Look, I understand each one of these dudes were phenomenally successful at some point during the past decade, but does anyone actually care anymore? Eminem sounded dreadfully bored on his last record and has since spent his downtime making sizable deposits in the ol' booty bank thanks allegedly to stress-related binge eating. Dr. Dre's Detox usurped Chinese Democracy's crown as the go-to perennially delayed, possibly fictional album by an aging superstar. 50 Cent is a smart dude, but his audience turned on him after he underestimated their intelligence one too many times, and now can't even keep his MTV reality show on the air, which makes him less of a cultural powerhouse than Tila Tequila. Are we really supposed to consider a joint single by this three-headed hydra of past-their-peak rappers some sort of event? Apparently!
If you're among the several who are legitimately excited about the prospect of these three getting together on a track, you might want to dial your expectations a bit, since "Crack a Bottle" sounds less than legendary and more like a slightly better-than-average Gym Class Heroes song. The sing-songy Em hook seems like it was one of 50's bad ideas, a theory which is lent creedence by 50's also sing-songy verse. Eminem doesn't sound particularly rejuvenated, but he also doesn't try to pass anything as bad as "Just Lose It" here, so I'll call this a win, even though I'm kind of grossed out by the way he says "Tahoe."
50 sounds weirdly tearful on his verse, like he just realized his formula-- not the Vitamin Water formula, but the songwriting formula--doesn't work anymore.
Of the three, Dr. Dre acquits himself the best, which is awesome for him, seeing as how he's about to turn 44 years old and, ghost writers or not, relatively elderly rappers rarely sound better than embarrassing. Good for him.
"Crack a Bottle" would be decent as a midtempo album cut, but as an event single, it's dudsville, dudes. Recommended If You Like: 213, seeing the Sugar Hill Gang at your county fair, day-old sushi Rating: 12/50 Bottles of Formula 50
The Decemberists - "The Rake's Song"
Holy cow, the drums sound terrible on this song. Also, this song is not about gardening at all. I call shenanigans! Recommended If You Like: Death Cab for Cutie, a wussier version of late model Spoon, when word nerds make grammatical mistakes (you don't "remember it clear," you "remember it clearly," Colin) Rating: 69/100 Antique Dictionaries
We'll cut Neil Young some slack for making lazy blues that sounds like a shambling take on ZZ Top because, well, because he's Neil Young. I will say it's phenomenally weird, though, to hear him sing the phrase "keep on blogging" on this end-of-session cast-off recording. About halfway through, Neil simultaneously sells/reviews the song by singing, "Download this/ Sounds like sh*t." Brief and accurate. Recommended If You Like: Paul Westerberg and other self-aware aging rockers who have discovered the power of internet immediacy Rating: 14/24 lazy social critiques
The difference between this and the above Eminem/Dr. Dre/50 Cent song is that "I'm on a Boat" actually sounds like something that might get played on the radio in 2009. Recommended If You Like: Young Jeezy, Plies,doing flips on a dolphin Rating: 57/70 bottles of Santana Champagne
This version of "If I Were a Boy" isn't Beyonce's first Spanish translation of one of her hits. What's interesting is that, even though she doesn't speak Spanish, her pronunciation is pretty good. A dude named Rudy Perez has been responsible for rewriting her songs in Spanish and teaching her how to sing them phonetically, which is kind of fascinating to me. If I were him, I'd be tempted to make her say wildly inappropriate things, but this (along with a staggering lack of talent) is why I'm not afforded these opportunities. Recommended If You Like: Beyonce, except, you know, in Spanish Rating: 44/68 Telenovelas
Tired vague gangsta-isms over what's actually a pretty nice soul beat that references Marvin and Tammi's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." He makes a point to call out ringtone rappers, but this is barely more challenging than anything Flo-Rida does, which is disappointing because Jadakiss is actually capable of more. Recommended If You Like: Beanie Sigel, Fabolous, Rocafella ca. 2001 Rating: 17/30 Gun-Related Punchlines
This is easily my favorite new single of the week. Judging by Daniel Merriweather's relationship with Mark Ronson (he's appeared on two of Ronson's "solo" albums), I'm guessing the horns on "Change" are played by members of the magnificent Dap-Kings. Throw in a couple of tight verses from promising MC Wale, and Merriweather has surrounded himself with enough talent to make this little nugget of propulsive soul a total jam even if he didn't really bring anything to the party himself. Thankfully, he does. Recommended If You Like: Jamie Lidell, Robin Thicke, things that are awesome Rating: 78/89 Workout Playlists Made Up of Only This Song
For those of you ready to start your weekend with some new music, here are a few new discs in rotation that you might enjoy. Disagree? Got any better suggestions? Let us know by nominating other new releases in high rotation on your stereo or MP3 player to help us find and share new music with our readers in future editions of the Five Friday Favorites post.
Just nominate them in by searching for your favorites in the "Add more products to the tag fridayfavorites" field at the bottom of this page and click the "Add Tag" button for us to find them.
16 year old Australian Gabriella Cilmiand her retro chanteuse musings run circles around comparable young divas today including Amy Winehouse, Duffy, and Adele. Watch for this young Aussie to go big.
Marc Olson and Gary Louris, two former front members of The Jayhawks, offer up a good soundtrack to accompany a happy hour sojourn in a dusty remote tavern with a poetic blend that's a little bit Alt and a little bit Country.
