Now Playing: '3' from The Singles Collection by Britney Spears

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Britney Spears needs no introduction. Since first appearing on Top 40 airwaves in 1999, she has captured a global audience and interest in every single movement she makes and every controversial event – be it the “is-she-isn't-she a virgin” debacle that raged virtually until she had a child of the “did she slip Madonna the tongue?” question spawned by the duo's performance on the VMAs years ago (don't forget – Cristina Aguilera was there too!), the nonsense with her mother or the train-wreck behavior she's exhibited over the last two years in particular – that she's endured has become an object of public domain. Privacy? Forget it – she's got none. Fans, journalists, yea-sayers, nay-sayers – everybody is aware of Britney Spears down to the most minute details of her life. In the last te years, no pop star outside of maybe Michael Jackson has held such enduring interest or ensured that the children of photographers don't go hungry. She's been marketed every which way too; since 1999, Spears has released just six albums but (now) two greatest hits compilations in the same period as well as an album of remixes, appeared in thirteen TV shows or motion pictures and appeared in fifteen international television advertising campaigns – to say nothing of the appearances her music has made in film and television.

Ten years on and with so much made of Britney Spears in that time, it becomes a chore to remember that her music is what got this mass media commodity noticed in the first place – a fact that The Singles Collection hopes to re-iterate.

Collecting all of the multi-platinum singles that Spears has released over the last decade (the liner notes even give the staggering number of copies sold and how many kudos were awarded), of course The Singles Collection is going to leave little to be desired. The real surprise comes when, as one listens, it becomes evident how well they all fit together; after the new single, “3,” each successive song fits together seamlessly and cleanly, like well-laid interlocking stone. It becomes obvious in this context that the beats, keys, riffs and motifs in “...Baby On More Time,” “Crazy” and “Oops! I Did It Again” are all functionally interchangeable (or flat-out identical) in some of the songs in the singer's repertoire and do even trail into some of the later work (like “Toxic”). For the older audience (those over ten years old) that may not have noticed when the songs were new, that's the greatest surprise of this compilation.

What those similarities and common threads also illustrate though is why Spears has remained on everyone's lips this long. With innuendo and glossy pop saturating every note, each song (but particularly “Me Against The Music,” “If You Seek Amy” and “I'm A Slave 4 U”) wriggles into the pleasure center of every listener's brain, every club girl's dance mix and every little boy's fantasy – it's the sort of multi-tiered popular power play and triple threat that every publicist dreams of and has made Britney Spears the household name she has been for so long.

Is it great music? Depending on circumstances (age, taste, how frustrated your imagination and libido are), the answer could go either way but there's no way to argue the effects that the songs and singer have had on the world's population. These are the songs that introduced Britney Spears to the world and have caused a decade-long (with no end in sight) love affair and feeding frenzy; they have made their mark and, for the sake of economy, The Singles Collection handily pulls them all together – ignoring all the filler.

Artist:
www.britneyspears.com/
twitter.com/britneyspears

Download:
Britney Spears – “If U Seek Amy” – The Singles Collection
Britney Spears – “Piece Of Me” – The Singles Collection

Album:
Britney Spears' The Singles Collection is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .