Turning 21, turning it on
All grown up, the pop princess is ready to
prove that with her newfound adulthood,
she's just beginning to fulfill her potential.
Dec. 02, 2002
By Chris Gardner
In August 1998, Jive Records' Barry Weiss walked into the Alley Cat Studio, a
dance hall in midtown Manhattan where Britney Spears was rehearsing for her
debut music video, "... Baby One More Time." A 16-year-old in sweat pants, she
shyly walked up to greet the important executive with a "Hey, Barry, how ya
doin'," delivered in her now-signature Southern drawl. No time for chatter -- Spears
went directly back to the beat.
"The minute the music went on and she started doing her dance routine, she
turned into this vixen, almost on cue," Weiss says. "One-two-three, and the
music started. She went from being just a nice, kind-of girl-next-door from the
South to being this sexy star with energy and presence that was overwhelming.
Still, to this day, I've never seen anyone (else) who can press a button and go
from being a sweet, demure girl -- which she is -- and then the camera shines on
her and -- bang! -- she's Marilyn Monroe. I remember leaving the room and thinking
this was much bigger than I (previously) thought."
Chances are that neither Weiss nor anyone else in that dance hall could have
imagined how big the young star would become before today, her 21st birthday. A
more-educated guess might have been made a few months later in January 1999,
when Spears' debut album hit record-store shelves and reached No. 1 on the
Billboard 200 a week later, joining her single of the same name, which also had
bowed at No. 1.
The rest, as they say, is history.
"It's been a whirlwind -- so overwhelming," Spears says of the past four years.
"But I look back now, and I don't think there can be anything better than when you
first come out. Just the first presentation and getting everything out there and the
first time you hear yourself on the radio. There's nothing like it -- it's so cool."
Who knows if it's that cool for all debut artists: None of the previous female pop
stars such as Debbie Gibson, Tiffany or even Madonna had come out of the gate
with those kinds of numbers. With "... Baby," Spears became the first new artist
-- male or female -- to have an album and single debut at No. 1 and the youngest
female in Billboard history to claim a simultaneous No. 1 single and album.
The album went on to sell 22 million copies worldwide, and the former
Mouseketeer became an overnight sensation who would parlay her multiplatinum
music career into film, television, books and, more recently, restaurants. It all
happened so quickly that even she was surprised.
"I just wanted my song to be played on the frickin' radio," Spears says. "I just
wanted my friends back home to say, 'Britney, we heard you on the radio!' But
then all that happened."
The beginning
Britney Jean Spears WAS born Dec. 2, 1981, the middle child of mother Lynne, a
schoolteacher, and father Jamie, a contractor. Only a few years later, she
displayed a penchant for performance.
"Ever since I was 7 or 8 years old, my mom would have company over, and I was
always performing for everybody in front of the TV," Spears says. "My mom's
friends would ask her, 'Are you going to tell her to calm down?' But she was so
used to me doing it that she was oblivious to it. Even when I went to school, I was
always the weird child; I would go outside and instead of playing, I wanted to have
'Star Search' competitions."
< BR clear="none">As Britney was her first daughter (she has an older brother,
Bryan), Lynne Spears thought that all girls were a bit "girly" and loved to put on
shows for family friends.
"I didn't start really noticing until I saw her interacting with the other kids in the
day care," Lynne Spears says. "Britney was the ringleader, and she was
choreographing and dancing and doing all kinds of theatrical things, so I started
saying to myself, 'There's something different about her.'"
Not all children get to realize their recess dream and make it to the stage with Ed
McMahon on "Star Search." Following her 1992 appearance on the syndicated
talent show (and her eventual loss to now-fellow recording artist Marty Thomas,
who received a top score of four stars), Spears stayed on the small screen, joining
the Walt Disney Co.'s "The All New Mickey Mouse Club" in 1993. She calls that
experience one of the best of her life to date.
"It was so great for us to grow and everything -- it was amazing," Spears says of
her two-season run alongside fellow soon-to-be-famous mouseketeers Christina
Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and Keri Russell. "We had an amazing time; we got to
sing and dance and do everything. I got to experience, for the first time, being in a
studio, so it wasn't completely new to me when I went later."