So you're looking for something a little bit heavier yet melodic? Something with a little more Foo Fighters, you say? Then sit back, relax, and take a flight with People In Planes. Cruising altitude is just above the stratosphere.
With Plunt, Montreal Alt-Indie Femme Rock collides with 80's Euro Pop and a hint of Twang to keep things rooted. Fans of Sleater Kinney, come one and all.
Glasvegas radiate melodic Brit Pop with a dense and drone-filled sixties wall of sound à la Phil Spector. If you're looking for a little retro bombast to go with your shoegazing introspection, check this one out.
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an Americancountry-popsinger-songwriter. In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", which peaked at number six on the Billboard country charts. Later in October 2006, she released her self-titled debut album, which produced five hit singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and was certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA. The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country’s foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".
According to Nielsen SoundScan, Swift was the biggest selling artist of 2008 in America with combined sales of more than four million albums. Swift's Fearless and her self-titled album finished 2008 at number three and number six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million. She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart.Fearless has topped the Billboard 200 in 11 different weeks.No album has spent more time at number one since 1999-2000. It also the first album by a female artist in country music history to log eight weeks at #1 on The Billboard 200. In mid-January 2009, Swift became the first country artist to top the 2 million mark in paid downloads with three different songs.As of the week ending February 8, 2009, Swift's single "Love Story" became the country song with most paid downloads in history and the first country song to top the Mainstream Top 40 chart.
Early life
Swift was born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Scott and Andrea Swift. She has one younger brother, Austin.[10] Swift grew up on a Christmas tree farm outside of Reading, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a stock broker father and stay-at-home mother. When she was in fourth grade, Swift won a national poetry contest with a three-page long poem entitled "Monster In My Closet". At the age of ten, Swift began to perform around her home town, singing at karaoke contests, festivals, and fairs, and also started writing songs. During one summer, Swift devoted herself to writing a 350-page (unpublished) novel.
Career
Early work
Swift's singing influences include her grandmother and LeAnn Rimes. Although her grandmother was a professional opera singer, Taylor's tastes always ran more toward country and she developed a love for Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton at an early age. She also credits the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain for demonstrating how much impact can be made by "stretching boundaries".
At age eleven, Swift made her first trip to Nashville hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label on Music Row.[14] Swift faced rejection, not just from record labels, but also from her peers. After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament; her rendition of the national anthem received a lot of attention.
Swift started writing songs and playing 12-string guitar when she was twelve. Swift began to regularly visit Nashville and wrote songs with local songwriters. By the time she was fourteen, her family decided to move to an outlying Nashville suburb. When Swift was fifteen, she rejected a development deal with RCA Records because the company refused to allow her to record her own songs. Swift then performed at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, catching the attention of Scott Borchetta who signed her to his newly-formed record label, Big Machine Records. She also became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.
Swift's first single, "Tim McGraw", was released to radio in Summer of 2006 and on October 24, 2006, her self-titled album was released. Swift wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, which debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200 and sold just 39,000 copies during its first week. It later peaked at number one at Billboard Top Country Albums and number five at Billboard 200. It also spent eight consecutive weeks at the top of the Top Country Albums charts and remained at the top for 24 out of 91 weeks. The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. As of November 2008, Taylor Swift has sold over three million copies and 7.5 million single downloads.
Swift has surpassed the 179 million mark for music streams on MySpace. She is currently ranked in the Top 10 for the most MySpace visits for all genres of music, and is MySpace's current top-ranking Country artist.[dead link] Swift is the most searched musical artist on MySpace in 2008.
Regarding "Tim McGraw", Swift said, "I wrote the song in my freshman year of high school. I was dating a guy who was about to go off to college. I knew we were going to break up so I started thinking of all the things that I knew would remind him of me. Surprisingly, the first thing that came to mind was that my favorite country artist is Tim McGraw." "Tim McGraw" peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts for the week of January 27, 2007. The song's music video set a record by appearing for 30 consecutive weeks on GAC's fan-voted weekly Top 20 music countdown show, and reached number one on CMT's video charts. The video also won Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards. Her pursuit of country music stardom was the subject of "GAC Short Cuts", a part-documentary, part-music-video series airing since the summer of 2006 on the country music channel.
The second single from the Taylor Swift album, "Teardrops on My Guitar", was released February 24, 2007. The song originally made its peak positions in Summer 2007, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Country Chart and #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released to the Hot 100 and Pop 100 in late 2007 with a pop remix that brought "Teardrops on My Guitar" to #13 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Pop 100.
In October 2007, Swift's songwriting peers at the Nashville Songwriters Association International honored her with their Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award, making her the youngest artist ever to win the award.
On November 7, 2007, Swift won the 2007 CMA Horizon Award and also performed "Our Song," the third single from her album, which would go on to become her first #1 song the week of December 22, 2007, where it leaped up from the #6 spot. This was the biggest jump to Number One since January 1998, when Tim McGraw's "Just to See You Smile", also jumped from #6 to #1. "Our Song" spent six weeks at #1 on the Country charts and also peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Billboard Pop 100.
Swift also recorded a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, that was released October 16, 2007, exclusively available at Target stores. The album, which was not as successful as her self-titled debut, featured both holiday classics such as "Last Christmas" and original songs written by Swift.
Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category of Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse. Swift's successful single, "Picture to Burn" was the fourth single from her debut album. The song debuted early in 2008 and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country Chart in the spring of 2008.
