What was the general public, fans, media's reaction to Gimme More?

[Yasux34]

It was huge when it leaked the meltdowns were real! When it released you couldnt go anywhere without hearing it

[Body ache]

Everyone loved it. Were blasting it in their cars even though radio kinda ignored it. Radio was forced to play it when it went #3 but barely.

[Mr. Cavill]

12 hours ago, thebritmaster said:

I was in college in Atlanta GA USA  

Media: Britney is Back! Comeback! VMA performance sucked is she ok?

Perez Hilton (the tmz of the time): this *****  and other foul ****

Gays:  All turned into stans

Millennial straights: “It’s pretty good, i grew up with her and prefer her old music. I would rather listen to Chris brown Soulja boy and Jason mraz because I’m basic” 

My mom: Britney really made more music? Is it good?

Me: It’s Britney *****, played it at every party 

the straight bars: played Gimme More as a drinking song after Buy U a Drank & Crank That to clear the dance floor so people could spend cash at the bar

the gay bars: obvi don’t have to explain

NPR: critically acclaimed  

Britney: 

i feel like a historian 

 i-

[Whyshouldibsad21]

It was so iconic 🔥 literally remember hearing it for the first time and just ….  yasssssss

[Leolileinstein]

I already loved it. 

23 hours ago, princessmimi said:

I was 13/14 when it came out and I remember people bashing it and calling her fat,

which was ridiculous cause she wasnt.

She just had a baby a few months earlier and managed to still look good.

Ironically the body she had in 2007, would be considered hot and sxy now.

I think it was very misunderstood 

[princessmimi]

7 minutes ago, Leolileinstein said:

I already loved it. 

I think it was very misunderstood 

Oh definitely yes.

People couldnt accept that she wasnt the same sxy lil blonde bubblegum popstar anymore.

That she was a new mother to 2 kids and had her last kid few months before the video shoot.

I think she looked great considering her circumstances

[DollyParton]

7 hours ago, JP9101 said:

Not here sorry 

i remember gp bashing Britney new music vision 

I loved it

But a lot of people abandoned her during blackout 

Yes, she lost a lot of diehard fans, but also gained a lot of new fans in my opinion

[Leolileinstein]

2 hours ago, princessmimi said:

Oh definitely yes.

People couldnt accept that she wasnt the same sxy lil blonde bubblegum popstar anymore.

That she was a new mother to 2 kids and had her last kid few months before the video shoot.

I think she looked great considering her circumstances

This is very true. They couldn't accept the fact that she's changed (i wish the breakdown and the Cship never happened 😭😭😭) 

[everybodygoesdown]

I remember thinking I hadn't been scalped that hard since Slave 4 u was released. Like the thrill of the song every time you heard it. There was nothing out there like that.

I didn't really pay attention to the GP at that time. But I remember I was on a holiday in France the week after the release and radio stations played it over and over again. Like twice every hour or smth. 

[The Greatest Show]

In my memory people liked the song immediately but made fun of britney for being fat in the music video. Don't remember much else.

[Annabanana]

I loved the album from start to finish. The video - I still don't understand it and would have loved see the funeral version. 

[TheGrandeLife]

It was totally incredible... With a big scandal of what's been scraped in the background... Wish we'll see the full version of the video one day...

[Seel]

When I first heard the song, I was a little disappointed. It was just like one of the Timbaland songs. It was a trend back then. But now I don't remember what the fuxking Timbaland song was, and Gimme More became a legend. 

[princessmimi]

12 hours ago, Leolileinstein said:

This is very true. They couldn't accept the fact that she's changed (i wish the breakdown and the Cship never happened 😭😭😭) 

Same!

Poor Britney!

[Leolileinstein]

9 hours ago, princessmimi said:

Same!

Poor Britney!

Ikr. She's probably the most unproblematic out of all the pop girls and yet she has been mistreated by the media, the gp etc since the start. The way they ruined a sweet, unproblematic, kind soul. The disrespect she gets is insane 💔💔😭😭

[BritneyGXKB]

I considered it my favorite song for a long long time, but lately I’ve been feeling its apparent sequel Break the Ice and then its sequel Kill the Lights. 

