Why did Britney turn down S&M

[Email My D]

I just found out that Ester Dean originally wrote S&M for Britney. Does anyone know why she or her dumb team rejected it?? It would have been such a great addition to Femme Fatale. 

[Stannedforever]

 FF was clearly targeted towards Britney's younger (and upcoming) fans. S&M in the album would have been outcast amongst the teenybopper eurodance songs. Her label probably wanted to play it safe.

[Stefani]

Tbh I'm glad she turned it down. The original version is a disaster. The remix saves the song, but I wouldn't have wanted Britney to record the original version for FF.

[DignifiedLove]

2 hours ago, Stefani said:

Tbh I'm glad she turned it down. The original version is a disaster. The remix saves the song, but I wouldn't have wanted Britney to record the original version for FF.

Girl what? S&M is an ear-candy pop masterpiece. Also, there’s literally no difference between the original versus the remix aside from Britney’s voice being added in and slightly different lyrics. 

[G-unit]

Does anyone have the list of songwriters for the remix?  Everyone says Britney wrote her verse and wiki lists her as “songwriting” on the remix, but I can’t find any actual sources for this.

Britney’s verse is what I love most about that song - it would be cool to have a credit source that she wrote it.

[DonMegaX]

5 minutes ago, GODNA IS A QUEEN said:

Girl what? S&M is an ear-candy pop masterpiece. Also, there’s literally no difference between the original versus the remix aside from Britney’s voice being added in and slightly different lyrics. 

Ok, I don't have to break out my copy of Rated R. I've been blind, but my ears always worked. Had me thinking I was crazy for a second.

[DignifiedLove]

7 minutes ago, G-unit said:

Does anyone have the list of songwriters for the remix?  Everyone says Britney wrote her verse and wiki lists her as “songwriting” on the remix, but I can’t find any actual sources for this.

Britney’s verse is what I love most about that song - it would be cool to have a credit source that she wrote it.

Britney didn’t write her verse. It was confirmed back in the day that the verse was written by Mikkel Erikson and Sandy Wilhelm. It was supposed to be sung on the OG solo version by Rihanna but they felt it was too explicit and gave it to Britney when she decided to hop on the remix.

[Urbanney]

7 minutes ago, GODNA IS A QUEEN said:

Girl what? S&M is an ear-candy pop masterpiece. Also, there’s literally no difference between the original versus the remix aside from Britney’s voice being added in and slightly different lyrics. 

I wouldn’t say the original is a disaster, but I do think it’s significantly better with another verse and the rest of the changes they made with the Britney remix. It’s a shame though that Britney’s vocals are not good and she literally sounds like she’s singing with a cold (which, knowing her team, they probably did make her sing with a cold). 

[Stefani]

12 minutes ago, GODNA IS A QUEEN said:

Girl what? S&M is an ear-candy pop masterpiece. Also, there’s literally no difference between the original versus the remix aside from Britney’s voice being added in and slightly different lyrics. 

The song is repetitive nonsense - half of the lyrics are just "na na na", "come on", and "S S S and M M M" said over and over again. And the bridge is literally crap too with that "make my body say ah, ah, ah, I like it, like it" bit being the worst part. And apparently it took 4 people to write those simple lyrics?

The whole song just sounds like an adult version of the theme song from the Madagascar movies.  Plus the beat is basically the same as Disturbia's. Lyrically and sonically, it's unoriginal imo.

[DignifiedLove]

3 minutes ago, DonMegaX said:

Ok, I don't have to break out my copy of Rated R. I've been blind, but my ears always worked. Had me thinking I was crazy for a second.

S&M was on Loud though.  But yes, it’s a killer pop song. Arguably in the Top 50 Best Pop Songs of the 2010s decade.

[DonMegaX]

I do get my Rihanna albums mixed up; was late to the navy.

[BlurredLover]

 

“I made the song for her and Rihanna was like nahhhhhh”

Britney doesn’t fight for songs is a trend I’ve noticed. Someone else wants it they can have it… 

[DignifiedLove]

23 minutes ago, Urbanney said:

I wouldn’t say the original is a disaster, but I do think it’s significantly better with another verse and the rest of the changes they made with the Britney remix. It’s a shame though that Britney’s vocals are not good and she literally sounds like she’s singing with a cold (which, knowing her team, they probably did make her sing with a cold). 

Both versions are boptastic. 
 

22 minutes ago, Stefani said:

The song is repetitive nonsense - half of the lyrics are just "na na na", "come on", and "S S S and M M M" said over and over again. And the bridge is literally crap too with that "make my body say ah, ah, ah, I like it, like it" bit being the worst part.

The whole song just sounds like an adult version of the theme song from the Madagascar movies.  Plus the beat is basically the same as Disturbia's. Lyrically and sonically, it's unoriginal imo.

Disturbia and S&M’s beat don’t sound anything alike. Are you deaf? It’s a completely different instrumentation, completely different producers. Even if you thought they sounded alike, so does Baby and Oops/The Call. So does TTWE and Blow. So does Tik Tok and California Gurls. Even then, at least those tracks had the same producers. Disturbia and S&M do not. Completely opposite themes too.  Also, ear-candy pop usually follows a certain formula so I don’t think it’s fair of you to even say that when I can name so many songs that also sound alike (yet are both good).

Also, a lot of pop masterpieces (especially in the late 00s/early 10s) repeated their catch lines. Poker Face, Gimme More, S&M and Blow are a few that come to mind. Doesn’t diminish the value of the song in any form or way. In fact, it was extremely refreshing to see Rihanna talk about pure s** and Sadomasochism when most pop girls were releasing overdone empowerment anthems in 2010-11. Lyrically and sonically, it was in fact original then and that’s why it’s regarded as one of her best tracks. Play it at the club today and everyone would still vibe with it 10+ years later. 

[Brat]

The song fits Rihanna's aesthetic (unfortunately) 

Her singing it made it more controversial after the Chris Brown altercation 

[DonMegaX]

2 minutes ago, Brat said:

The song fits Rihanna's aesthetic

And I think that's why having Britney on the remix works better, because even though she has a number one song about asking for a threesome, it's somehow still surprising to people that she could possibly down for something like this.

[jordeezy river red]

I hate that song tbh

[Isla]

Well that's kinda weird she'd turn the song down for her own album but then she appears on the remix. 

I actually really like the song and could see it fitting on Femme Fatale. Although I'm not a big fan of Britney's vocals in the remix.

Edited March 10, 2022 by Isla

[marioh]

Because she's a mom now. 

[Isla]

1 hour ago, GODNA IS A QUEEN said:

Britney didn’t write her verse. It was confirmed back in the day that the verse was written by Mikkel Erikson and Sandy Wilhelm. It was supposed to be sung on the OG solo version by Rihanna but they felt it was too explicit and gave it to Britney when she decided to hop on the remix.

Wikipedia and Genius both list Britney as a co-writer on the remix (not Spotify though). I remember this was mentioned in a thread a while ago about songs Britney co-wrote/solely wrote and I think we all just accepted it as the truth lol

[DonMegaX]

2 minutes ago, marioh said:

Because she's a mom now. 

So she just did the remix?