Big Machine Records announced the release of "Should've Said No" on Monday, May 19. The song is the fifth and final single from Swift's debut album. She performed it on 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. The performance started off with her dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, but soon after a short black halter dress was revealed. In the last minute of the song, she went backstage to perform the final verse under a cascading waterfall. Swift had wanted to do that performance on stage with the water and the change of clothes since she was ten years old. "Should've Said No" became her second Number One single for the chart dated August 23, 2008.
In Summer 2008, Swift released Beautiful Eyes, an EP sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. In its first week of release, the album sold 45,000 copies, debuting at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and #9 on the Billboard 200. With her self-titled debut album at #2 the same week, Swift became the first artist to hold the Top 2 positions of the Top Country Albums chart since LeAnn Rimes did so in 1997.
Swift's latest studio album, Fearless, was released in the United States on November 11, 2008. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Its sales of 592,304 was the highest debut of any country artists in 2008. This is also the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music, and the fourth biggest overall behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC and Coldplay. Its lead single "Love Story" became a hit on both the country and pop charts.
During the first week of release, more than 129,000 of Swift's sales were sold digitally. This gives Swift the best online start for any country album in history. It also makes Swift the fourth biggest week for a digital album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking them in 2004. Through its eighth week of release, Fearless has sold more than 244,000 paid downloads, making it the bestselling country album in digital history. In second place, it is Swift's debut Taylor Swift with sales of 212,000 downloads as of January 17, 2009.
In its debut week, seven songs in total on Fearless were charted on Billboard Hot 100, tying Swift with Hannah Montana for the most by a female artist in a single week. With "White Horse" charted at #13, this gave Swift her sixth top 20 debut of 2008, a calendar year record for any artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. Of the 13 tracks on Fearless, 11 have already spent time on the Hot 100.
"Change", a song from the album, was selected as part of a soundtrack supporting Team USA's efforts in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The song was also featured as part of the soundtrack of NBC's broadcast package of the Olympics. She also released the lead single from the album, "Love Story", on September 12, 2008. The song is accompanied by a music video that is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached number 2 on iTunes Store Top Downloaded Songs and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of list, as well as number one on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart. The second single from Fearless, "White Horse", was released on December 8, 2008. The music video for the song premiered on CMT on February 7, 2009.
Swift is Billboard's Top Country Artist and Hot Country Songwriter of 2008; she is also country music's best-selling artist of 2008.
Swift ranked seventh on Nielsen SoundScan Canada's top-10 selling artists across all genres in 2008. Fearless and Taylor Swift took the #1 and #2 slots on 2008 Year-End Canadian Country Albums Chart.
On January 10, 2009, Swift made her first musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, making her the youngest country singer to appear as a musical guest on the show in its 33-year run. Swift's show achieved SNL’s highest adult 18-49 rating and overall viewer total since the November election (in 2008). It was tied for the #7 rating of that week among all broadcast and cable entertainment programs on all networks and outscored all its telecasts of last season in 18-49 and total viewers.
In January 2009, Swift announced her first headlining tour. Swift will take her North American Fearless Tour 2009 to 52 cities in 38 states and provinces in the US and Canada over the span of 6 months. Opening acts include Kellie Pickler and Gloriana, a new group in country music. The tour will feature a theatrical presentation of graphics, sets and visual elements designed by Swift. Swift will play guitar as well as piano. Multiple costume changes and a fairy-tale castle are some of the elements of the three-act show.
The tour kicks off April 23 in Evansville, Indiana. On February 6, 2009, tickets went on sale for the May 22nd date at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and sold out in two minutes. Tickets for several dates went on sale in the following week and sold out quickly.
Acting career
In 2008, Swift made her acting debut in Brad Paisley's music video "Online". In that same year Swift filmed a documentary for MTV entitled MTV's Once Upon a Prom and a documentary for CMT entitled CMT Crossroads.
Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on March 5, 2009 in the USA. The episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers.
Swift will also be appearing in Hannah Montana: The Movie as "Woman singing in the bar." The film will be released on April 10, 2009 in the United States.
Endorsement
As of January 30, 2009, Swift and the L.e.i. Clothing Line made a deal to create a line based on Swift's style of dressing. It will appear in Wal-Mart in the coming months. But Swift said she doesn't want to be called a designer. Instead, she says she'll inspire the clothing company's dress line based on her own style. "I don't look at it like I'm branching out as a designer... It's not the Taylor Swift designer line."
Swift's best friend has been Abigail Anderson, whom she has known since their ninth-grade year. During a discussion of Shakespeare in an English class they learned what they had in common. "We were the ones in the back of the class saying negative things about Romeo and Juliet because we were so bitter toward that emotion at the time," said Anderson. "We just really connected ... and ever since then we have been inseparable." Swift is also close friends with Kellie Pickler, with whom she co-wrote Pickler's second single "Best Days of Your Life" from her album Kellie Pickler.
In July 2008, Swift graduated from the Aaron Academy, a Christian school in Hendersonville, Tennessee which offers a home-schooling program.
On September 21, 2007, Swift launched a campaign to protect children from online predators. She has teamed up with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to combat internet sex crimes. The year-long campaign, launched in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, will distribute Internet safety information and materials to parents and students across the state.
