My Journey With Britney Spears Part 1: Baby One More Time
I have a long and storied history with Britney Spears. You see when she released her debut single ...Baby One More Time at the end of 1998 I had been a devoted music fan for about a year and a half. So I was there for her right at the beginning and I have followed her career ever since. Most of my favorite acts either came out before 1997, came out much later than 1997 or had a shorter career. As a result I have a very strong connection to Britney and her music and each album she has released reminds me of different chapters in my life. So buckle up because we are about to journey through 20 years of Britney fandom.
I was living in central California in the late 90s. We were visiting San Francisco for Thanksgiving which had become a yearly ritual for us. The last year (1997) I had bought Madonna's Like a Prayer from the Virgin music store across the street. When we visited in 1998 I bought the CD singles for Five's When the Lights Go Out, 98 Degrees' Because of You/True to Your Heart and Mariah Carey's #1's compilation. I was listening to the radio one day in my hotel room and it was the top 40 countdown. They discussed Wannabe by the Spice Girls debuting 2 years before that week and this week there was a debut single by a new singer named Britney Spears. I know this was the first time I heard her music, but it might not have been the first time I heard of Britney Spears. The reason being that I remember TV ads for the Sabrina the Teenage Witch soundtrack around that same time and Britney was listed as having a song on there.
My next memory was watching Total Request Live or TRL as we kids used to call it. TRL was pretty much mandatory viewing for me every day after school. I remember the day ...Baby One More Time debuted at # 10 on TRL and I remember within a day or 2 Britney Spears made her first appearance on the show that would propel her and many of her fellow teen pop acts to superstardom. In the early days of TRL there wasn't always a studio audience so it's kind of crazy to watch this interview now in retrospect because it's just her and Carson Daly chatting. Britney comes off as very sweet and genuine. Right from the start Britney didn't come across as a diva like many female pop singers. She really did feel like the girl next door and that persona would serve her well in the years to come.
By this point the song grabbed me and I waited by my CD/Tape player stereo for the local hit music station to play ...Baby One More Time so I could tape it off the radio. Yes boys and girls in the days before streaming and digital downloads, when you had no real disposable income because you were in middle school, you had to wait by the radio to hear your favorite song and then try and tape it off the radio as quick as you could so you didn't miss the intro. I remember listening for hours one day just to be able to tape it. Soon I needed to own the song so I bought the single. I want to say I bought Bewitched’s CD single of Ce'st La Vie that same day but I could be mistaken. I remember the …Baby One More Time single came with bonus computer content which was the hot thing in the late 90s. It was basically watching Britney rehearse the dance routines for ...Baby One More Time.
Now at this time I was going to a Private Catholic School for boys and let's just say the music video for ...Baby One More Time made a huge splash. Boys were falling head over heels for her. I remember my best friend at the time said he "liked" Britney Spears but really I could tell that he, like all my classmates, just thought she was hot. Still, because they all thought she was hot I was allowed to listen to her music and not be called out on it because I could deflect and just say I thought she was hot too. In reality I just loved her energy and charisma and through her I could express my femininity like I had been doing with Madonna and Janet Jackson except she was a lot closer to my age, which made me feel a bit closer to her overall.
The next thing I remember was her Rolling Stone cover, which definitely caused a stir at the time. I remember all my guy friends talking about that magazine or even buying it to hang pictures of it in their bedroom. That Rolling Stone cover, plus her subsequent video for Sometimes, set off a huge controversy back then about whether or not Britney had gotten breast implants. The reason being that her cup size seemed to grow quite a bit between the ...Baby One More Time video and the video for Sometimes. Normally discussing a pop star's cup size is not something I would do, but I am bringing it up because it became this huge story in early 1999. Not only were all the boys in my class debating if Britney's boobs were real or not, but so was the media who discussed it endlessly on TV and radio. I remember a DJ on the local hit station saying that a journalist asked Britney if her boobs were real and she went right up to the journalist, pushed her chest out and said "They are 100% real!" This debate over Britney's breasts was the first time it became obvious that the general public was fascinated with her as a pop star and wanted to know more and more about Britney outside of her music. It was also clear from the onset that people were going to judge and criticize her much more extensively than most other pop stars. In my opinion Britney is the most victimized pop star of her time and this debate over her breasts in early 1999 was a taste of things to come.
