was the hugest star in the planet. The biggest since Madonna or Mariah Carey. You would see Britney everywhere, from the streets to even merchandise being sold. Nobody could take her seat back then, her albums sold like hot cakes, her songs would always be huge hits and sung by kids and teenagers, she was the most searched celebrity of 1998-2005 (1998-2008), she had already sold 32 million records by the age of 19 (In 2002), Her award performances were always the highlights of the Award shows and she basically dominated the game with her first 4 albums.

The Decline:

However, things started to change after the wrap-up of the In The Zone era. Britney was more often caught in the tabloids for strange things. She was becoming very controversial, in a negative light. She was called a bad mom after a chain of incidents happened with Sean or Jayden and the media started hating and  scrutinizing  Britney. Thus, The media and Britney scrutiny started. Slowly, Britney was going from one of the most loved stars to one of the most hated celebrities. The media and tabloids started scrutinizing every step she didn't or did not do. Some outlets even went to an extent to put fake stories to sell a copy. Then, 2007 happened.

2007:

So we all know how 2007 went. It was probably, the worst year of Britney's life and career and as Britneys fan we had feared for our life for what could happen to Britney. Her full life in 2007 was documented, she was everyday in the news, the Britney media scrutiny had peaked and tensions were far worser, the infamous head shaving incident, she was being hoarded by the papparazzi having 20-40 papparazzos running at her, she was constantly made fun of by the GP and people who used to be fans and she was no more the 1998-2004 Britney spears everyone loved. Despite being under crumbles, Britney managed to release the hit "Gimme more". The song that made the iconic pop phrase used to this day, and despite Britney being hated, it was a hit due to its unique, timeless and influential production and sound. After, The single ended up peaking at No.3 in the biilboard, being her first top 3 single since Baby one more time, it was decided that Britney was going to perform the song in the 2007 VMAs. Everyone was hyping her first entrance into the VMA stage since 2003. Then....things went unplanned.  In January 2008, after the underperformance of her first studio album after 2 years, Blackout, failing to crack 1 million sales by the end of 2007, Britney was admitted into the hospital. Thus, that was the end of 2007-Britney...

The Resurgance:

At this point, everyone thought it was the end of Britney Spears (Professionally).Everyone thought that she wasn't going to ever have a hit song, a hit album, a hit era, and that her dominance was over after the catastrophic year of Britney. However in the following months, Britney started appearing in the public eye and looked much better in a very long time. Britney was then put in conservataship under her father and appeared a in How I met your mother. It brought the show its highest ratings and highest TRP. Then, from here onwards...the comeback of Britney starts.

A year after the disastrous 2007 VMA performance, Britney came back to the VMAs of 2008 and became the instant highlight of the show. Not only because of how stunning she looked and her red carpet look, but also because of her historic win in the VMAs. She had  first 3 vmas that night for her 2007 music video "Piece of me". Then in September or October of the same year, she had released her first music video "Womanizer" from the new upcoming era. The song would proceed to smash the charts and became one of the second hugest hit of 2008. The video had 73 million views being the highest YouTube views at the time, and had the highest billoard jump in history, from No.86 to No.1 instantly. The song would become Britney Spears best selling digital single in US and has sold over 9 million units. She would then release Circus, which would peak at no.3 with a iconic music video and several performances. It had 212k digital sales in its first week, became her first top-ten debut, became her second best selling digital single, sold over 6 million copies, and went top 10  in 14 countries. 

Alongside, the release of the second single, her 6th studio album of the same name of "Circus" was released.  Billboard and many sources at the time, predicted that the album would debut with 300k sales (which 10k sales more than Blackouts debut performance). However, when Circus sales came in, it had debuted at no.1, shifting over 505k units, outselling sources predictions by 205k units. It had already sold 890k units in its first week outside of the US. The album had already gone platinum within a month, selling already 1.5 million units WW. The album was her biggest and most successful album since In The Zone in 2004 and was the 6th best-selling album of 2009 (second best selling female album of 2008) selling over 4 million copies WW. The album spent 9 weeks in the top-ten being her highest since Oops I did it again and despite some tracks of the albums were not singles, some tracks like shattered glass managed to hit above the hot 100

Britney would then release the controversial single "If you seek amy" and the no.80 single "Radar" Britney would proceed to tour for the promotion of the album. The tour was named "The Circus: Starring Britney Spears" and the tour was a huge success. It ended up becoming Britney spears highest grossing tour, grossing 141 million dollars and was one of the highest grossing tours of 2008. Almost every venue for the tour sold out within hours, and the tour would proceed to become successful and the circus era, would end in the last show of the Circus.

Thus, this era cemented Britney spears as a pop icon. This is because after all that she had gone through, she had gone through 3 years of media scrutiny, divorce, personal problems, depression everybody thought that Britney spears was over and that her career could never recover. However, Britney managed to come out of her struggles, and in the very next year, dominated 2008 and 2009. What happened to her in 2007, could have destroyed so many careers and not many celebrities would have made it out. However, Britney wouldn't accept being a victim, but a survivor. This is why the Circus era in my opinion, established and cemented Britney as the All-Time Legendary Pop Princess and Icon.

[Louis-j]

It took her one song and one music video, queen 

[FullyDattAndDatt3full]

This is a cool trip down the memory lane

[BorninaBarn]

Definetely this moment cemented her icon status but for me she's always been iconic since the baby one more time video came out👑 

 

[Blackout2006]

On 6/9/2020 at 8:35 PM, BorninaBarn said:

Definetely this moment cemented her icon status but for me she's always been iconic since the baby one more time video came out👑 

 

For sure! Just that it cemented her as the all-time princess of pop because of her circumstances that she had broken back then!

[Blackout2006]

Circus was seriously iconic ugh

[MSTAR]

Her comeback is just 

Everyone said it was the end of her as a singer, everyone laughed at her for the VMA, essentially on TV News where they say trash about her and laughing at her on everything... But I want to look at their faces when they see Britney coming back with Womanizer and how she was successful after like on Scream And Shout...

The TV News presentator who laughed at her in 2007 is a nobody today.

Britney who was victim of medias and exposed in the whole world is a superstar today where she is respected.

Justice. 

[nthenwkiss]

On 6/9/2020 at 12:35 PM, BorninaBarn said:

Definetely this moment cemented her icon status but for me she's always been iconic since the baby one more time video came out👑 

 

It is exactly this presentation, this is her absolute peak; she did other things but i think this is the true moment that she became IT and cemented her status forever; and if we have to narrow it down to a single second it'd be the moment when she first faces the crowd with the snake, that was IT

disagree all you want, but this is a fact.

[jms910]

9 hours ago, nthenwkiss said:

It is exactly this presentation, this is her absolute peak; she did other things but i think this is the true moment that she became IT and cemented her status forever; and if we have to narrow it down to a single second it'd be the moment when she first faces the crowd with the snake, that was IT

disagree all you want, but this is a fact.

[nthenwkiss]

14 hours ago, jms910 said:

all it took sis.

[Mateo]

This moment

Fight me 😂

[Blackout2006]

Stop discrediting the circus era yall!

[YannFrance]

Femme Fatale era, definitely 

[Blackout2006]

On 7/10/2020 at 3:10 PM, YannFrance said:

Femme Fatale era, definitely 

HELL NAW