Blur

By the way, she's right about being ahead of her time even when people counted her out (see Britney, In The Zone, Blackout or Femme Fatale). And now, retired and not playing the industry game, her blueprint is NOW stronger than ever and her streams have seen an insane growth these past few years (Rolling Stone even wrote an article about how the younger generation have grown fondly of her and are now discovering her music). Her twenty years career shaped/shapes the future of pop, in a way. This may sound like she's bragging but it's the truth, objectively.

Again, she did not name anyone and she's already did the ego trip, playful thing on Blackout and Circus. And even then, look at a few ITZ promo performances, she was literally performing with clothes she could have worn in her everyday life (business casual and fashion of the time). Even the House of Blues tour was her doing the c*nty, not giving a f**k popstar thing before it even existed. She was quite relatable, in that way, all on her own and that's only one piece of the puzzle. All in all, what she said is nothing to write home about. Some of her peers with a lesser standing in the pop hierarchy have been way more abrasive towards her and ATRL, in general, is way more morally corrupted (SYG alone) and problematic than all the pop girls, past and present, combined. Britney is, at once, the perfect popstar and a PR's worst nightmare exactly because she's extremely stubborn and rebellious. A French 80s singer named Lio wrote a book about her own career where she said the exact same words. Coincidentally, most people saw her as a manufactured product, at the time, but the reality is way more complex and necessitates to give back their agency to all these women. We're in 2026, it's way overdue!

Moreover, she's mostly saying "it's all good, keep ripping me off, but know there was an authenticity to what I was doing". Not naming anyone explicitly + it's probably someone way more random than what people think (remember, first rule of the Britneyverse is that she' s unpredictably saggitarian lmao). There's been too much brainwashing & mysogyny so many older pop fans still cling to the idea Britney was a label creation without any say or anything and/or conflate the conservatorship with her overall career... Even when we now have more proof than ever that she was involved and played a pivotal part in her branding (especially the visual aspect + a good chunk of her 4 best albums). So that's the real problem here, her confirming the realness she exuded even as a huge, commercial popstar and that's what's bothering part of the older demo of this forum (gen Z and alpha understands how special and authentic she mostly is so the paradigm is, fortunately, finally shifting). By the way, I've seen a few people bringing out she was pissed off at Selena and Halsey for "nothing". Again, revisionism to make her seem worse than she actually is. Selena flirted with Sam during the wedding, so not a great way to make a first impression (Sam is guilty too, of course, and I'm sure she's criticized him for it, behind closed doors). Selena's condescending, cheesy "I just want you to be happy" was also clumsy and reminded her of her phony mother. So yeah, two things that left a bad taste and that most drama enclined ATLER's would have ranted about for months if they had happened to them (and in a way more problematic/insulting fashion than Britney did ). The problem with Halsey was more of a misunderstanding. She saw portions of video without really paying attention to the lyrics, and thought the video was portraying her struggles as an aesthetic... Something I thought about too, at first, so it's easy to understand the trigger of it all. Things were sorted out in private and they seem to be cordial now. Britney never lashes out or criticizes unprovoked. Most of her insta is a communication tool and, between the lines, the person that's being addressed knows about it. All the singers/people she's responded to in cryptic or in more open manners, have said negative/insensitive things about her first (some for years, as Christina did in the past). Let's remind everyone, she's privately apologized to Alexa Nicholas, for scolding her when she was a teen, and that most A-list people never does such a thing, even when they have done ten times worse. She's not sadistic, unlike many in this industry. Never was and never will be (which is also what made her a target but we're not gonna reproach her of mostly trying to be a decent human being, aren't we?).

This is one of the go-to song if you ever need a proof she's BY FAR one of the greatest vocal actress of the century. She's not just "singing" the song, she's living it, with nuance, laser-like precision and an irresistible warmth that can be surprising given the confrontational nature of Blackout, in general. I think part of the reason, she'll always have a solid fanbase is because of songs like that, which truly connected to the listener as if she was crooning directly to them. This created a parasocial bond that will never be broken, even with the troubles, scandals and controversies her life is filled with.