Swift is an endorser of Body By Milk, a campaign calling teenagers to drink low fat milk to maintain a healthy weight.
Swift has teamed up with Sound Matters to make listeners aware of listening "responsibly".
, a teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund. Swift's song, "Fifteen", is featured in this campaign.
Raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears first appeared on national television in 1992 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The New Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. In 1997, Spears signed a recording contract with Jive, releasing her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999. The album established her as a pop icon and "bona fide pop phenomenon", credited for influencing the revival of teen pop in the late 1990s.[1] Spears released her sixth studio album Circus on her 27th birthday in December 2008.
Britney Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana as a Southern Baptist. Her parents are Lynne Irene (née Bridges), a former elementary school teacher, and Jamie Parnell Spears, a former building contractor and chef. Spears has two siblings, Bryan and Jamie Lynn. Bryan Spears is married to Jamie-Lynn's manager, Graciella Rivera.
Spears was an accomplished gymnast, attending gymnastics classes until age nine and competing in state-level competitions. She performed in local dance revues and sang in her local BaptistProfessional Performing Arts School when she was eight. Spears's parents would often argue, and they eventually divorced in 2002.[citation needed] church choir. Spears entered New York City's
At age eight, Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel series The New Mickey Mouse Club. Although she was considered too young to join the series at the time, a producer on the show introduced her to a New York City agent. Spears subsequently spent three summers at NYC's Professional Performing Arts School and also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions. She was an understudy in the 1991 off-Broadway musical Ruthless!.[7] In 1992, she landed a spot on the popular television show Star Search. She won the first round of competition, but ultimately lost. At age eleven, Spears returned to the Disney Channel for a spot on the The New Mickey Mouse Club in Lakeland, Florida.[7] She was featured on the show from 1993 to 1994, until she was 13. After the show ended, Spears returned to Kentwood and attended high school for a year.
In 1997, Spears briefly joined the all-female pop group Innosense. Later that same year, she recorded a solo demo and was signed by Jive Records. She began a U.S. concert tour sponsored by American teen magazines, and eventually became an opening act for 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys.
1998–2000: ...Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again
Spears released in October 1998 her debut single, "...Baby One More Time", which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1999 and topped the chart for two weeks. Gillian G. Gaar, author of She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll (2002), documented that "eyebrows were raised over the schoolgirl-in-heat persona Spears projected in her [music video for ...Baby One More Time], along with an increasingly revealing series of stage outfits". Spears's debut album ...Baby One More Time peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 in January 1999. Rolling Stone magazine, in a review of the album, wrote: "While several Cherion-crafted kiddie-funk jams serve up beefy hooks, shameless schlock slowies, like [']E-Mail My Heart,['] are pure spam". NME commented "[Spears's debut album and its title-track] are the kind of soullessness that saturates Stateside charts and consists of nothing but over-chewed bubblegum beats and saccharine sensibilities". In contrast, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote: "Like many teen pop albums, ...Baby One More Time has its share of well-crafted filler, but the singles, combined with Britney's burgeoning charisma, make this a pretty great piece of fluff". ...Baby One More Time was later certified fourteen times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting fourteen million units shipped within the United States.
Spears posed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in April 1999, shot by photographer David LaChapelle. Geoff Boucher of The Los Angeles Times reported, "there was no mistaking the titillation factor in the recent Spears cover story and accompanying photos in the April 15 issue of Rolling Stone, which sent eyebrows arching throughout the music industry, where several executives half-jokingly called it "child pornography". Gillian G. Gaar reported, "The American Family Association charged that the pictures, which showed Spears in push-up bras and a minuscule pair of shorts with 'Baby' in rhinestones on the bottom, presented a 'disturbing mix of childhood innocence and adult sexuality' and asked that all 'God-loving Americans' boycott stores carrying her albums". More controversy arose when Spears declared that she would "remain a virgin until marriage". This pledge has been questioned due to her apparently sexual relationship with fellow pop singer Justin Timberlake.
Following the success of her previous album, Spears released the album Oops!... I Did It Again in May 2000. It debuted at number one in the U.S. by selling 1,319,193 units during its first week of sales, breaking the SoundScan record for the highest album sales in its debut week by any solo artist. The RIAA awarded the album with a diamond certification with over 10 million copies sold in the U.S. Allmusic gave it awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying that the album "has the same combination of sweetly sentimental ballads and endearingly gaudy dance-pop that made "...Baby One More Time." Rolling Stone gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5 by noting the album as "fantastic pop cheese" and "Britney's demand for satisfaction is complex, fierce and downright scary." The album's lead single "Oops!... I Did It Again" broke the record for most radio station additions in a single day, and quickly became a top ten hit in the U.S. and other countries. The same year, Spears launched her first world tour, the "Oops!... I Did It Again World Tour". During the tour, she made a stop in New York for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. As part of her performance, she ripped off a black suit to reveal a provocative nude-colored and crystal-adorned outfit that generated much controversy.Billboard Music Awards for Oops!... I Did It Again. Spears earned two
Britney Spears featured on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine
Spears released her third studio album Britney in November 2001. In the album, she assumed some creative control by co-writing five tracks. Although not as successful as her previous albums, Britney debuted at number one in the U.S. by selling 745,744 units during its first week. The album's success made her the only female artist in music history to have her first three albums debut at number one. The album fared well with critics such as Allmusic who gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars, describing the album's title tracks as being "pivotal moments on Britney Spears's third album, 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." Britney's lead single "I'm a Slave 4 U" peaked at 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 making it the album's biggest hit. To help promote the album, Spears embarked on the Dream Within a Dream Tour in November 2001. The tour was forced to cut short in Mexico City due to bad weather. With the end to her tour, Spears announced she would take a six month break from her career.
