My Journey with Britney Spears Part 9: Britney Jean

So in 2010 I had moved down to the D.C. metro area and lived with my brother while he was going to school. I wanted to get into radio but no matter how hard I tried it just never panned out. I soon realized that Marriott was my career and that maybe that was for the best. I had job stability, a 401K and a health plan with Marriott and that’s more than a lot of people can say. And considering some of the health issues I was starting to battle it was really good to have good health insurance at that time.

In mid 2011 my parents moved down to the area because my Dad got a job promotion and all of a sudden we were all living together again in a deluxe apartment. I think it was a blessing because during that time 3 out of the 4 family members was having health issues and being together during that time I think was for the best for everyone. As 2012 turned into 2013 some big changes were coming my way. First I got a new a job in downtown D.C. at the Wardman Park Marriott where I met some great people with whom I am still good friends with. Cory also found a job at another Marriott in downtown D.C. which meant our long distance relationship was finally over after 2.5 years. Cory moved down here and I moved out my parent’s apartment. For the first time in my life I was living on my own, financially independent from my parents, and I had paid off my student loans. I was actually adulting finally. And then that summer I kicked it up a notch and asked Cory to marry me. He said yes! I had come a long way baby.

As we got deeper into 2013 talk of a new Britney album was upon us once again. She was collaborating with Will.I.AM. this time and it promised to be her most personal album yet. I remember listening to Work Bitch for the first time and not loving it but it was Britney so I kept listening and soon it all clicked. Then I saw the video and I loved it even more! This was the most fierce Britney had been in a LONG time. She looked great, she danced great and she looked like she was having a lot of fun in the video. I also liked the message of the song which is that if you want to live the life of the rich and famous like Britney you better have a strong work ethic and unbeatable drive because these things were not handed to Britney on a silver platter. She worked hard to achieve her superstardom and made some real sacrifices too. Work Bitch was a nice way to acknowledge how much Britney herself had done to get where she is. Plus it’s just fun to say You Better Work Bitch! Lord knows me and my friends started saying that to each other all time.

At the same time word came that Britney was going to start a Vegas residency which honestly made a lot of sense to me. Britney had enough clout to headline a Vegas residency and she probably wanted to see her kids as much as possible which is difficult to do when you are touring all over the world. I also remember watching a special from E about Britney getting ready for her Vegas Residency as well. She definitely felt more engaged and hands on than she had for the last few years. Part of me really wanted to go but part of me knew it was way out of budget too especially considering I was planning a wedding as well.

It seemed like we were on the verge of another iconic era for Britney and that would turn out to be half true. So like I had done since Blackout I went to Best Buy the day Britney Jean came out and bought the deluxe edition. The reviews had been pretty tepid so far, but Britney never really had the best reviews outside of Blackout so I took all that with a grain of salt. I remember wanting to love the album. In a lot of ways I was more pumped for this album than Femme Fatale. I was showing everyone the Work Bitch video from my brother’s girlfriend, to my co-workers at Marriott and my close friends from college. I was ready for Britney to knock me out with another album of pop brilliance and I wanted everyone else to be ready for it too.

So as soon as I bought Britney Jean I popped the CD into the car and I remember feeling deflated. Work Bitch was awesome of course and I also really liked Passenger, which was co-written by Katy Perry, but the rest of it….meh. Alien had an interesting atmosphere to it but was not much of a song and Perfume the second single was OK but once again proved later day Britney just couldn’t pull off ballads like she used to though this was the closest she got since In the Zone. Chillin’ With You, where Britney did a duet with her sister Jamie, was a dud upon arrival and I cringed listening to it. Body Ache was OK while it played but it was faceless and forgettable once it finished. I did listen to the album multiple times hoping it would click but it never did. Unlike Femme Fatale and her third album Britney, which got better the more I lived with them, Britney Jean just got worse and worse to the point where I barely listen to it outside of 2 or 3 songs. I wasn’t alone in thinking this either, not only were the critics right but a lot of her fans have acknowledged since its release that Britney Jean is her weakest album.

The disappointment of Britney Jean was negated though by the success of Britney’s Vegas Residency. It exceeded all expectations and became a phenomenon. People traveled far and wide to see Britney Spears live in Vegas. It brought Millennials to Vegas in huge numbers and people started taking notice. Over it’s five year run Britney’s Piece of Me show played for almost 250 shows and grossed close to 138 million dollars. As the residency came to a close in 2017 people noted how it changed Las Vegas, where now every big name pop star is having their own Vegas residency from Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Cardi B, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul and more. Once again Britney set the standard for all her peers to follow.

Meanwhile Cory and I got married in Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of July 2014 and of the many songs played at my wedding (The dance floor was open for over 6 hours!) I made sure Britney got played. Womanizer and Scream & Shout were the 2 songs the DJ picked and while I would have liked for a different Britney song instead of Scream & Shout I remember our friend Emily singing that song back to me on the dance floor with such bravado that I will always cherish that memory so I am kind of glad it got picked in the end. What was great about our wedding too is we stayed on the vineyard for 2 weeks and the week before our wedding we had my friends from college and Cory’s friends from high school hang out in a rented house. My friends got to meet Cory’s friends finally and they all instantly became friends with each other which was amazing. We had a great time and the wedding was the climax of all the fun we had that week. I know we played Blackout at the rented house a lot too because obviously. I also started another new job a few months before the wedding. I am still at that job 5 years later and it’s because it’s my favorite job I have held down in my career with Marriott.

So besides that there’s not much else to say since I never saw the Piece of Me Residency in person and the Britney Jean album is not one that needs to be dissected as much so let’s wrap this one up quick.

This era of Britney is basically remembered for 3 things.

First Britney Jean is remembered as the weakest album Britney has ever released and hopefully ever will. The upside though is at least all the Britney fans (or Stans) can agree on which Britney album is the worst so there’s that.

Second despite being her worst album Britney Jean still managed to give us one all time Britney classic with Work Bitch, which is honestly one of her best songs ever period. Definitely in her top 10 and maybe top 5 if you make a convincing enough argument. So even her weakest album wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Third it was the start of Britney’s groundbreaking and showstopping Vegas residency where her star power and dedicated fan base turned Piece of Me into one of the most successful residences in Las Vegas history. Britney’s Vegas residency completely transformed the city in terms of live shows and the audiences who flocked to Vegas. Britney had now made it to the point where a slightly weak album would no longer weaken her appeal. Britney has become the Madonna of the Millennial generation and fans are never gonna turn their backs on her again.

Still it was clear that the next album needed to be better and luckily it would be.