Britney Jean - vocals theory

[Godney'sSweetCheeks]

I know we've covered this so many times, but remember how Britney sounded on S&M Remix? Probably her worst recording ever (decent tune, but poor vocals). 

 

What if some of the songs on Britney Jean were actually recorded by Britney, but they sounded so bad they got Myah to redo them?

 

I think up till now I've always thought Britney was too lazy to do the vocals, but what if my new theory is correct. That means there are Britney Jean Britney vocals somewhere that we haven't heard...

 

PS - did we ever conclude why Britney sounded bad on S&M? Was it a nose job? Flu/cold? Recorded in a bathroom somewhere? 

[Angels970]

Same feeling 

 

keri hilson said on blackout 

Quote

The songs that we created [“Gimme More,” “Break the Ice,” “Perfect Lover,” “Outta This World”] were very much part of a time where we would get very little of Britney. She did not write on any of the songs that we did — we would create, and I would lay a demo while we awaited her arrival. I’m on the background of everything that we did, just because she wanted to focus on her delivery and her lead vocal. When we played her my demo of “Break the Ice,” she didn’t want to do the back- ground. Honestly, I think she said some- thing like, “it sounds like me anyway.”

https://www.thefader.com/2017/09/27/britney-spears-blackout-interview-10-year-anniversary-2007

 

i think same thing happened  with bj

But in a bad way

[musicman85]

Britney has stated she is a perfectionist so maybe the album was taking way too long to sound the way Britney intended it to, and her team said they would fix everything around leaving Britney in the dark about having Myah record some of the vocals in Britney's place? And Myah denying would also prove that they don't want it to "leak" that Britney's vocals are not the primary and lead ones. 

[jordeezy river red]

I don't think the vocals sound that bad in "S and M" - they sound the Same way Britney's voice sounded in early 2011

[PlayboyMommy]

Myah only signed up to do background vocals, RCA then used them as the lead vocals on most songs without her consent because Britney couldn't or wouldn't do it

That's why she always mentions strictly doing the background vocals 

[canyouhandlemytruth]

I heard that she had a cold when she was recording S&M vocals, but to get the song to #1, they had to release the remix that week. It worked tho

[RebelMe]

I think that Britney saw that they were changing the direction of the album and refused to sing on it, as a protest. She wanted a personal album, and the label, because of the success of S&S, a more EDM beat. They even compared Work Beach as S&S 2.0 and used Sia, that was the artist of the moment, to write for her. They were so desperate for a new smash hit that they put aside William Orbit and use Will I Flop as executive producer. And I need to point that, (as a supposition), Britney/or her team, thought that, since Myah can do a very similar voice as her, they could use her as the main vocals.

 

[ColdAsFire89]

I think they effed up the planning and Vegas preparation was very time consuming.. you saw in I am Britney Jean how full her calendar was. I guess she didn’t find time for any rework on the songs. We know she goes in there Records and gets out.

[Dream Within a Dream]

Honestly if i was myah i would sue RCA for milions for using my vocals as lead while paying me peanuts. 

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

Britney didnt sound bad on S&M, personally I think it's a relative raw untreated vocal for what we got in 2011. 

 

Myah happened because her team jumped on a bandwagon of EDM, and expected Britney to record, promote, rehearse and give up family time. Its clear she refused and Myah was brought in under a strict NDA.

[studlygeorge]

I don’t think it’s that deep. I think it’s simply Anthony Preston being a ****ty vocal producer. Passenger, in my opinion, is an actual DISASTER of a song. The vocal production is an absolute mess. The Britney takes they used are atrocious. The editing is horrid. However, there ARE alternate takes that Britney did. They simply chose to use Myah’s vocals. Case in point:

I don’t doubt Britney recorded all of these songs. There’s multiple takes of her vocals, clearly. The fact of the matter is that it was just really poorly produced. Myah did her job as a backup vocalist. When she recorded her vocals she obviously didn’t intend on her voice being the lead vocal. A lot of times on this album there is a weird double singer effect. Myah is simply just too loud throughout and Britney is too quiet.

i really wish the stems/sessions would leak in full and a talented group of fans could remaster the album and put Britney and Myah’s voices at CORRECT volumes

[Puppy]

2 hours ago, RebelMe said:

I think that Britney saw that they were changing the direction of the album and refused to sing on it, as a protest. She wanted a personal album, and the label, because of the success of S&S, a more EDM beat. They even compared Work Beach as S&S 2.0 and used Sia, that was the artist of the moment, to write for her. They were so desperate for a new smash hit that they put aside William Orbit and use Will I Flop as executive producer. And I need to point that, (as a supposition), Britney/or her team, thought that, since Myah can do a very similar voice as her, that they could use her as the main vocals.

 

I believe this is absolutely what went down. While it is true she was busy putting POM together, she has access to studios anywhere but you know **** went down when many producers that were tweeting excitedly about working with Britney and attending that camp for BJ album.  We don't even have to be a fly on the wall to know things weren't going her way when people were saying they didn't make the cut because Will didn't approve of them and seeing the credits are mostly him and his posses.  