In early 2002, Spears's four-year relationship with Timberlake ended. His 2002 song "Cry Me a River" and its music video, which featured an actress resembling Spears, caused speculation that Spears had been unfaithful; Timberlake, however, denied that his song was meant to portray her. June 2002 saw the opening of Spears's restaurant, Nyla, in New York City, which served Louisianan and Italian cuisine. However, she was pulled out of the business venture in November as a result of debts and management issues. Nyla officially closed in 2003. In the same year, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst confirmed that he was in a relationship with Spears. Durst was also hired to help write and produce tracks for her album In the Zone, which were eventually scrapped.
Spears had her first starring role in the 2002 film Crossroads, in which she portrayed a high school graduate who travels to find her long-lost mother. The movie was poorly received, as was her performance; Spears received Razzie Awards for Worst Actress and for Worst Original Song. Nonetheless, the film grossed over $60 million worldwide. Spears also made cameo appearances in Austin Powers in Goldmember and Longshot. Footage of Spears appeared in the 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which samples a 2003 CNN interview about the Iraq War in which Spears stated that she thought "we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that".
Spears made her third consecutive MTV Video Music Awards performance. While performing "I'm a Slave 4 U", she use caged animals as props and danced with a large albino python draped over her shoulders. Animal-rights organization PETA claimed that the animals featured in the performance were mistreated and cancelled plans for an anti-fur billboard that was to feature Spears. Her career success was highlighted by Forbes magazine in 2002 as Spears was ranked the world's most powerful celebrity. At a performance at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, she appeared with Christina Aguilera performing the song "Like a Virgin", and was later joined by American pop singer Madonna, with whom Spears locked lips; the incident was highly publicized.
Spears released her fourth studio album In the Zone in November 2003, jettisoning the Max Martin-produced synthpop of her earlier releases. The album took in lesser-known producers such as RedZone and big names including Moby and R. Kelly. Spears co-wrote eight of the album's thirteen songs and co-produced several pieces of her material for the first time. In the Zone reached number one in the U.S. charts during its debut week, selling over 609,000 copies. This made Spears the first female in the Nielsen SoundScanera to have her first four studio albums to debut at number one. The album had a mixed reception from critics. Stylus Magazine gave the album a D and blamed Spears's career choices by stating, "Ultimately, In the Zone suffers greatly from Britney's uneasy transition from teen tart to sexually powerful woman. Had Britney been in charge of her career direction instead of mercilessly prostituted by her management, she might have been able to produce something with some semblance of musical vision." The Guardian praised the album's melodies and her effort, giving it 4 out of 5 stars: "Unlike previous Britney albums, In the Zone has no filler and no shoddy cover versions, just 57 varieties of blue-chip hit-factory pop. There is southern hip-hop, deep house, Neptunes-style R&B, the ubiquitous Diwali beat and, most importantly, oodles of Madonna."Toxic", winning Spears her first ever Grammy in the category of Best Dance Recording. The album spawned the hit single "
The kiss between Spears and Madonna caused media uproar.
2004–2005: Marriages, first child and compilation albums
Spears married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander on January 3, 2004, at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The marriage lasted 55 hours, ending with an annulment stating that Spears "lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to marriage because before entering into the marriage the Plaintiff and Defendant did not know each others' likes and dislikes, each others' desires to have or not have children, and each other's desires as to State of residency".
Months after her Las Vegas marriage, Spears embarked on The Onyx Hotel Tour, which was canceled in June after Spears injured her knee during the filming of the video for the single "Outrageous". The tour's choreography generated much controversy and criticism, which was cited inappropriate with the presence of young children in the audience. In September 2004, Spears became involved in the Kabbalah Centre through her friendship with Madonna.Kabbalah, my baby is my religion." However, she publicly left the religion in 2006, stating on her website, "I no longer study
In July 2004, Spears announced her engagement to Kevin Federline, three months after they met. Federline had recently been in a relationship with actress Shar Jackson, who was eight months pregnant with their second child. These initial stages were chronicled in Spears's first reality show Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, which aired on UPN in May and June 2005. On the night of September 18, Spears married Federline in a surprise, non-denominational ceremony at a residence in Studio City, California, filing legal papers on October 6. After the marriage, Spears announced via her website that she would be taking another career break to start a family. She gave birth to her first child, Sean Preston Federline, nearly one year later, on September 14, 2005 in Santa Monica, California by a scheduled caesarean section.
November 2004 saw the release of her first greatest hits collection, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, which features all of Spears's singles with the exception of "From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart". It also featured three previously unreleased songs, them being a cover version of American R&B singer Bobby Brown's 1988 hit "My Prerogative", "Do Somethin'", produced by Bloodshy and Avant, whom she had worked with on In The Zone, and "I've Just Begun (Having My Fun)", which was a song recorded for Spears's fourth album, In The Zone, but did not make the final cut. By the end of that year, Spears had become one of the best-selling artists in the world.
