Britney Spears Music:

Editorial Review:
Features an alternate cover photo and a bonus song: Deep in My Heart!

Description of ...Baby One More Time:
Debbie Gibson never recorded anything as sexy as Britney Spears's white-funk smoker "...Baby One More Time." Unfortunately, neither does the 17-year-old Spears's debut album contain anything else that remotely approaches that instant hit single. A few of the disc's cuts are 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." --Rickey Wright

...Baby One More Time Reviews:
No musical qualities.....
2008-10-09 - No musical qualities. No frantic kick drum, no guitar solo, No jazzy song structers, cheezy lyrics and no musical or lyrical substance. I hope every jazz, metal, blues and rock band come to her house and pop a squat right over her face and let loose. She is human garbage to be destroyed. This cd disgusts me. If this is what makes it to the charts then I can understand why other countries hate us. America has crappy taste in music. From christina agaiulara or however it is spelled to little wayne, they all prove my point. Most pop music sucks.

A shot in the arm... or the head.
2008-09-12 - Pop music in the late 1990's needed a serious shot in the arm. (Actually, it had needed one at least since the 1960's, when the era of the golden oldies gave way the explosion of rock and roll, the last gasp of a dying culture. But considering how insipid America had become as the baby boomer generation aged without maturing, we ought to forget the nearly total and irreversible decline in standards over the course of four decades and just take contemporary music for what it is.) Savage Garden was over in a flash (and never all that great) and the Backstreet Boys were just too sticky. Enter, then, the Mickey Mousekateers class of 1995: for a time, it looked like they might revive the fizzling genre.

Britney Spears's first album certainly showed potential, even if her voice was untrained and low-range and the songs were somewhat lacking in substance lyrically and musically. At heart, however, most of the tracks on ... Baby One More Time were more fun and fluff than overly sentimental, and that is the essence of pop: just let loose and have fun. To this end "(You Drive Me) Crazy" stands out as the best song of the album, and the "Stop" remix later released was even better. "Sometimes" and "I Will Be There," though slower, also accomplishes its mission, as does the somewhat naughtier title track.

Unfortunately, the chorus lyrics, "Hit me, baby, one more time" are more than a naughty peccadillo: they are a harbinger for the entire course of Spears's musical career, as well as those of her fellow Mousekateers, particularly Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. It would be foolish, as some do, to blame Spears single-handedly or even the Mousekateers as a whole for luring small children prematurely into the universe of the makeup monster teenyboppers--Barbie dolls and Disney Princesses, combined with increasingly absent and indulgent parents, had long been working away at them--but neither should one underestimate her substantial role as a symbol of the vicious cycle that has led to girls trying on deforming high heels many years before their feet have finished growing.

To be sure, Spears is almost certainly as much a victim of bad role models as she is one herself, lending credibility to the notion that abused children often turn out just like their parents. In later albums, Spears took on songwriting herself, injecting an increasing amount of suburban angst into her lyrics, desperate to show she had matured by aping the scandalous behavior of Madonna Ciccone and the highly sexualized melodramatic frankness of Aguilera's music. For their part, neither Ciccone nor Aguilera has ever done anything more original than to capitalize on an ever more cynical public's demand for ever more cynical public displays of excess, and in copying already unoriginal role models, Spears gave herself out to be a woman without substance. We may never know if that is truly the case.

Thus it was that any potential in her first album for Britney Spears to lead a new dawn for pop music, however slight, crumbled with each new release before finally vanishing altogether. In this she was not alone: the most popular songs of the up and coming generation appear to be of the even more degenerate R&B genre. Spears is nevertheless an interesting case study as the epitome of a young generation relinquishing its energy and potential for materialistic excess and, ultimately, an orgy of filth and cynicism. There is obviously much better (mostly older) music you could be listening to with your time; regardless, ... Baby One More Time is an excellent museum exhibit to all the awesome but unsustainable life and power built up by the end of the 1990's that would inevitably come tumbling down as the new millennium broke in. Enjoy.

Catchy, fun, but barely meaningful
2008-05-24 - This is Britney's best album, in my oppinion. That's not a compliment. It's a few catchy upbeat tracks mixed with some seemingly heartfelt yet corny ballads. While I admit myself it's cute & silly to listen to...it's hardly at all a work of art. I wonder just how many old perverts bought this album just to look through the picture booklet...lol. With that said, I can only compliment Britney's naturally gorgeous face and her high-pumped, contagious energy. It's a great album to own if you're just having a spontaneously crazy day and want to enjoy some innocent fun! I play it often. hahaha. XD I like to reflect on Britney's older days. Sure, it's not exactly what I'd call "talent" because it completely betrays her true voice that actually has quality about it unlike this synthesized distortion; it's still ALOT better than what the American music industry has to offer today. At least music then had more dignity. Even with everything Britney is going through now amd all the critism she's gotten over the years, I'd still pick up this CD anyday over more recent releases.

A Changed View
2008-04-29 - If you are reading this, you are probably aware that Britney has been the subject of much negative news footage. I was probably just as guilty as the next guy of disliking her for this. But the truth is, many pop stars do find themselves in some bad spots, and Britney deserves to be recognized for what she can do. The truth of the matter is that some of Britney's stuff is pretty good (despite the news that surrounds her). Whatever goes on in her personal life does not change the fact that some of her music is actually pretty good. The title track 'Baby One More Time' has a nice sound to it, and 'Crazy' has an almost hard rock edge to it. While I feel 'Crazy' is the high point of the record, the rest of the record has a nice pleasant sound to it. 'Sometimes' is also especially nice. I feel later records like "Britney" and "In the Zone" showed stronger work and effort, but this record "Baby One More Time" was a nice 1st record.

GREATEST LOVE/POP ALBUM EVER!
2008-04-01 - From the git-go, "...Baby One More Time" Britney's voice is showcased, like no other singer, with a sexy, luscious, funk/soul intonation, inflection, and power to its sweet and innocent multi-dimensional-bang-on-target sensibility depth! A catchy assortment of pop gems heartsung. Raggae-flavored "Soda Pop" is enticing. "E-mail My Heart" (long before the present texting craze) is a modern twist on heartbreak.Just listen to Brit's plaintive voice on "I Will Be There." Just listen to her singing on "From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart." Just listen to her edgy mid-tempo "Sometimes." "You Drive Me Crazy" is enough to do just that...that is, in a sexy turn-on way. "Born To Make You Happy" sounds so right-on romanticist. Brit makes "Thinkin' About You" believable as every true lover needs to hear. "I Will Still Love You" and "The Beat Goes On" are perfectly, meaningfully sung and felt. 'Nuff said, so just listen to(and hear) Britney's splendiferous singing...a Perfect, Meaningful, and (no question about it)Impactful album inthe history of Music , Dancing, and Singing!...and MUSICAL POETRY IN MOTION...believe you me, I unabashadly state I know of what I speak.