| Name | Britney Spears |
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| Years active | 1992–present |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Birth name | Britney Jean Spears |
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| Born | December 02, 1981McComb, Mississippi, |
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| Genre | Pop, dance-pop |
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| Occupation | Singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, record producer, author, fashion designer, video director |
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| Instrument | Vocals, piano |
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| Label | Jive |
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| Associated acts | The New Mickey Mouse Club |
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| Url | |
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Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in
McComb, Mississippi and raised in
Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with
Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album
...Baby One More Time in 1999. During her first decade within the music industry, she became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks "
...Baby One More Time" and "
Oops!... I Did It Again" became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of
teen pop during the late 1990s.
In 2001, she released her third studio album Britney and expanded her brand, playing the starring role in the film Crossroads. She assumed creative control of her fourth studio album, In the Zone released in 2003, which yielded chart-topping singles "Me Against the Music", "Toxic" and "Everytime". After the release of two compilation albums, Spears experienced personal struggles and her career went under hiatus. Her fifth studio album, Blackout, was released in 2007 and despite receiving little promotion, it spawned hits "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me". In 2008, her erratic behaviour and hospitalizations caused her to be placed in a conservatorship. The same year, her sixth studio album Circus was released, with the global chart-topping lead single "Womanizer". After embarking on The Circus Starring Britney Spears, she released greatest hits The Singles Collection, which featured U.S. and Canadian number-one single "3".
Spears has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists in the history of contemporary music. At age eight, Spears and her mother Lynne traveled to Atlanta for an audition in the 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club. Casting director Matt Cassella rejected her for being too young to join the series at the time, but introduced her to Nancy Carson, a New York City talent agent. Carson was impressed with Spears's vocals and suggested enrolling her at the Professional Performing Arts School; shortly after, Lynne and her daughters moved to a sublet apartment in New York. Spears was hired for her first professional role, as the understudy for the lead role of Tina Denmark in the Off-Broadway musical Ruthless!. She also appeared as a contestant on the popular television show Star Search, as well as being cast in a number of commercials. They appointed her to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month, who reportedly shaped her voice from "lower and less poppy" delivery to "distinctively, unmistakably Britney."
1998–2000: ...Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again
in 1999]]
After Spears returned to the United States, Spears embarked on a shopping mall promotional tour to promote her forthcoming album. Her show was a four song set and she was accompanied by two back up dancers. Her first concert tour followed, as an opening act for
'N Sync. The
title track was released as the
lead single from the album. Originally, Jive Records wanted its music video to be animated; however, Spears rejected it, and suggested the final idea of a Catholic schoolgirl. The single sold 500,000 copies on its first day, and peaked at number one on the
Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart for two consecutive weeks.
On June 28, 1999, Spears began her first headlining ...Baby One More Time Tour in North America, which was positively received by critics, Oops!... I Did It Again, her second studio album, was released in May 2000. It debuted at number one in the US, selling 1,3 million copies, breaking the SoundScan record for the highest debut sales by any solo artist.
2001–03: Britney, Crossroads, and In the Zone
On February 2001, Spears got a promotional deal for $7–8 million dollars with
Pepsi, and released another book co-written with her mother, entitled
A Mother’s Gift. Her third studio album,
Britney, was released in November 2001. While on tour, she felt inspired by hip hop artists such as
Jay-Z and
The Neptunes and wanted to create a record with a funkier sound. To support the album, Spears embarked on the
Dream Within a Dream Tour. The show was critically praised for its technical innovations, the
pièce de résistance being a water screen that pumped two tons of water into the stage.
In June 2002, Spears opened her first restaurant, Nyla, in New York City, but terminated her relationship in November, citing mismanagement and "management's failure to keep her fully apprised". Spears released her fourth studio album,
In the Zone, in November 2003. She assumed more creative control by writing and co-producing most of the material.
Vibe called it "A supremely confident dance record that also illustrates Spears's development as a songwriter." It also debuted at the top of the charts in France and the top ten in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
2004–07: Compilation albums, motherhood, personal struggles and Blackout
On January 3, 2004, Spears married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at
The Little White Wedding Chapel in
Las Vegas, Nevada. The marriage was
annulled 55 hours later, stating that Spears "lacked understanding of her actions". The initial stages of their relationship were chronicled in Spears's first reality show
. They held a wedding ceremony on September 18, 2004, but were not legally married until three weeks later on October 6 due to a delay finalizing the couple's prenuptial agreement. In October 2004, Spears announced she would be taking another career break to start a family. The following month, she
guest-starred on the
Will & Grace episode "
Buy, Buy Baby" as closeted lesbian Amber Louise. Two months later, Spears posed nude for the cover of
Harper's Bazaar. The picture was heavily compared to
Demi Moore's
August 1991 Vanity Fair cover. She gave birth to her second child, Jayden James Federline, on September 12, 2006. In May 2007, she produced a series of promotional concerts at
House of Blues venues, titled
The M+M's Tour. Spears was released on February 6, 2008. Her parents expressed disappointment and concern at the decision to release her.