2006–2007: Personal struggles, second child, divorce, and Blackout
In 2006, Spears guest-starred on the Will & Grace episode "Buy, Buy Baby" as a closetedlesbian. Spears announced her second pregnancy in May 2006 during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.[78] She also appeared on Dateline the next month to discuss tabloid rumors about an impending divorce, and motherhood. She addressed an incident which occurred in February when photos revealed her driving with her son unrestrained in her lap, The month following the televised interview, Spears posed nude for the August 2006 cover of Harper's Bazaar. Just two days before Sean's first birthday, Spears gave birth to her second son, Jayden James Federline on September 12 in Los Angeles. explaining, "I see a bunch of photographers and I’m scared and I want to get out of the situation... They’re coming up on the sides of the car which is a scary situation for me… so I get my baby out of the car and I go home."
Spears's aunt Sandra Bridges Covington, with whom she had been very close, died of ovarian cancer on January 21, 2007. Spears then stayed in an off-shore drug rehabilitation facility in Antigua for less than 24 hours on February 16. The following night at a hair salon in Tarzana, California she shaved her head with electric clippers. A few days later, she admitted herself to another treatment facility in Malibu, California. While leaving the facility briefly, she quickly returned on February 22. The previous day, Kevin Federline had requested an emergency hearing regarding the custody of their children but then his attorney announced that Federline asked to cancel the court appearance. No further explanation was given. Spears filed for divorce from Federline on November 7, 2006, citing irreconcilable differences and asking for both physical and legal custody of their two children, with visitation rights for Federline. The following day, Federline filed a response to Spears's divorce petition, seeking physical and legal custody of their children. American attorney Laura Wasser was hired to represent Spears in the case. According to a representative for Federline's lawyer, the divorce filing "caught Kevin totally by surprise". The couple reached a global settlement agreement in March 2007 and their divorce was finalized in July.
Throughout 2007, Spears's behavior received heightened media attention, including attacking a paparazzi vehicle with an umbrella. Spears left the rehabilitation center on March 20 according to her manager, who said she was released after "successfully completing their program." As the legal battle over the custody of their children continued, many members of her entourage have been summoned to testify about her parenting skills. In March 2007, Leonard Pitts, Jr. wrote that in the aftermath of Spears' personal struggles that have become widely publicized, Spears had been reduced to an abstract idea as opposed to being regarded as a real person. "The abstraction is not surprising: Whatever media touch, they objectify... What must it be like to have your marriage and divorce, your relationship with your parents and kids... dissected by millions of strangers who think they know you?" Pitts further commented that fame and fortune do not qualify the media scrutiny Spears has faced, but observed that fact has been overlooked by "our rush to a day of 'reality' television" and "tabloid journalism". Though "[t]here is no reverence, no privacy, [and] nothing held back as sacred", Pitts argues "Britney Jean Spears is not an idea."
In May 2007, she produced a mini-tour for the House of Blues just after she left a rehabilitation facility under the name The M+M's; with six shows altogether, she sang live during some lines of her songs. She recorded her next album with producers such as Sean Garrett, J. R. RotemNate "Danja" Hills throughout 2006 and 2007.
In September 2007, the official findings in Spears's custody battle were announced by the court. She was ordered to undergo random drug and alcohol testings and to attend parenting counseling. Spears and Federline continued to share joint custody of their two children on a conditional basis. A few days later, she was officially charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run Spears lost physical custody of her children to Federline on October 1, with the court ruling that Federline will keep full custody of the children. The charges for her alleged hit-and-run that occurred in August 2007 were officially laid, she was booked for the charges by the Los Angeles Police Department on October 15 but was not arrested. and driving without a license. If convicted, she could face a year in jail. The release of Spears's fifth album, Blackout, was rescheduled to October 30, 2007 rather than November 13, 2007 due to online leaks. Blackout debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200., making Spears the only female music artist to have her first five albums go to number one and two. It was fairly well received by critics. As of June 2008, there have been 3.1 million digital downloads of the songs and remixes from the album in the United States. Rolling Stone gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars.Allmusic also rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling Blackout "coherent and entertaining" and stating that "it holds together better than any of her other records". Blackout's lead single, "Gimme More" leaked on the internet on August 30. The song, which was Spears's first produced by Danja, peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100 on October 3, making it her most successful single in the U.S. since her debut, "...Baby One More Time". Spears's highly anticipated performance of "Gimme More" at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards was panned. The BBC stated that "her performance would go down in the history books as being one of the worst to grace the MTV Awards", and The Times noted that "Spears was out of synch as she lip-synched and at times just stopped singing altogether". Despite the criticism on her performance, the single has achieved worldwide success. The second single, "Piece of Me", was certified platinum in the U.S.
