Interesting article from the guardian about britneys comeback - interesting views on rihana and kelly clarkson that buzzjack will like!!

 

 

Britney is capable of a cult hit. Hold It Against Me fails to deliver

 

 

 

Britney Spears … 'There’s a tendency for pop stars to release their most ­interesting music and immediately step back from it.'

 

Hold It Against Me, the lead single from Britney Spears's new album, surfaced online this week. For a song that is mostly rot Europop and rests on a gag last made by the Bellamy Brothers in 1979, it sparked an unusual degree of excitement. But pop fans don't care about Britney simply out of loyalty to an unlikely survivor. The real reason many of us rush for anything new from her is 2007's Blackout, an album as close to a cult hit as anything that sold 3m copies can be.

 

On Blackout – released with minimum promotion in the middle of her shaven-headed, zombie-eyed, walking-tabloid period – Britney gave us the tightest, most inventive dance-pop record of the last 10 years. Everything that's happened in mainstream pop since – such as the routine electronic treatment of vocals, or the turn to European club beats and synths – happened on this album, only in a darker, braver and catchier fashion. From its title in, Blackout didn't try to gloss over the state its star was in – it embraced it. In particular, the vocal twisting, distorted, blurred and robotised Britney, giving the eerie impression of a record that had swallowed up its own singer.

 

Blackout sounds even better now, partly because you no longer worry the singer's going to die in the next six months, so listening to it feels less like rubbernecking. But it also sounds better because Britney hasn't done anything as compelling since. She came back from Blackout with Circus, a tamer, less focused sequel, which had a few good songs but felt like a retreat.

 

This is a familiar syndrome. The standard view of the pop album – lazy collections of hits padded out with worthless filler – has been unfair for a while now. But there's still a tendency for pop stars to release their most interesting music and immediately step back from it. Kelly Clarkson's brooding My December was by no means perfect, but it was a lot more ambitious and coherent than All I Ever Wanted, her hit-craving follow up. Rihanna is at No 1 as I write with the lilting, pretty What's My Name? But its parent album, Loud, is a toothless thing compared with 2009's wrathful, brutal Rated R. For instance, the listless new revenge song Man Down wilts next to its 2009 counterpart Fire Bomb – an audacious power ballad about car-bombing a former lover, like a fantasy collaboration between Jim Steinman and JG Ballard.

 

It's not exactly a mystery why this happens. Chart pop, even more than most of the music business, is thoroughly market-driven, and in the case of Spears and Clarkson a return to Cheeky Britney and Fun Kelly was exactly what the market demanded. But it's still a shame – in all three cases the more interesting record wasn't some kind of misguided experiment, it was an organic progression from the music the act had made before. Clarkson got self-lacerating pop songs to sing before she wrote her own on My December. Rihanna had been perfecting a steely persona before she unleashed it fully on Rated R. And Britney's music had been moving away from bubblegum and into the club for two albums before Blackout. From an artistic perspective, it's the reassuring follow-ups that are the aberration, not the ambitious failures.

 

Plenty of people may scoff at the notion of approaching modern pop music from an artistic perspective at all. But if you don't, the chief criticism of pop – that it's "manufactured" – becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. One of pop's great panto villains is Mike Love of the Beach Boys, with his legendary objection to the release of Pet Sounds: "Don't f*** with the formula!" The music industry is full of Mike Loves – assuming pop's greatest aspiration is the production line puts you squarely on their side.

 

Meanwhile, the Britney-watchers pore over the new release, looking for hopeful signs. The best part of Hold It Against Me is its breakdown, where the song suddenly collapses into harsh, scattered beats but somehow holds together. It's a hint that the "Britney goes dubstep" rumours swirling around might not be completely wild. And more than that, it's a few seconds of music that tantalisingly remind us of Blackout, and of ambition.

 

On Blackout, Britney gave us the tightest, most inventive dance-pop record of the last 10 years.

