Analysis: in her sound, vision and motivation, Britney Spears proved time and again to be a decision maker with strong instincts
By Michael Murphy, IADT
Sound
In 1998 Britney Spears' debut single, '…Baby One More Time’ took her to the top of the US singles charts. The sound of the track was clean, vibrant, dynamic and direct. It was perfectly crafted pop. The song was written and co-produced by Max Martin, and it was the beginning of the Swede’s influential role in shaping chart-topping pop songs. He’s been particularly successful with female singers. Following Britney’s US Number 1, he’s returned to the chart peak with Katy Perry, Pink!, Taylor Swift (with four different songs) and, most recently, The Weeknd with Ariana Grande. If you want a female singer to get to Number 1, he’s the first person you call. As a producer, only the 'fifth Beatle' George Martin has enjoyed more US Number 1 singles. As a writer, only John Lennon and Paul McCartney have enjoyed more US Number 1 songs. His success as a producer/writer is unprecedented.
Britney provided him with his first Number 1. And, crucially, she was fully involved in one of the most important aspects of the song’s production. Spears wrote in her autobiography The Woman in Me how she had fallen in love with the sound of Soft Cell, the Leeds post-punk electronic duo who enjoyed success with ‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’. To emulate their sensibility, she wrote,
"I stayed up late so that I’d go into the studio tired, my voice friend. It worked. When I sang, it came out gravelly in a way that sounded more mature and sexier."
Spears' vocal tone on the song stands out from her singing elsewhere. Her instinct was right. And Martin was right to listen to her inspired decision.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor, what can you expect from Britney Spears' tell-all memoir The Woman in Me?
Vision
Naturally, there was a visual aspect to the launch of Spears. And here, again, she proved to be a decision-maker with strong instincts. The ‘…Baby One More Time’ video was directed by Nigel Dick. By 1998 he had an impressive record of successful videos: he had directed Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Paradise City’ and ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis as well as videos for Celine Dion, The Cult, The House of Love, The Corrs, and Social Distortion. But his career as a video maker had begun in the mid-1980s and two of his first projects were for the Boomtown Rats, ‘Drag Me Down’ and ‘Dave’ in 1985. This led to him making the Band Aid video for 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'
His music industry career had begun at Stiff Records, co-founded by the Dubliner, Dave Robinson. He had even released a single, with his band The Stiff All-Stars, on Chiswick records, the label owned by Ted Carroll from Dun Laoghaire and Belfast’s Roger Armstrong. There was a lot at stake with the debut Britney Spears’ video and the label had a concept for it. According to the singer: "I would play a futuristic astronaut. The mock-up I saw had me looking like a Power Ranger." She elaborated:
"That image didn’t resonate with me, and I had a feeling my audience wouldn’t relate to it, either. I told the executives at the label that I thought people would want to see my friends and me sitting at school, bored, and then as soon as the bell rang, boom – we’d start dancing."
But to get her vision onto film, Spears need the video director to buy into it. She recalled that Nigel Dick "was open to my ideas." The result was a striking video that captivated the record market.
Motivation
It took a serious amount of composure for a teenage singer to represent herself so effectively to experienced producers and video directors. But while she was young, she was already an experienced entertainment industry veteran. She had joined the Disney performance group, The Mickey Mouse Club, at the age of eleven. Fellow members of which included not only Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, but also Keri Russell and Ryan Gosling. Even before this, she had been an understudy for Ruthless!, an off-Broadway production. The other understudy was Natalie Portman. The dedication required by pre-teen performers was immense.
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Spears recalled her Disney experience as "…boot camp for the entertainment industry: extensive dance rehearsals, singing lessons, acting classes, time in the recording studio, and school." It was: "exceptionally hard work: we would run choreography thirty times a day, trying to get every step perfect." She rightly acknowledged that her "work ethic was strong" and she applied herself diligently when it came time to make her debut album. Spears attended every part of the recording process that she could.
Touring and Performing
The preparation for Spears’ debut album included a tour of almost thirty shopping malls across the US. For anyone who hasn’t witnessed these types of events, it may be hard to imagine the effort it takes. But, again, the young singer’s application was exemplary. In her biography she recalled:
"For me, performing wasn’t about posing and smiling. Onstage, I was like a basketball player driving down the court. I had ball sense, street sense. I was fearless. I knew when to take my shots."
Soon Spears graduated to large venues, but there was a catch. She was opening for NSYNC at a time when the boy band’s legion of young fans wanted to see the boys, and only the boys. In an early Billboard magazine interview, Spears’ perspective indicated both a mature insight and a sense of humour: "It hasn’t always been easy opening for these guys, since there are all girls in the audience. But ultimately, I am able to win them over. I have guy dancers, too – and believe me, that helps."
If the Britney Spears story had ended after her debut album she would be remembered as a female artist who was involved in almost every aspect of her career. But the readers of tabloid newspapers will know that’s not how the story ends. The singer’s popularity drew feverish scrutiny. She witnessed the double standard by which women are judged in pop music. By comparison with Justin Timberlake, she recalled: "I couldn’t help but notice that the questions he got asked by talk show hosts were different from the ones they asked me." One line seems to sum up her experience with the media and it’s a lesson in itself for aspiring stars: "There is so much freedom in being anonymous."
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
