Blackout

the take

I have known of Britney Spears as an artist for a long time. How could you not? She was the “it girl” from 1999 to about 2005. Of course I knew her, and her hits. But I was wondering for a while if Britney, as an artist, justified her fame. There are many pop hitmakers in the history of music, who get their fame more from branding and marketing than artsmanship. Of course, they make good songs, but their albums overall aren’t spectacular. (Such as Sabrina Carpenter, who is a great artist, but hasn’t yet made a career defining album just yet). And after first listening to “…Baby One More Time”, I dumped Britney into that category. And it seemed much of the world did too throughout her career, especially once her branding and marketing began failing throughout her public scandals. Her fame and public respect began to wane. It’s crazy how wrong we were about Britney. With her back against the wall, Britney put out her best work with “Blackout”. Hit-after-hit, it’s great. There are a few tracks which are good, not great, that keep it from being ranked higher. But it’s an amazing pop album. Reinventing the dance pop scene, Britney took a lot of risks throughout this album. Unapologetic lyrics about her public controversies and an unsafe sound, this album wasn’t a safe bet for monetary and chart success. And it wasn’t, it failed compared to a lot of her prior work in chart success. But maybe that was a good thing. The interesting thing about the legacy defining albums for the hit makers, is it so often comes after they’ve stepped out of the spotlight. Perhaps, it’s because critic pressure to put out detailed album work instead of great singles, which are more monetarily beneficial, get to the artist. Perhaps it’s because they have more room to make a dedicated album, instead of worrying about appeasing their labels with radio hits. Both seem to be true in this case for Britney as she came out with something to prove. And she proved it and solidified her legacy.