In the meantime, Sometimes had come out as the second single and I LOVED it. I had really liked ...Baby One More Time but Sometimes I adored. It was then and there that I knew I had to buy the full-length album which I did. I would play Sometimes over and over and add it to countless mix tapes. I also used to turn down the volume during the bridge and even pause it for a few seconds and then I would blast the volume once it came back to the chorus. That would give me such goosebumps and I would dance all around my room to it. I would also do the same thing the Stop Remix of You Drive Me Crazy. Man I was soooooooo gay!
I remember watching making the video for You Drive Me Crazy and taping the music video at the end. Making the video was great because you knew the music video was coming at the end so I was always prepped to tape the videos I wanted when they premiered. Since it was not the album version I had to go out and buy the soundtrack to You Drive Me Crazy just for that song. Also before YouTube and social media, Making the Video was a great way to get a peek behind the curtain of pop stardom. You not only got to see all the work that went into the music video you also got to see your pop stars in a more relaxed setting sometimes. Making the Video helped you see a different side of your favorite pop stars that you didn’t get from their performances or onscreen interviews. Making the Video solidified how Britney was not only a hard worker, but again came off as the girl next door who you could be good friends with. Watching this for the first time in almost 20 years I was struck by all the 90s rock played in the background by the Foo Fighters, Godsmack, Beastie Boys, The Cardigans, etc. Very nostalgic.
I also remember MAD TV parodied You Drive Me Crazy with Nicole Sullivan playing Britney and the song was called Lick My Baby From Behind. This was the first time I saw satire against Britney that made her look clueless, untalented and just a ditzy sex pot. This perception of Britney would only grow over time, especially from her detractors.
That summer Christina Aguilera hit with Genie in a Bottle. According to the media and fans on TRL Britney now had an adversary in Christina. Many music critics and pundits were quick to side with Christina Aguilera since she had a better singing voice than Britney which also translated to: Christina has more talent than Britney Spears. It was around this time that people really started making fun of Britney’s singing voice or in their minds lack thereof. In a lot of ways it was like The Madonna and Cyndi Lauper feud in the early 80s where critics were much more on team Cyndi initially until Madonna just kept blowing past everyone's expectations over and over again. This is what I feel happened between Christina and Britney. The media declared Christina the winner the moment she arrived. She would win all the music awards the following year including Best New Artist at the Grammys and got respect from all the music critics and journalists while Britney was seen as just juicy gossip, and someone to poke fun of especially since everyone was convinced she wouldn't last. Britney would fall by the wayside soon enough like Tiffany or Debbie Gibson and Christina Aguilera would go on to have a superstar career like Mariah Carey or Celine Dion. Funny how things worked out eh?
That's the other thing about Britney. Much like Madonna in the 80s, people just kept thinking Britney was never going to last and kept declaring her career dead over and over again. This would happen with more and more frequency in the coming years. The media always wants to see her fail, but they also can't stop reporting about her at the same time. This toxic combination would take its toll eventually. For now though Britney had become one of my favorite pop stars. When my parents were out of the house I would blast ...Baby One More Time through the stereo system, dance around the living room until I sweated through my shirt and belt out each song like I was a pop star. I kept hoping Born to Make You Happy or I Will Be There would be the 4th singles but alas it went to From the Bottom of My Broken Heart in the U.S. (though Europe would get Born to Make You Happy as their 4th single,) which was OK but not as great as those 2 songs especially I Will Be There. I loved that soaring guitar on I Will Be There which showed at a young age that while I love pop and EDM I also liked real instruments as well and sometimes juxtaposing real instruments with synths can really grab my ear. I Will Be There I feel is the hidden gem off her debut and is ripe for rediscovery.
By the end of 1999 I not only had the album, but I had the VHS tape Time Out With Britney Spears and I had a Britney poster hanging in my bedroom . That video like the ones I collected for other pop diva was a great way to learn more about Britney and her background before the era of YouTube.
Like those other female pop singers Britney had moved into my pantheon of beloved pop divas like Madonna, Janet, and Mariah. I was a full-fledged Britney fan by the end of 1999 and I ready for her next move. Luckily her next move was right around the corner.
