The Arrival of Britney Spears…and the Revival of Bubblegum Pop
“At the beginning of the ‘90s, teen currency shifted from bubblegum ’n’ Tiger Beat to grunge ’n’ Maximum Rock & Roll. Although it may have been pushed from the spotlight, teen pop hadn’t died – it, in a way, went underground, spending time on the fringes of pop culture.” AM
“One of the leading lights of the exiled teen brigade was The New Mickey Mouse Club. For several years, it toiled away on the Disney Network, earning a small fan base – but, more importantly, providing a launchpad for several careers, including that of Britney Spears. Like her fellow NMMC alumni ‘N Sync, Spears shot to stardom in the late ’90.” AM “With Britney Spears bubblegum was back with a vengeance.” AB
The Look
Robert Christgau said Spears tries to portray a “Madonna next door;” WK that is, “part female teenage role model, part coquettish tease” AB – “ther perfect mix of seduction and innocence.” RD “We all know it. The pigtails. The mini skirt. The complete schoolgirl fantasy. However, when a 16-year-old future pop phenomenon grabbed that narrative and made it her own, the mainstream musical landscape was altered forever.” PM
The Sound
“Albums like her debut, ...Baby One More Time, were topping the charts as if they were Hangin’ Tough, which is only appropriate since it sounded as if it could have been cut in 1989, not 1999.” AM AllMusic.com’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine says it “has the same blend of infectious, rap-inflected dance-pop and smooth balladry that propelled the New Kids and Debbie Gibson” AM to success.
Entertainment Weekly’s Beth Johnson said Spears “sounds remarkably like the Backstreet Boys’ kid sister” WK which isn’t surprising since their producer, Max Martin, “is also the mastermind behind Spears’ debut. He has a knack for catchy hooks, endearing melodies, and engaging Euro-dance rhythms.” AM
The Critics
Some critics considered the album “silly and premature.” WK Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun said that the album “threatens to turn your brain into mush” WK while The Hamilton Spectator’s Craig McDennis said the album “offers a glib compendium of soul/pop clichés.” WK In the end, though, “the singles, combined with Britney’s burgeoning charisma, make this a pretty great piece of fluff.” AM Regardless of what critics thought, the album launched Spears’ career and made her an international pop culture icon.
The Songs
Here are insights into individual songs.
“Baby One More Time”
Max Martin’s sound is “best heard on the hits.” AM “With her distinctive mellowed-out sexy vocals and unstoppable presence, the album’s lead single,” PM “the rump-shaping” RD …Baby One More Time, blasted her to international success.” PM Spears’ ‘80s predecessors like Tiffany and Gibson “never recorded anything as sexy as Britney Spears’ white-funk smoker ‘...Baby One More Time.’” AZ “Even haters have to admit [it] stands as one of the era’s best dance songs.” RD
Spears “cultivated a coy…sexuality by way of her ambiguously suggestive lyrics and the skimpy school uniform she wore in her debut video.” TB She “quickly became a Lolita for a brand new generation of dirty old men.” RD
“Born to Make You Happy”
“It’s impossible to compare the caliber of the other tracks to such a mega-hit” PM although this was no one-hit wonder album as it generated four top-40 hits in the United States and the #1 UK hit Born to Make You Happy. That song offers lyrics about “a relationship that a woman desires to correct.” WK
“You Drive Me Crazy”
In the United States, Spears landed a second top-ten hit with the “the bubblegum pop fantasy” PM of the “exuberant You Drive Me Crazy.” RD With a “moderately slow dance beat,” WK it traveled similar territory as “Baby One More” and “proved that Spears’s vocal ability was one to be reckoned with.” PM
“Sometimes” and “From the Bottom of My Broken Heart”
In the United States, the second single was “the dial-up pop” PM “heartbroken ballad” WK Sometimes. From the Bottom of My Broken Heart is another “sentimental teen pop ballad.” WK Both were top-40 hits in the United States. Neither song can match the vocal acrobatics or emotional outpouring of ‘90s divas like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, it did what it set out to do – remind listeners that young love can be the most passionate of all.
Other Songs
However, nothing “remotely approaches” AZ the appeal of “One More Time.” “Like many teen pop albums, ...Baby One More Time has its share of well-crafted filler” AM which may be “pleasantly catchy, but too much of its space is given over to icky ballads (E-Mail My Heart?) and other unconvincing moves such as the dancehall-lite Soda Pop.” AZ Of course, there’s always disagreement over how good music is. Erlewine calls the same song an “utterly delightful, bubblegum-ragga album track.” AM
“Clsoing the album with a cover of Sonny Bono’s The Beat Goes On, one of the all-time hipster favorites, is a stroke of genius.” RD
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