Britney is the third studio album by American pop singer Britney Spears, released on November 6, 2001 on Jive Records. Britney is notable for Spears' increasingly prominent role in the production, and being the transition album away from her bubblegum pop sound and teen pop image from her previous two albums and leaned increasingly toward more hip-hop and R&B-influnced beats. Although the album was slightly less successful than her previous albums, she assumed some creative control by co-writing five of the album's tracks. The debut of Britney at number one on the Billboard 200 gave the Jive label its eleventh chart-topping album. Spears is responsible for three of those eleven number one discs, the highest total of any act on the imprint's roster.
The album became 2001's most successful debut by a female or females, trumping Destiny's Child's Survivor and Janet Jackson's All For You . The album's success made her the first female artist in music history to have her first three albums debut at number one. In addition, "Britney" has sold 9 million copies worldwide since 2001. It was nominated for two Grammy awards, Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Overprotected.
Production
Spears said of the album, much of the material on her third record reflects who she is, which is why she named it "Britney". Spears recorded 23 tracks for "Britney", and choosing the 12 best for the album, she said, was the most, if not the only, difficult part of the recording process. Writing, which Spears first attempted on "Dear Diary" from 2000's Oops!...I Did It Again, came more easily to the singer for the album, due partially to the assistance she received from writing team Josh and Brian.
While Spears simply came up with the concepts they developed on some of the tracks, she wrote both melody and words for others. She said, "This is the first album I have ever really written and taken my time on," Spears said. "So when I actually listen to the whole album, it's just that much more special. I don't know if I'm the best songwriter in the world, but I had a lot of fun doing it and hopefully I will get better and grow."
Spears obviously didn't write "I Love Rock 'n Roll," the Arrows song Joan Jett and the Blackhearts turned into a hit in 1981, but it was Spears' idea to cover the song with R&B producer Rodney Jerkins. Aside from Jerkins, who produced Spears' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction)" cover and other tracks on her prior album, Spears also worked with the Neptunes on Britney. She told MTV , "I was inspired by a lot of hip-hop and R&B while I was on my last tour," Spears said. "I was inspired by Jay-Z and the Neptunes.She told Jive "I really wanted to work with the Neptunes, and wanted to make Britney" nastier and funkier".
Britney's "nastier" sound, which doesn't exceed a few "hells" and "damns," prompted some critics to wonder if Spears may be outgrowing her audience. She said, "It's not my intention to leave my young fans. I just want an older generation to pick up on it as well," she responded. "I couldn't do ...Baby One More Time number three. I had to change it up and pray people think that's cool."
She recorded a song with Justin Timberlake, which was called "What It's Like To Be Me", she said that "I have to say I was a little nervous at first," Spears said of working with Timberlake. "I'm used to producers going in there and it's like work. And I go in and I work and I do my vocals and work. And I thought that it was awkward at first, because I was nervous recording with him doing my vocals. Max Martin also co-wrote a track called "Overprotected" on which Spears sings, "You're gonna have to see through my perspective/ I need to make mistakes just to learn who I am/ And I don't want to be so damn protected."
Reception
Critical
Initial critical response to Britney was average. According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received a score of 54, based on 12 reviews.
The album fared well with critics such as Allmusic, who gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars, describing the tracks, and particularly the titles, as "the record where she strives to deepen her persona, making it more adult while still recognizably Britney." In contrast, Rolling Stone said of the album: " Britney belabors the obvious: Spears is one month away from entering her twenties and clearly needs to grow up if she's going to bring her fans along."
The 1000th issue of Entertainment Weekly dated July 4, 2008 celebrated the 1000 best films, television shows, albums, and books, etc. from 1983 to 2008. In "The Classics: Music" category, Britney was listed at number ninety-seven on the list of the 100 best albums of the previous twenty-five years.
Commercial
Britney debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 album charts selling over 768,500 copies in its first week, replacing Michael Jackson's Invincible . Britney entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number one on sales of 44,550 copies, well ahead of the second-place debut by Pink Floyd's Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd which sold 28,894 copies. The following week in the U.S albums chart, Britney moved to number two after a 55% sales decline, selling 337,000 units. In the album's third week of release, its sales increased by 34% to 451,000 because of the holiday season, though it dropped to number three on the Billboard 200 behind two new entries. On its fourth week, the album moves 5-4 on a 17% sales increase, selling more than 264,000 copies and cracked the 2 million mark. It was followed by a beneficiary of a 13% sales boost, and ups the album one slot to number-three Enya's A Day Without Rain , on sales of almost 300,000 copies. Due in part to an increased exposure from her film debut, Crossroads and with the help of her "Dream Within a Dream Tour" the album peaked number-fourteen on the Billboard 200, and had been continued moving back up the chart from number-fourteen to number-nine, and just giving the album a total of 3.3 million units in the U.S. on 2002, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The album's number-one debut on the Billboard 200 made Spears the only female artist in SoundScan history to have their first three albums debut at number one, garnering her the top slot on the week's chart, as well as the honor of having the second biggest debut of the year — behind NSYNC's Celebrity , which moved 1.88 million copies in its first week — according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released on November 14 . Britney is, however, 2001's most successful debut by a female or females, trumping Destiny's Child's Survivor which sold 663,000 copies in its first week and Janet Jackson's All For You which sold 605,000. Also, the album landed at number-eighty four on BMG Music Club all-time best-sellers list with 588,000 units, behind Celine Dion's "Celine Dion" (624,000) and the "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" soundtrack (642,000).
In Japan, the album debuted at number four on the Oricon charts, selling 66,900 units during its first week. Britney has since sold 250,000 copies to date and earned Platinum certification there. It has also been certified two times Platinum in Australia, where it reached a peak of number four. In the UK, it debuted at number four and has been certified platinum for shipping 300,000 copies to retailers. The album spent thirty-six weeks on the UK Albums Chart. To date, Britney sold a total of 316,944 copies in Canada which considerably a big decline from her previous albums. In 2002, Britney was certified two times Platinum by the IFPI for shipments of two million copies inside Europe. It debuted at number two in France, where it has since sold over 425,000 copies.
Promotion
On September 6, Spears' premiered her first single from the album "I'm A Slave 4 U" at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards at Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The jungle-themed performance was highly criticized by animal rights group PETA, because of Spears performing with a white tiger and yellow python. The following evening September 7, Spears had a duet with Michael Jackson at his "Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration", The Solo Years concert in New York. The duo performed "The Way You Make Me Feel". An issue of Rolling Stone featuring Spears on the cover hits newsstands on September 13. On September 13, Spears was in Australia for a Sydney press conference for an international promotional tour for her album, but she canceled the media event, calling it inappropriate in light of the terrorist attack on America. Spears said in a statement, "I do not feel it appropriate to hold a press conference here in Australia for the launch of my album." In early 2002, Spears held a press conference at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France, on January 19. She was also on-hand for the NRJ Music Awards ceremony, which took place during the MIDEM 2002 international music-industry conference in Cannes.
Worldwide Appearance
She performed "I'm A Slave 4 U" at the NRJ Music Awards in France at 2002. She also did had press conference in Japan on 2002, to promote her debut film and at the same time the album. She also did several commercials in Japan and Korea entitled "Pepsi FIFA World 2002". In Australia she did a press conference with Dyan Lewis and held a show entitled "Pepsi Live"
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