Circus became one of the fastest-selling albums of the year, In Australia, NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge has advised disclaimers be printed on any ticket for concerts which contain any prerecorded vocals. She commented: "There could have been some instances where people actually go and purchase a ticket thinking that they're going to have a live performance ... for some people that means that everything is live, it's fresh, it happens instantaneously, it's not something that's been pre-recorded. You want to make sure that they're actually paying for what they think they're getting." However, in examining her level of skill as an artist, it is questioned that "[a]lthough she has been classified among female elites such as Janet Jackson and Madonna, what does Ms. Spears really have in common with these divas of rock?" Citing Jackson's resolve to incorporate personal and social issues into her work and Madonna's ability to constantly redefine the boundaries of socially acceptable material in the industry, Spears's catalog ultimately pales in comparison, because "[w]hile Jackson and Madonna wrote their own music about subjects of importance, [Spears's] music sounds like an upbeat version of either, 'I want to grow up but the media won't let me,' or 'Here kitty, kitty, I'm wearing my underwear outside of my leather pants'-type ballads." In contrast, Guy Blackman argues that although "no one would argue that Spears is some kind of pioneering pop auteur, there’s still a lot to like about her back catalogue. During her world-conquering peak, she was just about as cutting edge as you could get in the world of global pop superstardom. Spears didn’t just work with big names, she gave big names their names, and maintained her high currency in the world’s most fickle industry for years, when most aspiring starlets are lucky to manage months."
Madonna's respect for Spears has also been a subject of observation. Santiago Fouz-Hernández and Freya Jarman-Ivens, authors of Madonna's drowned worlds: new approaches to her cultural transformations, 1983-2003 (2004) note that the most well known cross-generational relationship exists between Spears and Madonna in which "the entertainment newsmedia almost became obsessed with their relationship of mutual admiration."
Legacy
Spears became an international
pop culture icon immediately after launching her recording career.
Rolling Stone magazine wrote: "One of the most controversial and successful female vocalists of the 21st century," she "spearheaded the rise of post-millennial teen pop ... Spears early on cultivated a mixture of innocence and experience that broke the bank". She is listed by the
Guinness World Records as having the "Best-selling album by a teenage solo artist" for her debut album
...Baby One More Time which sold over thirteen million copies in the United States. Melissa Ruggieri of the
Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, "She's also marked for being the best-selling teenage artist. Before she turned 20 in 2001, Spears sold more than 37 million albums worldwide".
Barbara Ellen of The Observer has reported: "Spears is famously one of the 'oldest' teenagers pop has ever produced, almost middle aged in terms of focus and determination. Many 19-year-olds haven't even started working by that age, whereas Britney, a former Mouseketeer, was that most unusual and volatile of American phenomena — a child with a full-time career. While other little girls were putting posters on their walls, Britney was wanting to be the poster on the wall. Whereas other children develop at their own pace, Britney was developing at a pace set by the ferociously competitive American entertainment industry". 'Britney Spears' has been Yahoo!'s most popular search term for the last four consecutive years, seven times in total. Spears was named as Most Searched Person in the Guinness World Records book edition 2007 and 2009.
Spears has also become a major influence among many new artists, including Kristinia DeBarge, Lady Gaga, Little Boots, Selena Gomez & The Scene, Pixie Lott and Miley Cyrus who has cited Spears as one of her biggest inspirations and has also referenced Spears in her hit song "Party in the U.S.A.".
Bebo Norman wrote a song about Spears, called "Britney", which was released as a single. Boy band Busted also wrote a song about Spears called "Britney", which was on their debut album. She is also mentioned in P!nk's song "Don't Let Me Get Me". Richard Cheese called Britney Spears "a remarkable recording artist" and also went on to say that she was "versatile" and what the industry calls an "artist". People magazine and MTV reported that October 1, 2008, the Bronx's John Philip Sousa Middle School, named their music studio in honor of Britney Spears. Spears herself was present during the ceremony and donated $10,000 to the school's music program.
Discography
...Baby One More Time (1999)
Oops!... I Did It Again (2000)
Britney (2001)
In the Zone (2003)
Blackout (2007)
Circus (2008)
Awards and nominations
See also
Britney Spears filmography
Britney Spears products
List of Britney Spears tours
List of Britney Spears songs
List of best-selling music artists
List of best selling music artists in the United States
List of honorific titles in popular music
Notes
References
Further reading
Dennis, Steve (2009). Britney: Inside the Dream. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0007317516.
Peters, Beth (1999). True Brit: The Story of Singing Sensation Britney Spears. Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0345436870.
Spears, Britney (2000). Britney Spears's Heart to Heart. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0609807019.
Scott, Kieran (2001). I was a Mouseketeer!. Disney Press. ISBN 978-0786844708.
Stevens, Amanda (2001). Britney Spears: the illustrated story. Billboard Books. ISBN 978-0823078677.
Smith, Sean (2006). Britney The Unauthorized Biography of Britney Spears. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0330440776.
External links
Category:1981 births
Category:1990s singers
Category:2000s singers
Category:2010s singers
Category:Actors from Louisiana
Category:American child singers
Category:American dance musicians
Category:American dancers
Category:American female singers
Category:American film actors
Category:American music video directors
Category:American pop singers
Category:American singer-songwriters
Category:American stage actors
Category:American television actors
Category:Baptists from the United States
Category:English-language singers
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Innosense members
Category:Jive Records artists
Category:Living people
Category:Mouseketeers
Category:Musicians from Louisiana
Category:Parklane Academy alumni
Category:Participants in American reality television series
Category:People from Kentwood, Louisiana
Category:Sony BMG artists
Category:World Music Awards winners
Category:American people of Maltese descent