2008–present: Conservatorship, custody settlement and Circus
On the evening of January 3, 2008, after not sleeping for over four days, Spears refused to relinquish custody of her children to Federline's representatives. In response, police were called to Spears's home. She was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after she "appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance", though blood tests tested negative for any illicit substances. She was held for psychiatric evaluation for two days.conservatorship of her father James Spears and attorney Andrew Wallete, giving them complete control of her assets. As a result of an order placed by her psychiatrist, she was taken to UCLA Medical Center to be put on a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold for the second time that month. On February 1, a restraining order was issued against Sam Lutfi, a prominent figure in Spears's life. She was released from the hospital on February 6, amid speculation that she has bipolar disorder, although medical records are classified, and no confirmation has been made. Her parents expressed disappointment and concern at the decision to release her. She has regained some visitation rights after coming to an agreement with Federline and his counsel. On July 18, 2008, Spears and Federline reached a custody settlement in which Federline retains sole custody while Spears keeps her visitation rights. Pending a February 19 hearing, Commissioner Scott Gordon issued an order on January 14 stating that her visitation rights have been suspended indefinitely. On January 31, a court placed Spears under temporary co-
Vanessa Grigoriadis reported in "The Tragedy of Britney Spears" (2008), her cover story for Rolling Stone, that "more than any other star today, Britney epitomizes the crucible of fame for the famous: loving it, hating it and never quite being able to stop it from destroying you".paparazzi, reporters and celebrity-magazine editors dash after her" and that paparazzi estimated Spears generated "up to twenty percent of their coverage for the past year". She further documented that in addition to tabloid journalists, the Associated Press declared that everything Spears does is considered news. "The paparazzi feed the celebrity magazines, which feed the mainstream press, while sources sell their dirtiest material to British tabloids, and then it trickles back to America," wrote Grigoriadis, "She's the canary in the coal mine of our culture, the most vivid representation of the excess of the past decade." Grigoriadis wrote that "every day in L.A., at least a hundred
In 2008, Spears guest-starred on CBS's television show How I Met Your Mother playing a receptionist.[144] She received positive reviews for her performance as well as bringing in the series' highest ratings ever.[145][146] Spears reprised her role in May 2008, leaving the storyline open for a future return.[147]
Britney Spears at the release of Circus and her 27th birthday
On September 7, 2008, Spears opened the MTV Video Music Awards for the third time. Although having not performed, a skit with Jonah Hill was pre-taped, as well as an introduction speech to the official opening of the show. Spears won Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Video Of The Year for "Piece of Me". On September 15, Jive released a statement announcing the title of her sixth studio album, Circus as well as the first single, "Womanizer". The single was released to radio stations on September 26, and the release date for the album is December 2, Spears' 27th birthday. On October 15, the song made a record-breaking jump to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, breaking the record set by T.I.'s Live Your Life. It also garnered first-week download sales of 286,000, the biggest opening-week tally by a female artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital downloads in 2003. It marked Spears's first number one single on the Hot 100 since her debut, "...Baby One More Time".
On October 21, 2008, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Steele declared a mistrial and dismissed the August 2007 driving without a license misdemeanor charges against Spears, who was represented by attorney J. Michael Flanagan. Spears claimed she had a valid Louisianalicense and a California permit was not required.
On November 6, 2008, Spears won two awards at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008, "Album of The Year" for Blackout and "Act of 2008", and despite not being present, two acceptance videos were taped and shown at the show. Circus debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 selling 505,000 copies in its first week. This became Spears' fifth number one album, making her the only act in Nielsen SoundScan history to have four albums debuted with 500,000 copies or more. It is also Spears' second album, the first being ...Baby One More Time, to have charted two top-ten singles as "Circus", the follow up single to the number-one hit "Womanizer", debuted at number three on the Hot 100, making it her highest debut on the chart as well as her seventh top ten hit.
In January 2009, Spears and her father obtained a restraining order against the singer's former manager/friend Sam Lutfi, one-time beau Adnan Ghalib, and attorney Jon Eardley — all of whom, court documents claim, have been conspiring to gain control of the pop star's affairs. The restraining order forbids Lutfi and Ghalib from contacting Spears or coming within 250 yards of her, her property or family members.
In February 2009, Britney achieved further success in solidifying her comeback by having the second single of off her comeback album, Circus rise to number one on the Top 40 Radio Chart, making it the first time Britney has achieved back-to-back number one hits on the Top 40 ChartWomanizer. This makes Britney's fifth number one song on the chart, putting her in a tie for second place for most number one Top 40 songs in the Mainstream Top 40's sixteen year history. Mariah Carey is in first place with six number one songs. along with her comeback single
Rami Yacoub who co-produced Spears's debut album with lyricist Max Martin, commented, "I know from Denniz Pop and Max's previous productions, when we do songs, there's kind of a nasal thing. With N' Sync and the Backstreet Boys, we had to push for that mid-nasal voice. When Britney did that, she got this kind of raspy, sexy voice." Following the release of her debut album, Chuck Taylor of Billboard observed, "Spears has become a consummate performer, with snappy dance moves, a clearly real-albeit young-and funkdified voice ... "(You Drive Me) Crazy", her third single ... demonstrates Spears's own development, proving that the 17-year-old is finding her own vocal personality after so many months of steadfast practice." Spears later commented, "With ...Baby One More Time, I didn't get to show my voice off. The songs were great, but they weren't very challenging".
Choreography
Joan Anderman of The Boston Globe cited Madonna and Janet Jackson as two of Spears' "biggest influences", commenting that Spears adopted Madonna's "Truth or Dare"-era moves" and Jackson's sexy-robot body language". Judy Mitoma, author of Envisioning dance on film and video (2002) observed "[t]he music videos of the late 1990s and early 2000s enlist[ed] the popular dance vocabularies at the time ... pounding feet into the floor and jabbing at the air with taunt arm movements, punctuating with bent knees and thrusting hips". Britney Spears, among her contemporaries, became a "playfully carnal, provocatively dressed vixen ... led by Madonna (and the first time she grabbed her crotch) [and] fueled by Janet Jackson, transformed from a soft-fleshed, innocent girl to a buffed and buxom woman". In the 2002 book Madonnastyle by Carol Clerk, Spears is quoted saying: "I have been a huge fan of Madonna since I was a little girl. I would really, really like to be a legend like Madonna ... Her choreography definitely opened the door for girls to go in there and do their own thing".