 

No, no she didn't. It may have been a stronger collection than Circus, and I do agree with his comments on Clarkson's and Rihanna's work, but Blackout was not THE most inventive dance-pop album of the last 10 years. It did not really redefine anything, did it?

Even autotuning was getting bigger before that!

No, no she didn't. It may have been a stronger collection than Circus, and I do agree with his comments on Clarkson's and Rihanna's work, but Blackout was not THE most inventive dance-pop album of the last 10 years. It did not really redefine anything, did it?

Even autotuning was getting bigger before that!

 

IT DID TOO. GURL PLEASE.

 

I wouldn't say the most inventive in the last ten years. But it's one of them. Especially from a pop star.

I wouldn't say the most inventive in the last ten years. But it's one of them. Especially from a pop star.

 

Tyler your post makes sense. I don't see how they can make a sweeping statement like that, But the album was a contributor :)

 

Blackout was the first Britney album i bought and i loved it. :D

Interesting article! :D

 

I agree that "most inventive" dance-pop records of the past 10 years was a huge exaggeration, although it was very good, nonetheless. To be honest, the most inventive dance-pop record of the past 10 years is probably an album that most of us haven't heard, and didn't do overly well in the charts, because I think when you become too inventive in a short space of time, you alienate the casual music listeners, hence I don't think you'd get such high sales and airplay, etc, although you'd probably get very good reviews. The musical tastes of the general public, as we're all aware, does change at a moderate pace over the years, but I think the trick, if you want to be mainstream, is to try and make your songs as current as possible. Like at the moment, in pop music that California Gurls/Dynamite/Tik Tok sound is pretty big, but I think next summer, another song like that probably wouldn't be as massive as those, and the summer after, even less so. A good strategy is to try and anticipate the direction mainstream music will go in next, and then try and do it first, so to speak. Obviously, this isn't easy, as you can't predict the future, so it could go horribly wrong, and it probably takes quite a bit of research to try and find out which "sound" will be dominating the charts in 6 months time.

 

But anyway, onto Rihanna! I've actually been hearing a few people say that they really liked Rated R. That album got pretty mixed reviews to be honest, and I'm one of those people who would've given it negative reviews. Not that the album was terrible, because it was okay. I hated the lead single, and Rockstar 101 :puke: and Te Amo (which was, oddly enough, my favourite on my first listen) but Hard was fantastic, so even for that song alone, I have to give it some credit. :lol: I think Loud is so much better though. I really struggle to find much to criticize. There's a few tracks on there which sound similar to each other, or similar to some of her previous songs, but it's not like it's the whole album sounding the same like you get with a lot of artists. Perhaps the main thing to criticize is that she's released all the Stargate songs as singles, although I can sympathize in a way, because she doesn't have much of a choice. One thing I would've criticized with Loud is that her song with Eminem was album only, which was really frustrating, but now I think it's a good thing it was, because Rihanna could've well ended up with 4 songs in the top 10 at the same time as a result, and I'm getting the impression some people are feeling she's over-exposed at the moment. Although again, that's not entirely her fault, since What's My Name? was originally scheduled for release at the end of January, yet it went top 10 on iTunes back in November, and we're not even at the original release date for What's My Name? yet, and S&M is just outside the top 40!

IT DID TOO. GURL PLEASE.

 

I wouldn't say the most inventive in the last ten years. But it's one of them. Especially from a pop star.

 

That's what I mean!

I agree, it was a nice little dance-pop album, but it was not THE most inventive of the last ten years.

And I don't think it really inspired anyone. Listening back to Blackout I find Danja's production (which is most of the album's dance-pop feel) a bit dated and a tad influenced by hip hop, but that's just my opinion.

Nice little album? Yes. THE most inventive of the last ten years? No.

 

And Tyler, don't worry, I'm a fan myself, so I know what I'm talking about... :D

 

[britney's best album to date remais In The Zone. -_- ]

I think Loud is so much better though. I really struggle to find much to criticize. There's a few tracks on there which sound similar to each other, or similar to some of her previous songs, but it's not like it's the whole album sounding the same like you get with a lot of artists.

