3 hours ago, Marla Singer said:

It was more of a last hurrah than a comeback or return to form. Womanizer was a cute mid-sized hit, the rest of the era wasn't that memorable or noteworthy.

 

This.

 

I believe Womanizer was a success because it was by Britney and the GP and the industry realized it was time to recognize her as an icon.

No, it was a "just there" era, in fact Britney became uninteresting as an album artists, she was just dropping generic singles with no artistic identity. Also Britney never flopped to have a comeback era, she was always a commercial force

No it wasn't. It was a frontloaded era quickly thrown together by her team. 

Edited February 26, 20233 yr by FightDragonsWithMe

Yes, a massive comeback critically, commercially, and culturally, one of the biggest comebacks of all time that saw her reach chart highs she had not seen in nearly a decade. Delivered at least three classics that are universally remembered by everyone everywhere. 

3 hours ago, Marla Singer said:

It was more of a last hurrah than a comeback or return to form. Womanizer was a cute mid-sized hit, the rest of the era wasn't that memorable or noteworthy.

 

 

29 minutes ago, FightDragonsWithMe said:

No it wasn't. It was a frontloaded era quickly thrown together by her team. 

This.

Yes and not just because of the sales. You have to look at where she was the year before, or even that same year in January. Lowest of the lows. 

It’s only platinum or gold in most countries. It also only charted for 45 weeks in the US, and did worse outside of it. Very overrated re-peak.

Yes - Circus was a big era. Comeback? Maybe not. But anyone denying that the era was big is living in delusional denial. 

It was huge for Britney's then standards, both personal and professional, which by that point had started waning but in the grand scheme of late 00s pop girl releases? no. Her team only pushed the "comeback" tag to get the public back on her side. It worked and greatly helped the tour.

The poll results 

 

A legend.

8 hours ago, lovemehateme said:

Yes and not just because of the sales. You have to look at where she was the year before, or even that same year in January. Lowest of the lows. 

 

True. 

No, it was overshadowed by the rise of Gaga and The Fame and other than Womanizer was a mid performance to borderline flop. It's recurrent streams are also terrible. 

It sold 500k first week. thats not on par with 4 or RR.

 

And the answer is a solid yes. considering where the last era went, this was a great return to form mostly.

For a week maybe

Yes, biggest comeback of the century 

10 hours ago, VioletsandRoses said:

It’s only platinum or gold in most countries. It also only charted for 45 weeks in the US, and did worse outside of it. Very overrated re-peak.

Right? It was so frontloaded especially outside the US.

It sold on par with so called flops like "Hard Candy"  Far from a huge comeback  a la COADF or TEOM but it did cute numbers for her standards i guess?

4 hours ago, GreatestLoveofAll said:

It sold 500k first week. thats not on par with 4 or RR.

 

And the answer is a solid yes. considering where the last era went, this was a great return to form mostly.

Just shows how much frontloaded it was since the final sales are on par with 4 and RR

18 minutes ago, Mystic Boy said:

Just shows how much frontloaded it was since the final sales are on par with 4 and RR

Maybe because Britney was done promoting the album in December 2008 until the start of the tour in March.  Meanwhile all her peers kept performing and attending every event possible. And yes, promotion mattered in those days.

39 minutes ago, Mystic Boy said:

Just shows how much frontloaded it was since the final sales are on par with 4 and RR

Right and those other 2 sold much less in the US. Circus is only platinum in France , Uk and Ireland and only gold in Germany. While Rated R and Hard Candy are platinum and multi platinum there. It sold 1.7m in the US but so did Back to Basics and I’m Not Dead and those are called flops too 

Not massive but a big comeback nonetheless. The media played a big role in puffing up her return to form, mainly due to the tight promo schedule ca. late 2008.

 

What‘s more mind-boggling to me is people claiming 4, Rated R and Hard Candy were flops?

The album wasn't a blockbuster seller like her first 4 albums, but it did good and sold well enough WW, and then the singles did the rest of the job. Not to mention the tour which was big.

Womanizer and Circus were huge 

November-December was a huge period for Britney . Everyone was talking about this release 

 

Then after January the only thing we got was 2 flop singles and complains about her lipsync ( in Aus ) 

5 hours ago, VioletsandRoses said:

Right and those other 2 sold much less in the US. Circus is only platinum in France , Uk and Ireland and only gold in Germany. While Rated R and Hard Candy are platinum and multi platinum there. It sold 1.7m in the US but so did Back to Basics and I’m Not Dead and those are called flops too 

We know Britney stans love to inflate her numbers

Circus for sure did better than Blackout but nothing huge like OP is stating

It was huge yeah but didn’t really survive the test of time as a classic Britney album. Doesn’t erase how well it did at the time tho and everyone knows Womanizer, plus IUSA is always going viral

Yes!! Not up for debate