...BOMT is the reason TD even exists, in the first place. Also, the title song is bigger and more impactful than Katy's entire career so it's not even a fair comparison to begin with. The vocal fry alone, one of Britney's most obvious trademark, is all over KP's delivery! Then, you also have "Sometimes" & "Crazy" being 90s staples + the iconicity/controversies around the album, opening the door for a new business model for solo female popstars/entertainers (a door that was completely shut down, for close to a decade). I get that Katy's era had a longer exploitation and translated very well to streaming but there's a clear discrepancy between her singles' success and the sales of the album, especially at the time (when streams couldn't balance the weak sales of a CD). You'd expect much more with her HUGE digital sales and the crazy radio numbers she was pulling off! Same for the iconicity that really pales compared to what high echelon popstars usually have (maybe because she's never been quite at that level, even at her peak, and always played it safe, except for her debut single).

The Britney25 anniversary is making her numbers explode so the haters will have to find another way to deem it a failure ("SNBM" pulling good numbers with not much playlisting, + being a 25 yo demo from a retired artist, is also an angle they will ofc disregard 😉). Just this week, in elite space she never tried to enter, becoming a topic of discussion just because one of her many signature song was played. This is relevancy without even having to lift a finger. This is undeniable power that can never be taken away from her. I know this is frustrating when most popstars have to play the game so hard to only have a fraction of that set in stone, legendary presence in the pop world but you at least get tours, more stability + new albums/passion projects/films. No need to be bitter, no one can have it all...

The thing is, the new Gen of popstars are referencing her every few days so maybe they will have to move on too, right? And what about Gen Z? https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-slave-4-u-vmas-25th-anniversary-gen-z-1235631530/

Not really. The comparisons were mostly Bey vs Brit in the 00's, dancing wise. And I wouldn't generalize for the competitiveness of Britney's fans (stans are mentally deranged, mostly so I'm not including them on how reasonable they should be). Tinashe or Addison Rae, for example, were quite popular among them and they're both great dancer. Tate gets criticized unfairly, at times, but her audience is sometimes very harsh on Britney, too, so it's a never ending back and forth between the two generations of stans (again stans=not reasonable or well-adjusted to reality). Britney did interview her and seems to like her, so there's that, at least. She's confident on what she's built and doesn't bully newcomers, unlike some other artists.

This is dishonest and revisionist. Now, you can be anti-Trump and, sure, you'll get criticized by his supporters but you'll still have a career. 2003 had Dixie Chicks getting canceled and Madonna almost being over in the US for their anti-war sentiment. Even Taylor was scared to say anything political, for a long time, just because of that specific period... 9/11 had just happened and patriotism was shoved down people throat, for lack of a better word. If you know anything about body language and the empty statement Britney made about Bush, you'd know it was PR survival rather than a republican "reveal". Looking at Britney's career and how inclusive she was in everything she did (let's not even talk her Amber Louise parody, her hatred of traditional America and who she tried to endorse in 2016). In short, there's more elements in favor of her not being republican, yet a tense statement made when she was the face of young America, at 21 years old, seems to have set her politics belief in stone for some people. Her coming from a conservative, Bible belt state, there's a stigma about her beliefs but I honestly don't think she was that political to begin with (and if she had been, she might have been too free-spirited and rebel for the conservative pipeline). As for the problematic collabs, 90% of the pop girls have, at least, one. People were harder on Tate because that got her her first number one + she's an LGBTQ+ supporter, from what I understand.