 

On the whole Rated R vs. Loud debacle, what I find is Rihanna missed the cohesion point on this latest album.

Rated R was all very dark and moody and with an attitude and running theme. On Loud she shoots on every direction possible. You're got full on Eurodance (Only Girl/S&M), Caribbean Pop (What's My Name), Reggae (Man Down), Hip Hop (Raining Men), Pop-Rock (Cheers), Rock balladry (California King Bed)... It is not a cohesive album at all, and even if the songs are grea, which they are, that's not an album. I'll call it more an compilation. That's where Loud fails for me. Rated R felt like an album (even with weaker songs), Loud sounds just like a bunch of different tracks bundled together... :(

Vülker has a very good point.

 

The reason why I think Blackout and In The Zone are my favorite albums are because both albums are so consistent and all the tracks lead into each other so well. Just like with Rihanna with her last two albums... I think Britney's 'Circus' missed the mark just because it was more "WHAT SONGS WOULD BE MOST COMMERCIAL?".

 

'In The Zone' and 'Blackout' both showed SO much growth from her previous albums... and with 'Circus' it was just like something that should have come out after 'Britney' rather then the previous two records.

Edited January 15, 201114 yr by Tyler

Blackout was obviously far more cohesive than Circus but I honestly don't think it's that good. There are maybe five songs I'd choose to play today. You can tell it was cobbled together whilst she wasn't at her best. The filler is RIFE. Circus might be patchy as hell but I think Unusual You and Shattered Glass are better than anything on Blackout (and I'd extend that to the bonus tracks Quicksand, Trouble and Phonography too).

 

But it's obviously all about In The Zone. Incredible album and so sonically mature compared with anything she's done since. It was sexy without being tacky unlike, say, 3 or If U Seek Amy.

I love that 'In The Zone' has so much love since that is the album she has the most writing credits on and producer credits. And then 'Blackout'.

 

COINCIDENCE?

 

I think NOT.

Edited January 15, 201114 yr by Tyler

Interesting article from the guardian about britneys comeback - interesting views on rihana and kelly clarkson that buzzjack will like!!

Britney is capable of a cult hit. Hold It Against Me fails to deliver

 

Britney Spears … 'There’s a tendency for pop stars to release their most ­interesting music and immediately step back from it.'

 

Hold It Against Me, the lead single from Britney Spears's new album, surfaced online this week. For a song that is mostly rot Europop and rests on a gag last made by the Bellamy Brothers in 1979, it sparked an unusual degree of excitement. But pop fans don't care about Britney simply out of loyalty to an unlikely survivor. The real reason many of us rush for anything new from her is

 

... that she's still a hot babe? :naughty:

 

i would say blackout reinvented electro-pop

it's one of her best albums, if not her best

well after IN THE ZONE <3

... that she's still a hot babe? :naughty:

 

Seriously, is that all you bloody care about? :rolleyes:

 

I do agree In The Zone was the best and you can tell she had involvement in it and it showed. With everything else she's pretty much just handed it on a plate and 'sings' it in a studio, even if each album contains a few solid gold pop songs.

Don't we have a Britney forum for this sort of discussion??

A very interesting read. And I agree with a lot of the points, though I have got to say, I enjoy the fun Britney, Rihanna and Kelly more than their darker counterparts.

 

I can never find the words to describe 'Blackout'. Or the success of 'Blackout.' It seems like an album that everyone knows is an amazing album and everyone openly discusses its brilliance. And then on the flip side, it always feels like the hidden-Britney-album-gem that few people have. Its strange. When I first got 'Circus' I thought it was the better one, probably because it was more commercial and mainstream. Two years on, I totally understand how 'Blackout' flows as an album, where 'Circus' doesn't. Epic love for 'Toy Soldier' as well, so.