Then hearing them describe the album very differently shows they were on different pages. If she had William Orbit as EP, she could walk off and know that he will carry out her vision as he sounds like someone very humble and cares about his work unlike the other Will. Then her talking about how she had to step in on Glory shows she was definitely not happy with Britney Jean. 

[Steel Magnolia]

Didn't will.i.am explain that she came in to the studio and was like, "Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang."

He said she wrapped her schedule around the boys, and because of that she didn't spend long nights in the studio like some other artists.

She was sitting right beside him when he said it.

EDIT: So yes, the vocals probably were ****ty. You can tell by the look on her face in the interview that things were very awkward between them.

[Steel Magnolia]

3 hours ago, RebelMe said:

I think that Britney saw that they were changing the direction of the album and refused to sing on it, as a protest. She wanted a personal album, and the label, because of the success of S&S, a more EDM beat. They even compared Work Beach as S&S 2.0 and used Sia, that was the artist of the moment, to write for her. They were so desperate for a new smash hit that they put aside William Orbit and use Will I Flop as executive producer. And I need to point that, (as a supposition), Britney/or her team, thought that, since Myah can do a very similar voice as her, they could use her as the main vocals.

 

What if she purposely refused to play "characters" as a protest?

She has a number of different singing characters she taps into. It's evident on Glory, but non-existant on FF and BJ.

[Britneyarmy8]

4 hours ago, musicman85 said:

Britney has stated she is a perfectionist so maybe the album was taking way too long to sound the way Britney intended it to, and her team said they would fix everything around leaving Britney in the dark about having Myah record some of the vocals in Britney's place? And Myah denying would also prove that they don't want it to "leak" that Britney's vocals are not the primary and lead ones. 

Currentney is a 

perfectionist? 

[Body ache]

Britney is a professional and always mans up to do her work. She was really embarrassed with what happened which is why we got those flawless vocals from Glory. My guess is that when she recoded her personal album the label rejected it and because she was doing vegas soon they bit the bullet and included the Myah/will.i.am songs on the record over her ore personal songs. Britney didnt have time to record the newer songs so the label knowingly went with the Myah songs thinking that they wouldn't get caught. Work ***** and Perfume were always going to be the first and second singles which is why Britney took her time to record them. The rest of the album however felt like a last minute change.

[Adan695]

6 hours ago, ColdAsFire89 said:

I think every effed up the planning and Vegas preparation was very time consuming.. you saw in I am Britney Jean how full her calendar was. I guess she didn’t find time for any rework on the songs. We know she goes in there Records and gets out.

Adam even says it in the documentary, I don’t remember his exact words but something along the lines of “trying to finish an album that we don’t even have time for when we should be focusing on Vegas”

[LetsRoll]

She just didn't have time to visit studio and record Myah's songs  she was busy with rehearsals for POM.

[TakeYourHand]

No in my opinion she had little to almost no time to make an album. I believe some tracks were cuts from earlier on like you mentioned which explains the dated sounds. Her team wanted a new album as promo for Vegas the main focus at that time. The idea was to see Britney sing her new song Work ***** from her brand new album Britney Jean. It’s just like when artists tour their new albums however they didn’t have to sell the album to us because Vegas was focused on her greatest hits. They thought her name would equal great album sales. It was made clear after IABJ premiered that she did indeed put a lot of work into creating and rehearsing POM and that little went into her album. I know it was most likely her team that made her release that junk but it’s a huge slap in the face to us fans and Britney should have just released a single and put her foot down. It’s very shameful but I forgive her. I’m pretty sure that’s why she put all her efforts into her next album Glory that she refers to as her baby. She clearly had the time and knew she had to delivery a quality album after that mess. I highly doubt she’s going to use any material from BJ for her future shows. Minus WB and Alien. Perfume might get the tolkin ballad treatment so she doesn’t have to keep using Everytime. BJ is just ugh 😑.

[floopy22]

11 hours ago, studlygeorge said:

I don’t think it’s that deep. I think it’s simply Anthony Preston being a ****ty vocal producer. Passenger, in my opinion, is an actual DISASTER of a song. The vocal production is an absolute mess. The Britney takes they used are atrocious. The editing is horrid. However, there ARE alternate takes that Britney did. They simply chose to use Myah’s vocals. Case in point:

I don’t doubt Britney recorded all of these songs. There’s multiple takes of her vocals, clearly. The fact of the matter is that it was just really poorly produced. Myah did her job as a backup vocalist. When she recorded her vocals she obviously didn’t intend on her voice being the lead vocal. A lot of times on this album there is a weird double singer effect. Myah is simply just too loud throughout and Britney is too quiet.

i really wish the stems/sessions would leak in full and a talented group of fans could remaster the album and put Britney and Myah’s voices at CORRECT volumes

THIS! They even used Myah's awful "Take me home"-take on Alien where it sounds like she's on the toilet taking a dump. We could hear from the leaked session that there was a completely fine take with Britney's own vocals.