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image source: Vice.com

Throughout the years, the music industry has witnessed notorious artist breakdowns from their personal lives, with some of the names not everyone was unheard of: Freddie Mercury – Queen the band’s leader and main vocalist, known for his HIV infection and coming out as a homosexual; Taylor Swift – the multitalented singer-songwriter, who was falsely accused of manipulating her success, etc. But to me, there was no breakdown that more inspirational than Britney Spears – once been flattered as the Princess of Pop – whose collapse has grant lessons for generations of artists afterward.
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2nd, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. She is famous for multiple pop hits such as …Baby One More Time (1998), Toxic (2003), Womanizer (2008), Hold It Against Me (2011), etc. It is undeniable that Spears has brought fresh new air to the pop music market around the world. Throughout her discography, Spears became a phenomenon (a “main popgirl”) that the Y Generation (the 1990s) obsessed, and inspired many other new pop girls with her aesthetics – the teeny, innocent and somewhat more sensual at a later age – such as Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga. However, it was the meltdown of her career in 2007 that became more widespread than ever, and the story that Spears overcome the aftermath put her to the legendary tier. 
After the success of her fourth studio album, In The Zone, Spears reassured her reign of the Princess of Pop. Sold over 600 thousand copies in the first week, it debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart and sold thousands of copies worldwide. Critical acclaim was spotted on the record, as NPR listed the album on the list of 50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade, and called it “a primer on the sound of pop in the ’00s.’ All of the recognition and success that suddenly weighed upon a 22-year-old girl was too much to handle, and Spears was not an exception. Similar to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, with her already unstoppable fame, she had paparazzi always surrounded shamelessly creeping for tabloids’ ‘shocking news,’ and encounters at her walking out of a gas station bathroom with her bare feet were widely known as the kick-off of her paparazzi target and tabloid fixture. Somewhat leveraged from this “red-hot news,” they persisted with her public image teardown and one-after-one drove her to the dead-end. Shared with Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, she bared her soul: “… If [something] was not in place, it would have been enough to get me to this point of anxiety. I could get overwhelmed by a lot of very small, disproportionate things.” Added with the fact that her privacy very much being invaded, and the innate will to protect a star’s image, the …Baby One More Time singer had a surreal private life, which her anxiety could not handle it in one way or another effectively. Fame came too soon for a teenage star that it pretty much upset her childhood. She also referred to her past: “I think I was a different person then, young, and I did not always know instinctively what was good and what was wrong.” Accumulated from these smoldering factors, an innocent girl being manipulated under the hands of the industry would never live to what she wanted. In 2004, she married her childhood friend Jason Alexander and called to an end only 55 hours later, and after that married to her dancer Kevin Federline – who just broken up with his pregnant girlfriend. In 2006, criticism threw to the star as she was seen driving her car with her first son sitting in her lap, and in the same year fueling the rage by posing nude on Harper’s Bazaar. Dumping the image of a sexy, sensual star, Spears was denounced more than ever in her life.
And that’s when everything erupted, turned Britney’s life to chaos.
Spears threw herself into the spoilt spot: After having a prompt divorce with her second husband Kevin Federline and the loss of her aunt due to cancer in 2006, the meltdown ignited after paparazzi caught the star go to rehab at the Crossroads Centre – a substance-abuse rehabilitation center for drug and alcohol addiction – before escaping it to turn back to Los Angeles later that day in February 2007. What shocked the public than ever was that the next day, Spears had her hair shaved by herself, following by more rehab days. Under the solution of a conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears, she gradually reclaimed her throne by releasing qualitative music products, as Circus and Femme Fatale both had Billboard Hot 100 no.1 singles and got critical acclaim from multiple prestigious music critics.
It doesn’t mean that the music she released during her meltdown was worse than her other projects; by contrast, Blackout, her fifth studio album, was considered the best album that Spears has ever released. It showed how Britney’s feminist image and her strength during the darkest era of her life have expressed its fullest powers and bring wonders to her allegedly dying career. It shatteringly redefined her music journey that forever led the pop artist to be a legend in pop music. 
Blackout was released on October 25th, 2007, and best known for Spears’ first-ever role as an executive producer. Five years later, it was raved as the most influential pop record ever produced by the Rolling Stone Magazine and landed a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Music Library. The background of Britney’s continual scandals during the era did excite not only the album in particular but also Britney’s inspirations for the record itself. Completely demolished her reputed teenage-mimic voice in previous albums, in Blackout, she implemented bass-infused voice, electronic tunes, and auto-tune, things that Rihanna or Christina Aguilera – her peers – have never thought of using. Innovative elements could be easily detected throughout the tracks: punk-inspired, rock-n-roll-infused, electro-pop that distorted Britney’s angelic breathing voice, dubstep & some ingredients of EDM (was never in at all before 2007) interacted with Danja’s retrospective mind, and Britney’s i-don’t-give-a-fuck style (nakedness and hook-ups, provocations and blatant sex) which would shock the public at that time, that lividly blended like no one would ever give a damn what a mess it would turn out to be. Turned out, it was so successful that fans lavishly praised it throughout the years. On the other hand, Britney’s bold step, along with productions of the best producers in the industry, was so bold she never went back again, and surrounded by the voracious drama the record had; clearly, no one wants to do it. 
Blackout was Spears’ answer not to the paparazzi who were trying to tear down her career, but also to who doubts her career would ever revive again. Doubtlessly it was a bold statement and a standing one that leveled up Britney’s legacy forever. With “Gimme More,” Spears began her line with “It’s Britney, bitch,” the retort for her haters who tried to trivialize her impact (which later became her most famous line at that time.) The phrase “gimme gimme more” was an outstanding mockery for the torturous notoriety she had with her scandals – jokes that threw at her for her somehow overreacted actions, including slamming an umbrella at a paparazzi – and “the legendary miss Britney Spears” and “ahh you gotta have to remove me” lines were defiances to the bad mouths of the public opinions.
“Piece of Me” was another masterpiece that directed addressed her public life, one thing that the media has been curious since forever: “I’m Miss American Dream since I was seventeen” pretty much rounded up her seemingly stressful public image. “They still gon’ put pictures of my derriere in the magazine” were gossips and tabloids trying to sexualize and cheapen her picture, “And with a kid on my arm, I’m still an exceptional earner” was her reply to the parents who judged her parenting, “I’m Mrs. ‘She’s Too Big, Now She’s Too Thin’” was hoarsely too graceless to be a headline on the gossip (but still was), and “Hoping I’ll resort to some havoc, end up settling in court” was great fun of her situation. However, her response “You want a piece of me?” distorted in robotic voice was an exceptional, unredeemable talent for the news’ inquisitions on her lifestyles during the moment – trying to make money out of her – as robotic as it may sound, the metaphor lied in this line was a caricature to the reaction of them reporters to her: brainless, repetitive, and pendant on her fame. “Get Naked (I Got A Plan)” was pure sex and full of Britney’s naughtiness, the first song that she has ever mentioned sex directly.
 