For ATRL standards which are very low, the thread hasn't been derailed too much but it's too bad we still have to read a few pot-stirring, factually untrue and badly written ragebait to get to the interesting discussion and people confronting their point of view. First, Britney is indeed a more important element to pop music than Rihanna who was a consistent celebrated, hitmaker but never a phenomenon or at the excellence level of performance Britney was operating at. We speak about the "Umbrella link between the two but, if we're being honest, the whole Good Girl Gone Bad thing also had other songs written for Britney on it. Again, Rihanna worked super hard to make it in the big league with this record and was ahead of her time with DSTM (electro-dance when it wasn't the norm, yet) or Disturbia (doing the Fame Monster, type of dark songs/hyper stylized video before it was even a thing). Hot take and many don't notice it but I like how Rihanna's did the nasal, vocal fry Britney originated, with a lower, huskier voice, taking in to another dimension. So, in short, it's not because you're inspired by someone that came before you that you didn't bring tons of things to the table yourself. This leads me to my final point, people saying Britney is just Madonna's and Janet's leftovers are super ignorant of the three ladies careers. Madonna & Janet: cerebral/statement/boundary pushing/songwriting that is not to be played with. Britney: instinctive/escapism/boundary pushing/genius intuition for the key markers of her career (BOMT, Oops, Slave, "Toxic", In The Zone, Britney, Blackout, "Criminal", Glory...). Also, Spears was a blockbuster teen popstar coming from a disney show (something M and Janet never achieved, though J started as a child star too). She took Janet's blueprint but more age-appropriate so as to not get cancelled (before going all the way in with In The Zone and Blackout). Then, she Y2K'd her looks to the max and used her movie (which had quite dark themes explored, for the time) + The Neptunes sound to make the leap toward being an adult popstar, with songs that reflected her life at the time (and some edgier teen pop, here and there, to not alienate her fanbase). This was a gamble, most younger users can't even imagine because they're desensitized but it truly was, and made her lose half of her sales but I'm convinced she would have been left behind without doing a radical step to shake things up. Thus, a new blueprint was put in place that's been used ad nauseum for 90% of the popstars we've been discussing on this forum (just a quick look at the ex-acts trajectory would make my point, in a second!). I'm still putting you a link to the most beautiful message Janet has gotten from a fellow celeb, down below, just in case.

Sometimes, I wonder if a pop culture quizz becoming a requirement to join this site wouldn't improve the quality of the posts we're sometimes subjected to in here... "...Baby One More Time" is the song that shifted the pop culture landscape in its entirety. There is a clear divide between the pre-Britney music world and the post-Britney one. The song went number one everywhere, was crazy controversial (something his previous material never achieved), had unexpected SPUNK, transcended the teen pop stigma and became a generational anthem. When you think "Max Martin", you'll think about Ms Spears first, let's be honest for a second. Just for that, she's the rightful winner of the title (that and making one of the most successful song ever, way above anything BSB/Jessica Folker/Robyn have ever done). Grammy10 Ways Britney Spears' "…Baby One More Time" Changed Pop...Released 25 years ago on Sept. 29, 1998, Britney Spears' iconic pop confection was a musical thunderbolt. GRAMMY.com revisits "…Baby One More Time," and 10 ways Spears' debut single changed the…Also, let's not act Oops wasn't a wall to wall pop masterpiece, brillantly produced (the title track alone, the richness of the details, the aural assault hidden as a falsely innocent pop song), with distinctive, tailor made songwriting, perfectly brought to life by Britney. Let's, once again, remind everyone Oops had NME writing she was "modern day pop perfection" and Rolling Stone giving her a 71/100! Do you realize how difficult this was for her (with the "talentless puppet" narrative already well established by most) to prove the critics wrong with the sequel to a blockbuster teen pop album (probably the LEAST respected genre ever)?

Blackout has kinda become the new blueprint for electro-pop albums by female. It is brought up as a main inspiration by so many new pop girls, it's astounding. I've always preferred Madonna's 80s and 90s work compared to Ray of Light. Even if I like the album, True Blue, Like A Prayer and Erotica are miles ahead (much more subversive too, btw). In spite of not following respectability politics, Blackout proved you could make a relentless party album, filled with double meaning, innovation and elements of depth woven throughout the record. A stone cold miracle given Britney's reputation, at the time, and the preconceived notions/misogyny around pop music in the late 00s.

It's been five years her streaming numbers have been gradually getting better so the "she sold her catalogue" cop out isn't factual, I fear (always dissociating her from her achievement is type A exhibit of misogyny, btw). Most fans knew that when she'd start getting passable playlisting (not "good" just "passable"), her numbers would increase even more. They were 100% right!

People think her classics are worth more than what she's got which is pretty flattering, in a sense. Then, you also have the general belief that she's a vulnerable person that always gets the short end of the stick. This is not what happened here and Britney is quite savvy, even if she doesn't want people to think that of her and she makes it work in her favor.

Excited to see more and more pop acts sell their catalogue for people to realize a 150/200 millions deal is nothing to scoff at for a retired artist (especially since her share wasn't big, in the first place). Streaming giants such as JB and Katy had deals around 200 millions, even when they co-wrote more than her, are still active and benefit from recency.