Britney Spears' Fans: As Blackout's Release Looms, Who Exactly Are They?

Fans — some of them closeted — try to ignore the drama and focus on the music.

 

Forget the head-shaving, the custody drama, fender benders, trips to rehab, wardrobe malfunctions, divorces and all of Britney's non-music-related train wrecks. When it comes to her true fans, the wait for Blackout has been harder than any tabloid travail. And despite having a solid hit with "Gimme More," the buzz around her first album in four years (see "Britney Spears' New Album, Blackout: A Track-By-Track Report"), which is slated for release next week, has been a bit muted.

 

We asked some Britney fans, peers and music professionals to help us figure out just who is holding their breath to hear the singer's fifth studio album. From former tweeners to DJs and producers who are sure she's still got more music in her, from fans in Britney's traditionally strong gay following to now-former fans, what we found is that despite her ups and (OK, mostly) downs, all said that great music can make a big difference.

 

"I've been a Britney fan since I was 10 and now I'm 18," wrote fan and Britney Spears Community member Stefania Segovia in an e-mail. "Even though she has let me down so many times during this year, I've never got to the point of thinking, 'I don't like her anymore,' because I've changed as she has in these eight years." However, Segovia, who lives in Italy, said she doesn't really talk about Spears with her friends because they don't share her adoration for the troubled pop star and think it's "odd" that Segovia still likes Spears.

 

"She has become a woman, a wife, a mother, and unfortunately for her this has been pretty difficult," Segovia added. "About her music? There's never been a song [of hers] that I didn't like — and of course I love 'Gimme More,' I can't stop listening to it. I'll definitely buy the album because that's the only way I can help her and I'll do it because I want to have a peaceful woman to look up to, as I had a peaceful and successful teenager/ young woman to look up to."

 

That kind of response doesn't surprise Billboard magazine Director of Charts and Senior Analyst Geoff Mayfield. "She's not been doing [her old style] of music for a while," he said of the spare electro sound of "Gimme More," referring to the transition Spears underwent on her third album, 2001's Britney, on which she shed her teenybopper image for a more hard-edge dance sound on songs like "I'm a Slave 4 U."

 

"Somewhere along the line on songs like 'Toxic,' she morphed into more of a dance-oriented artist and she's been doing that for a while now," he continued. "She's no longer getting the same numbers she got at the height of teen pop, but she wasn't going to keep that audience anyway."

 

In general, Mayfield said some of the generation of teen pop artists Spears came up with (Backstreet Boys, 'NSYNC) have been able to hang on much longer than previous generations, but he's not surprised "Gimme More" has had such strong legs. The song has been firmly in the Billboard Hot 100 for more than a month, holding strong at #3 for several weeks. He said that the tune has done well at top-40 radio and it's grown from week to week, with especially strong support on the East and West Coasts and in Florida.

 

Though young girls likely made up Spears' biggest fanbase early on, Mayfield suspects some young men hold a soft spot in their heart for their teenage crush. "The song has succeeded on its own merits, [though] I'm sure there are some people who are turned off by the stuff that comes out in the gossip rags," he said.

 

Ruben Garay, a producer at CelebTV.com and former webmaster of the fan site World of Britney (who famously quit his gig after tiring of the singer's antics), said he thinks her core audience of young girls has dropped off over the years as Spears' personal life has gone into freefall, splintering her supporters into a number of different camps. "I think that right now Britney has three or four different kinds of fans," he said rather cheekily. "I think her biggest fans right now is the gay community ... and then she has the fans that are just as much a train wreck as she is, and then she has Chris Crocker."

 

Garay said he also thinks that Spears has likely lost that core early audience who went to her concerts and bought her albums because she's managed to "p*** off every single mom in America with her antics. ... So do you think that mothers all across America want to take their kids to a Britney Spears concert? No, forget it."

 

But another Britney Community member, 18-year-old artist/student Isaac Curry of Columbus, Ohio, wrote that he thinks "Gimme More" is popular for the same reason Spears has always connected with fans: It's hot. "I think that anyone who has ever been a Britney fanatic would probably agree that she's always sounded the same," he said. "Maybe she had a little more vocal skill at the beginning, but her fans know that she's not famous for her voice. It's the energy she gives that's so amazing."