Live performances
Kevin Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that his review of Spear's concert performance of her Oops!... I Did It Again World Tour in July 2000, garnered mix reactions. He stated: "It was the review of Spears's concert that got most readers writing - to disagree and agree. A Spears fan wrote, "I don't like you or your stinking, horrible, abusive report! ... I, however, love Britney." Another fan wrote, "Britney Spears is a legend, a great performer. She is our idol and nothing you say about that concert will change that. It still hurts to think you didn't see how many people she touched that night. ... What I saw was hard work and determination, great dance moves, catchy lyrics, and positive songs". In contrast, Johnson also reported: "One reader said, "I was pleased the article was direct and told the simple truth: Britney can't sing. I attended the concert and had a great time, but unlike 95 percent of the crowd, I realized how ridiculous Britney Spears really is". In August 2000, Joan Anderman wrote in her review of the concert, "Spears sang without the help of prerecorded tracks — that's both the good news and the bad news — avoiding the perils by having her two backup vocalists sing in unison with her much of the time, a wise move for someone whose vocal and emotional range are limited, and whose singing isn't even particularly appealing".
The following year, at the beginning of Spears's Dream Within a Dream Tour, the Los Angeles Daily News reported: "Britney Spears is easy to criticize — those outfits, that coquette/ good-girl contradiction, those recycled pop hooks. But Tuesday night, surrounded by thousands of Britney devotees at the sold-out Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, she was easy to love as well...Because of all that dancing, thrashing and dodging fire on stage, Spears performed most of the show to a recorded track. It was hard to tell when she was really singing or just lip-syncing. But, in the context of a Britney Spears concert, does it really matter? Like a Vegas revue show, you don't go to hear the music, you go for the somewhat-ridiculous spectacle of it all". In December 2001, Sean Piccoli of South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported: "[Spears's] contributions to pop are not generally founded in music. Wednesday's spectacle was pop inspired not by songs, but by cheerleader tryouts and beauty pageants. The point was not whether Spears could sing — her voice is a very small bag of heavy-breathing tricks — or even dance. What mattered was how she presents...By that standard, the show was a success. Spears had the biggest runway a girl could ask for and made good use of it, ensuring that every person from the floor to the nosebleed seats could see her fling her hair, swivel her hips or, in one sequence that was almost eerie, dance with a video projection of herself".
Britney Spears became a pop culture icon immediately after launching her recording career. Rolling Stone magazine wrote: "One of the most controversial and successful female vocalists of the 21st century," she "spearheaded the rise of post-millennial teen pop ... Spears early on cultivated a mixture of innocence and experience that broke the bank". She is listed by the Guinness World Records as having the "Best-selling album by a teenage solo artist" for her debut album ...Baby One More Time which sold over thirteen million copies in the United States.Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, "She's also marked for being the best-selling teenage artist. Before she turned 20 in 2001, Spears sold more than 37 million albums worldwide". Barbara Ellen of The Observer reported: "Spears is famously one of the 'oldest' teenagers pop has ever produced, almost middle aged in terms of focus and determination. Many 19-year-olds haven't even started working by that age, whereas Britney, a former Mouseketeer, was that most unusual and volatile of American phenomena — a child with a full-time career. While other little girls were putting posters on their walls, Britney was wanting to be the poster on the wall. Whereas other children develop at their own pace, Britney was developing at a pace set by the ferociously competitive American entertainment industry".Yahoo!'s most popular search term for the last four consecutive years, seven times in total. Spears was named as Most Searched Person in the Guinness World Records book edition 2007 and 2009. Melissa Ruggieri of the 'Britney Spears' has been
People magazine and MTV reported that on October 1, 2008, Bronx's John Philip Sousa Middle School, named their music studio in honor of Britney Spears. Spears herself was present during the ceremony and donated $10,000 dollars to the school's music program.
In early 2001, Spears signed a multi-million dollar promotional deal with Pepsi that included television commercials, point-of-purchase promotions, and Internet ties between Spears and the company. Britney Spears has earned over US$370 million from her many, multi-million dollar advertisement and endorsement deals all around the World.. She has published four books, including A Mother's Gift, and released seven DVDs, including her self-produced 2005 reality series Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. Other Spears products include a doll and a video game. She participated in seven tours including "The Onyx Hotel Tour" in 2004. She has grossed over US$350 million from tour ticket sales and over $185 million in merchandise from her tours, the most ever grossed by a performer (male and female).
Spears endorsed her first Elizabeth Arden fragrance "Curious" in 2004, and earned $100 million in sales in the five weeks after its 2004 release. In September 2005, Spears released the fragrance "Fantasy" with Elizabeth Arden, which also saw great success. These were followed by the release of two more fragrances of "Curious:In Control" and "Midnight Fantasy" in 2006. Her latest Elizabeth Arden fragrance "Believe", was released in September 2007. In January, 2008, Spears released Curious Heart.Spears released a new fragrance entitled Hidden Fantasy in January 2009.
On March 2, 2009 it was announced that Spears would be the new face of Candie's.