That’s what made Blackout stands out from other Spears’ albums. Its directness, nakedness and inappropriateness constitute and establish her feminism side, that discussing womanhood, public life and partying was freer and livelier than ever before. And since that talking of sex is coming from “Baby, I’m yours for the taking /Don’t you wanna see my body naked? / And I know you like the way I shake it / And I hope that you can take it”, Spears’ reputation for allurement craved more into self-confidence and body positiveness this time.  A little bit naughty, partying, retrospective, and sexiness in her earlier days have blended so well with the new advancements of the era, which are so Spears, and so Danja. No wonder how much energy and dedication the popstar has put into her work during the darkest days of her career, that finally, she counter everyone’s doubts of her failure with her most cohesive, astonishing, freshening, and revolutionary studio album ever. It redefines the image that Britney held in the media, that she was more than just a product of the industry who was born to making and chasing new trends. It indefinitely proves how stronger she had become.
The meltdown left irradicable scars to the singer. The conservatorship that capture Spears is now a burden to the singer’s freedom, and her anxiety still persists until now, which explains why she becomes so mental delicate until now. I hope that everything will be better for our legend, and I hope everything the best for the queen! 

#FreeBritney❤️
 
References: 
Britney Spears. (2020, March 30). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britney_Spears#Legacy
 
Showbiz, B. (2019, November 3). Britney Spears's dad 'saved her from death'. Retrieved from http://www.contactmusic.net/britney-spears/news/britney-spears-s-dad-saved-her-from-death_6292983
 
Armstrong, J. K. (2017, October 25). Britney Spears' 'Blackout' Turns 10: How Her Worst Year Gave Us Her Best Album. Retrieved from https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8014074/britney-spears-blackout-anniversary
Sheffield, R. (2018, June 25). Sheffield on Britney Spears' 'Blackout,' Her Punk Masterpiece. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-blackout-a-salute-to-her-misunderstood-punk-masterpiece-121525/
 
Pavlova, V. (2013, August 19). Britney Spears 2007 Breakdown: A Timeline Of The Darker Years And Her Eventual Climb Back To Stability. Retrieved from http://www.contactmusic.com/britney-spears/news/britney-spears-2007-breakdown-a-timeline-of-the-darker-years-and-her-eventual-climb-back-to-stability_3823491
 
Best, C. (2017, June 27). Britney Spears explains what led to her breakdown in 2007. Retrieved from https://ca.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/02017062736903/britney-spears-opens-up-2007-breakdown
 
Saylor, D. (n.d.). A Complete History Of Britney Spears' 2007 Meltdown And How She Bounced Back. Retrieved December 3, 2019, from https://www.ranker.com/list/britney-spears-breakdown-and-comeback/donn-saylor