[G-unit]

I’ll never forget that time when I used to lurk Perez Hilton for fresh gossip.  Everyone on their HATED Britney with a passion…her articles always got hundreds of comments.  When GM leaked the article got thousands of comments and everyone LOVED it.  It was so surreal to see a bunch of haters be like “this is amazing.”

thank god no one checks for PH anymore lol.

[BratzBitch]

I loved it but I remember, even if i was quite young at the time, that the reception was not good at all. I mean tbh all of 2007 was bad for Britney, she was being villainized for no apparent reason and just constantly and consistently made fun of. It was really sad honestly 

[J45x]

On 4/10/2022 at 12:51 PM, kgid said:

The release of Gimme More and subsequently, Blackout was genuinely confusing.  

I was aware she was unrepresented, not willing/able to do promo.  The ENTIRE video shoot, edit and release was a daily saga of dogs, babies, bad (really bad) ******** "jokes" and intense scrutiny.  Perez Hilton was still a turd and was relentless, too.  

If we, slightly older, fans are being honest, it was actually scary.  The music was good, but it was so deeply overshadowed by the laser focus of the paparazzi and media.  I actually thought she was going to die.  

When it was announced she was doing the VMAs with Gimme More and Cris Angel, only to have that removed, underwhelming rehearsals, overexposure... It was really, just, scary.  It didn't make sense at all.  And no one was stepping forward to clarify anything.  (I'm not saying anyone owed anyone anything, I'm just saying, the GP, fans and whomever was on "Team Britney" was the exact same level of train wreck spectator you've heard of from that time.)

 

It was speculated she would NEVER perform Gimme More live, ever again.  I remember nodding my head to that and thinking, "Well, that makes sense." Because everything was so incredibly mean spirited towards her.  That, today, Blackout is viewed as her "best work" makes me really heartsick.  It's really good, don't get me wrong, but it will always be juxtaposed up against how she was villianized and nearly driven insane by outside forces hellbent on doing her harm.

 

Looking back, it was heartbreakingly sad.

THIS!!!!! I was there!

[Sia]

I feel like I'm aging myself here, but I was 19 when this song came out and I remember it like it was yesterday. After reading through the comments I see a lot of people mentioning how the GP was more focused on her personal life and that Gimme More fell under the radar because of it...this is not true though - entirely anyway.

For starters, 'Gimme More' was a total shocker for everyone, including the die hard Britney Spears fans. For weeks, rumors had been circling around that Britney had new music coming out and everyone was skeptical about it considering the stuff that was going on in her life at the time.

You also have to remember that up until 2007, Britney was sort of the pop-star underdog and in 2007, music was starting to change and the classic "Britney sound" was no longer popular. This was a time when glitz and what I call "pretty girl pop" was starting to take off.  The overall aesthetic of pop music was changing and music that would do well in a dance club is what was starting to sell. This put Britney at a disadvantage because she was historically not really known for being the "posh" type of star - I mean, Britney performing in heels was not really a thing, yet.

Anyway, when 'Gimme More' came out, it was actually leaked. I even remember that the mp3 that was circling around wasn't the full one and it cut off during the outro part of the song. It was a week or so before it was officially released by her label. By the time it was officially released, the song had already gone "viral" (before going viral was a thing) and the GP was all over it. In fact, it was such a departure from what people expected that before her label officially released, people questioned whether it was actually Britney or not.

I remember debates on Exhale (yes on here) as to whether it was actually Britney. People felt that the "It's Britney *****" intro was too edgy to be Britney. When it was confirmed to be Britney, the fan base lost it because again, this was the first time Britney had released what many would consider, a true radio friendly hit. To me, this was the beginning of Britney blending into the mainstream and joining that glitzy posh girl pop image and sound. 

I will also add that 'Gimme More' was similar to Britney's transition when she went from Oops! into 'I'm a Slave 4 U' - it was just a new chapter in her career.

So to answer the OPs question, yes, the song was a hit, people loved it, it was unexpected and despite her chaotic life, people did actually respond to it. It should be noted that the VMA performance happened weeks after the song was released so the performance did not really shape people's opinion of the song.

For funsies, here is a link to an old version of the BreatheHeavy main page when Gimme More was released: https://web.archive.org/web/20070901120036/https://breatheheavy.com/