Home > Entertainment > Celebrities > Celebrity Commentary
Will Britney Spears' new album revive her singing career?
Results so far:
| No | 69% | 446 votes | Total: 643 votes | |
| Yes | 31% | 197 votes |
No
by Lesley Aeschliman
Created on: November 15, 2007
So far, Blackout has sold below what many expected. In its first week of release, the album sold 290,000 copies. In its second week, the album managed to sell another 87,000 copies (which was a 70% sales decline). This decline caused Britney to fall five spots on the Billboard Top 200 chart (falling from number two to number seven). For a lot of artists, these would actually be very respectable numbers. For an artist who has Britney's stature, however, this is definitely not a good start for the album.
A second single from the album ("Piece of Me") is starting to be promoted at radio. As of this writing, the song is at #52 on the Mediabase pop chart (the chart that Radio & Records uses for their charts that measures airplay). "Piece of Me" has 421 plays on pop radio stations right now, with a spin gain of 342. Britney's fans are hoping (with some absolutely expecting) "Piece of Me" to become Britney's next "Toxic" (the second single from In The Zone that became a big hit after "Me Against the Music" failed to perform to expectations; "Toxic" helped breathe new life and more sales into her previous album). To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced she can pull that off twice, especially not with all the baggage she's carrying with her this time around.
The fans are also expecting the holiday shopping season to give Blackout a boost. While she may get a small boost, I don't think it's as big of one as the fans are hoping for. The only way that will happen is if "Piece of Me" is able to explode at radio, and blow up within the next couple of weeks. But with the holiday season approaching, that means before long, radio stations will start including some Christmas music into their rotations, which will take away some of airplay spots for songs. This means that Britney could lose potential spins for "Piece of Me" because of this factor.
As things stand right now, it looks like it's going to take a major miracle for Blackout to turn around and become successful enough to revive Britney's music career. Personally, I think Britney needs to take some time off from her career, and work at getting herself and her life back in order. Then when she's in a position to be able to focus on her career, perhaps she'll be able to put out the album that will revive her singing career.
Learn more about this author, Lesley Aeschliman.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Yes
by Janet Grischy
Created on: February 24, 2008
Will Britney's new album revive her singing career? Yes it will. If not, the next one will, or the the one after that. She's a determined person, with a legion of fans, a striking body of work, and a strong desire to rise above her personal troubles.
Change the subject. Remember Judy Garland? Of course. At 16, Judy delighted us as Dorothy in Wizard of Oz. She'd first stepped on stage at age two and a half.
Britney was a little older than that. Here's an evaluation from a talent scout/casting director for The New Mickey Mouse Club, Matt Casella: "I'd never seen a child with the dancing, singing, and gymnastic skills that this child had at 8 years old." Britney impressed him, but not just with her practiced technical abilities: "She knew at a very young age how to turn the switch and go out there and entertain the audience." She didn't get the part, because she was too young. So she continued working at other jobs in the industry, until Disney hired her at age eleven.
She worked on Mouse Club until it went off the air. Soon after that, she auditioned for Jive Records. They signed her, and trained and groomed her. She became a pop princess. She was seventeen.
Her first four albums went platinum. Many adults had still never heard of her. From her sales numbers, we know that many had. For her third album, Britney co-wrote five tracks. On her fourth studio album, she co-wrote 8 songs, and co-produced. She seemed to be trying to gain some control, to move away from being a product, towards being more of an artist.
Once, the people who followed her career only knew her from her music. They had attended her over-the top-concerts or seen her scandalous videos. Some of these videos are hard to watch because of the precocious sexuality, and the apparent desire to shock. She seems to take her cue from Madonna. Still, you can see she she's having fun, and she lets her audience join the party. One video though, is especially hard to look at now. It's called Everytime' and it seems to show the artist practicing for suicide. Some say this video relates to her personal life. Britney has said it's about re-incarnation.
Now Britney's famous for her long public breakdown. Did you know Judy Garland had a breakdown at the age of 25? Afterward, she went back and finished the film she'd been making when it happened. She picked up her career and thrilled many more fans, lightened many more lives. As a matter of fact, Judy Garland had more marriages. She had a great gift, and she shared it extravagantly. So can Britney Spears.
Biography' episode: Britney Spears
http:// youtube.com/user/Bri tneyTV
http://en.wiki pedia.org/wiki/Britn ey_Spears
Learn more about this author, Janet Grischy.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Write and get published
Share with other writers
Polish your freelancing skills
Quality articles from proven freelancers
Exclusive rights, fast turnaround
Brand engagement, business blogging -- our writers do it all
INFORMATION
Copyright © 2002-2012 Helium, Inc. All rights reserved.
Helium.com: A Service of RR Donnelley