Rolling Stone features beautiful article praising Britney’s “Baby One More Time” album on its 22nd Bday

Rolling Stone is rubbish la-la-land nowdays.

Avant Garde?

R1 they praised it 22 years ago also. It was an album that sounded like nothing else at the time.

I remember when BOMT (song) first came out. People were taken aback by the song but loved it. Some DIDNT know what to make of her or her growl like vocals at the time

This song was avant-garde? What a crock of shit! Music doesn't get more obnoxiously mainstream - and they attribute the song and its production to Britney? Do the editors even know how this shit is composed? Agree that Rolling Stone is loooooong done. The sad thing is that naive young people who read this will think that Britney was avant garde.

[quote]Avant Garde?

[quote]—Yoko Ono, shitting in my silk diapers in NYC

Music that people actually want to listen to, Yoko.

R4 they acknowledged Max Martin stupid.

Yes, R4. The sad thing is that most young people are both naive and infantilised as well as having NO critical faculty.

[R6] Rude fuckface.

Is the 22nd a particularly important anniversary??

[R9] The editors must be desperate.

R7 THE ALBUM WAS PRAISED WHEN RELEASED ALSO. What other American female artists albums sounded anything like BOMT when it came out? None

[...]

Here's to Britney, my fellow avant-garde artist!

I was in high school when this song dropped. Corporate, soulless, manufactured crap.

I always preferred Christina’s Genie in a Bottle.

Let's praise Britney, daring avant-garde artist!

There would be no Genie in a Bottle without BOMT

R4 most young people don’t or can’t read; and the 2% that can and will, know better

R12 they’re mentioned in the article too. Read.

[R17] Can both songs be extinguished?

Shitney Tears

Didn’t they print the exact same article on the 13 & a 1/2 anniversary?

The song itself was not groundbreaking. Well choreographed, barely legal white girls in skimpy outfits was at the time. For presentation, she is remembered.

I guess, for its own survival, Rolling Stone must pretend that the quality of Top 40 hits didn't drop off dramatically around the time Britney came on the scene with her shiny little shitstorms, written and produced by others with actual instruments and musicians optional. Casey Kasem and his weekly countdown of popular hits would be unimaginable today due to the fragmented nature of the music scene.

She changed music forever.

[R25] How did a non-musician with a wispy little voice and who doesn't write, produce or play her own material "change MUSIC forever?"

She does write and plays piano

[R27] Okay.

Britney "Amadeus" Spears.

I will just say like I said in the Michael Jackson thread, no artist is alone responsible for the music they put out. Britney Spears, like much like the late Michael Jackson, was a product shot out of a massive assembly line. There are hundreds of people involved in making these people's careers what they are.

The song was huge and it did change the landscape of the industry, but to talk about Britney as if she is personally responsible for it just doesn't make sense. Same goes for Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, etc.

I’m sick of people saying they were made by others. Better artists have had better material and still couldn’t reach her success. Or Madonnas. Or Janet’s. Or even people like Kylie and Paula Abdul’s. You all hate to admit it but there is so much more to it than the actual music. The artist is the most important factor in it all.

A star needs charisma, which can’t be manufactured. But those behind the scenes guy are extremely important in the hit making process.

[quote]You all hate to admit it but there is so much more to it than the actual music

r31 you are correct. There is a ton of business involved as well. Marketing, sales, styling, production, etc. That's why you can be beautiful, sexy, talented, all that, and your career can still be in the dumpster. Artists of yesteryear who have gone independent know how hard it is get traction without a huge record label behind them. These artists are bought and sold like cattle, which is why so many of them, like Britney, lose it when they realize the truth.

“Britney ends the album perfectly by making her explicit claim on the grand pop tradition, covering Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On.” Brit and Cher had a deep connection — she was just a little kid when she started belting “If I Could Turn Back Time” on the state-fair circuit. It began the tradition of Brit’s awesomely sacreligious cover versions, from the Stones’ “Satisfaction” (on her next album, changing “how white my shirts could be” to “how tight my skirt should be”) to Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock & Roll.” “The Beat Goes On” sums up everything Britney does on this album — inserting herself (and her audience) into the story of pop music. Like the song says, “History has turned the page.” La-di-da-di-di. La-di-da-di-da. The beat goes on.“

Vevo made a playlist to celebrate its bday

God, I remember it as being a shitty pop album. Not even close to a The Fame Monster, Ray of Light, or Lemonade.

The song (melody, lyrics, and arrangement) was written by a Swedish guy in his mom's basement. Rolling Stone stance on pop music formerly relegated to the trash bin is exhausting. Pop stars are not auteurs.

[quote] There would be no Genie in a Bottle without BOMT

And even still, Genie is the better song.

All Max Martin songs sound the same. BOMT sounds like Lucky sounds like I Want It That Way sounds like Quit Playing Games With My Heart sounds like As Long As You Love Me sounds like Sometimes sounds like Oops...I Did it Again...

Lmao at how pressed some of you whores are over this

I dont get this. Max Martin and the Cheiron team had a formula and Baby...One More Time was a standard they made. They already used this sound with Backstreet, NSYNC, Robyn and Ace of Base who predate Britney.