 

Like Segovia, Curry said his friends think Britney is a "lost cause," and even he admitted to not being blind to the tarnishing of her image through repeated scrapes with the courts and outrageous behavior. Actually, he added, when it comes to Britney, it's sometimes best not to overthink things. "A lot of the time fans grow up and realize, like I did, that what she's doing isn't music," he wrote. "There's no message, no pulse and no meaning. It just leaves you in a trance-like state. [The music is] good for working out, but that's about it."

 

In-demand DJ/remixer Tommie Sunshine (Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Pink, Avril Lavigne) said that even though he doesn't play "Gimme More" in his sets, he's a fan of the tune because, like "Toxic," he thinks it's a well-written, well-performed, immaculately produced song. "I'm at a point where I'm stewed in totally forward-looking dance music and playing things that won't come out for six months, but that didn't stop me from playing 'Toxic' for three-quarters of a year when it came out, because even though people thought I was being ironic, it was totally relevant," said Sunshine, who added that even Spears' numerous personal problems don't matter when she's putting out hot songs.

 

"This song is a good song, and at the end of the day ... you go to Middle America, where people don't give a f--- what she's doing in her personal life and when they turn on a song on the radio and they like it, all that doesn't matter," he said. "People in Ohio will buy the record and won't hate on Britney Spears because they bought the last one. In clubs, the reaction is a mixture of, 'Oh hey, great new song,' 'Oh, it's the new Britney song' and, 'Oh, it's that train wreck.' " As for Sunshine, he's eagerly awaiting a phone call to remix the tune, which he said he'd jump at "in two seconds."

 

One person who is on record as being an ex-Britney fan is blogger Perez Hilton, who told MTV News, "I may be a hater, but [that's] because I used to be her biggest fan," he said. "[it comes from a] place of love and disappointment. Britney, you just need to go away for a while, for real, whether that be rehab or L.A. or somewhere else." Former "TRL" host Carson Daly expressed similar views on the red carpet at the Video Music Awards, just before Spears' notoriously shambolic performance. "She has the opportunity to step back and find a touch of class, I'm sure that's not going to happen," said Daly, who wished the singer happiness, but lamented that her former squeaky-clean "Disney, 'TRL,' pop, mass-media appeal to little girls" has brought on a backlash due to her rebellious acts.

 

Not surprisingly, songwriter Sean Garrett (Beyoncé, Usher, Chris Brown) says he's a huge Britney fan, though that might have something to do with his work on Blackout. "I'm really excited about Britney's new album," he said at the VMAs, noting that he was slated to have three songs on it. "Me and [producer] Bloodshy did something different for her, something crazy for her, exciting. I really like it, she eased in, she didn't hit you too hard ... It's going to be hot, it's going to be really hot. Everyone wants to see her come back, because she had the world dancing for her. You give her an opportunity to show what she's made of."

 

Britney has long had a strong following in the gay/lesbian community and "Gimme More" has already become a dance-floor staple in many gay clubs. But in a poll that ran on the Gay.com Web site over the weekend, the support for Brit was somewhat mixed. Asked about general feelings about Britney, 22 percent of respondents said "I have always loved her. LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!," while 29 percent clicked "Are you serious? How can you love trash?" Coming in a close third at 21 percent was "I feel for a girl who's clearly troubled, but no love," and a tie at 8 percent with respondents voting "I love her these days! I needed a new spectator sport" and "I hate Britney phenomenon but still like her music."

 

The results were more clear-cut when the votes were tallied on the question of whether respondents liked the single. An overwhelming 63 percent said "Love it, love it, love it," while 10 percent said "It's OK, but no 'Toxic,' " 8 percent dubbed it "c**p on a platter" and 12 percent said "I never, ever want to hear it."

 

In the end, former superfan Garay had a grim assessment of who might turn out for Blackout next week. "I think the biggest chunk of people that are interested in Britney ... are the people that just like to watch a car accident happen," he said. "If that's going to translate into actual album sales, that still remains to be seen."

 

Source: MTV.com

Edited October 22, 200717 yr by Music Maniac

I know it's long but I thought it interesting. :lol: Wow, Ruben Garay really pisses me off sometimes. He needs to get over himself and the fact that Britney's not always gonna go out of her way to please him! a-hole. -_-

Great article, I loved it and it is true for the most part.

 

Ruben should be castrated.

hmmm very interesting article thanks for posting :)

 

That Perez Hilton f***er annoys me "I used to be her biggest fan" f*** off. If he was her biggest fan he would support her through anything, the good times and bad, because that's what true fans do.

Edited October 22, 200717 yr by lotsofsnails