Also I feel like Britney herself was a pastiche of Europop like Aqua, Kylie Minogue, The Spice Girls and girl-next-door new jack swing/R&B like Janet, Mariah, Aaliyah and TLC. Britney's vocal fry singing was influenced by T-Boz and her ballads were Mariah influenced and also her dancing was clearly based on Janet and Aaliyah.

So Britney was just a white all-American face to sell a mix of European and African-American sounds to Middle America.

She really didn't get her own unique identity until In The Zone, Blackout and to lesser extent Circus.

Max Martin even admitted his sound was influenced by R&B and he was a guitarist in a heavy metal band.

[quote] The foundations for Martin’s empire were laid during an apprenticeship with Denniz PoP, whose 90s productions for Ace of Base had become international hits. Martin (born Karl Martin Sandberg in Stockholm) had played the French horn at school; when he met PoP (born Dag Krister Volle) he was the frontman of It’s Alive, a Kiss-inspired glam rock band. Discerning that Sandberg had an ear for pop music, PoP – a fan of pseudonyms – rechristened him Max Martin and employed him as a songwriter and producer at his Stockholm powerhouse, Cheiron studios. Cheiron’s records would fuse R&B grooves with happy/sad Abba-esque melodies. The former glam rocker Martin brought an edge of bombast and some weapons-grade melodies, soon employed on records for the Backstreet Boys and the British boyband Five.

[quote] PoP died of cancer in August 1998, two months before the release of what may be Martin’s most famous creation. ... Baby One More Time, which he wrote singlehandedly, got to No 1 in just about every country it was released. But it almost came to nothing. The demo, Martin remembers, sat lying around for “maybe six months, a year” and attempts were made to pitch it to “really established artists”. Eventually the Backstreet Boys’ label, Jive, offered it to their new signing, Spears. “When I heard her singing, I just knew instantly,” he says. “The way she recorded that song, she added another dimension.”

[quote] Among the artists who turned it down were TLC, assuming that the line “Hit me baby one more time” advocated domestic violence. Martin and his fellow Swedes at Cheiron had meant it simply as slang for “call me”. Other Martin lyrics of the era also presented problems for West Read when he was weaving them into & Juliet. “It’s really kind of confusing,” he says of the Backstreet Boys’ I Want it That Way, a song that seems to undermine itself at every turn.

"Baby...One More Time" was envisioned as an R&B song and was pitched to TLC who turned it down. T-Boz singing it makes a lot of sense.

A lot of Max's songs are a blend of R&B and heavy metal guitar riffs, drums and bass. "Stronger" and "Larger Than Life" are good examples.

It's clear English is not Max's first language because his songs have broken English and the lyrics made no sense. They come across as unintentionally bizarre. Analyze the lyrics to "Baby... One More Time", "Oops...I Did It Again?", "It's Gonna Be Me", "I Want It That Way", "Sometimes", etc. It's the broken English that gave them a novelty factor and stand out.

How much time out of our lives are we wasting talking and thinking about this? The mass media needs to be destroyed.

That picture is total pedo bait, too.

Didn't know what to make of her growl like vocals?!

Taylor Swift's image is annoying and her music is bland but she is good at what she does. She plays instruments and writes her material and has an excellent ear for melody and hooks. I respect her a lot even though her music is not my jam. I can admit she worked hard for her success. Yes she came from wealth but that is not enough to make your career last long. She knows how to construct songs and what will sell to her fanbase. She made award-bait albums and competently too. She is an artist just a very commercial one.

Solange also needs props for being an artist too who does a lot her own material and actually knows how to play instruments.

As does Mariah, Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys.

Britney, Rihanna, Ariana and Beyoncé are just performers. They clearly do get involved with their work but it's still mostly reliant on producers and songwriters to make it sound good. That's not bad thats been a thing since the 1940s honestly and Motown perfected that hit factory formula.

Madonna and Janet both were heavily involved and co-wrote their material and their albums sound like them and their personalities.

Britney is an ICON

She was so cute

Why is DL so obsessed with this broad? She is basic. I don’t dislike her, I just don’t get what is special about her.

I think its just a mix of nostalgia and pity. Many grew up with her music and many feel bad for her now. It's sadness for seeing someone who seemed well-adjusted and happy become a total nervous wreck. I agree she was never a great talent as her stans hyped her as and as she gets older it becomes more and more clear. I have to say she certainly was charming and had "it".

Now we can get back to discussing the really important things in life.

I don't get how the OP's pic is pedo-bait. She clearly looks like someone in her late teens and to be politically incorrect men are attracted to young women who shows sign of youth and fertility. I agree that her image and persona though was creepily juvenile though kinda similar to teenage Judy Garland playing a little girl character like Dorothy. But Britney always looked older than her actual age due to the makeup and outfits.

Britney's insane fame reminds of just why Gaga was so refreshing for one quick second. After a decade of manufactured pop, Gaga felt so vibrant and new (even if it was a Madonna/Grace Jones/Bowie hybrid). She was exciting af for a three or four years in a genre that is hardly ever exciting.

Gaga lost her cred when she began chasing awards and wanting to be taken seriously. Same thing is happening with The Weeknd who was similarly called refreshing when he debuted.

Britney's an untalented whore.

#FreeBritney is going after Rolling Stone for the 2008 article they had where they called Britney an "inbred swamp thing"