The music
When Larry Rudolph met Britney Spears, he believed that popular music at the
time did not demand that she put her skills to use and run straight to the
recording studio.
"If you looked at the pop music charts during that time, in the summer of 1995, it
was (Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs), hard rock and hip-hop; there was no white teen pop
as we understand it today," says Rudolph, then an attorney and founder of the
New York-based firm Rudolph & Beers, who eventually would segue to a
managerial role in Spears' burgeoning career with co-manager Johnny Wright.
"I said, 'Go home and be a normal kid for a year or two, and let's see what
happens.' Then, about a year-and-a-half later, in early 1997, all of a sudden
Hanson, Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys started to hit, and there was clearly
an opening for a solo female in that genre."
So Rudolph and Spears set out to fill the void and shop her to various labels.
Spears flew from Kentwood, La., to the Big Apple -- on Rudolph's dime because
her parents couldn't afford the $200 ticket -- for a full day of back-to-back meetings
with record executives whom Rudolph had roped in with a demo cut of Spears
singing "Today," a sacked track from Toni Braxton's second album.
"I was so nervous," Spears says of that humid New York day. "I had this 5-7-9
(Stores) cheap-ass dress on and these high heels. We went to four or five different
record labels -- it was crazy. (Record executives) see people everyday, so it's not
like they're happy to see you; they just give you these dry faces, and you have to
stand there in front of two or three people. And if they really, really like you, they'll
bring other people in -- but if they don't, they'll just let you go."
Jive Records could not let her go. Two weeks after the showcase, Clive Calder,
chairman and CEO of the Zomba Group of Companies, called Rudolph and offered
Spears a deal -- with one exception.
"The deal we made -- and it's still the Britney Spears record contract to this day --
came with a provision in her contract that says they will pay her X number of
dollars to start to record, and within 90 days of the date of commencement of the
contract, (the label has) the right to terminate it with no further obligation if they
don't like the way it's going in the studio," Rudolph says. "It's a very unique
provision -- you won't see that in any other record contract -- and that's what
happened. (But) when they got her into the studio, things went very well."
They were about to get even better. An edgy, upbeat track Spears had inherited
from TLC, "... Baby" would be produced by pop maestro Max Martin and become
the obvious choice for her debut single, one that would launch her to
superstardom and pave the way for her three albums to date: "... Baby"; 2000's
"Oops! ... I Did It Again," which has sold 17 million copies worldwide; and 2001's
"Britney," a 9 million-unit seller worldwide. Then there are the numerous awards
and honors, including seven Billboard Awards, four MTV Europe Music Awards, a
World Music Award, an American Music Award and a No. 1 ranking on Forbes
magazine's 2002 "Celebrity 100" list of the world's most powerful names.
The image
Like Madonna, one of HER inspirations, Spears' success has not come without
its share of controversy. First, it was the Catholic schoolgirl uniform she wore in
her debut video -- complete with plaid skirt and white button-down shirt tied above
the midriff -- then it was the David LaChapelle-photographed April 1999 cover of
Rolling Stone magazine. While the images drew fire from the media and even from
a few parents, Spears never caved in to the criticism.
"In my heart, if someone tells me I can't do something, I'm gonna do it just to
prove I can," says the confident pop star, who came up with the concept and
styling for "... Baby." "I would never do anything crazy like drugs or anything like
that, but when it comes to clothes and showing your body, I'm really comfortable
with myself, so I wear what I want to wear -- I don't care what anybody thinks."
Weiss might have thought a thing or two about her image, but in the end, Spears
seemed to gain his -- and everyone else's -- trust.
"She had a lot of vision, and she knows how to press the controversy button and
take it right to the line but still keep her core audience, both older and younger,"
Weiss says. "While at certain points it was scary, I have to admit that she was
right more than she was wrong."
Agrees Rudolph: "(Spears) has particular style instincts -- she knows what she
wants and the way she wants to dress. I don't stop her because she is the driving
creative force behind who she is. I've never stepped in and said, 'You can't do this;
you can't do that.' When she decided to tie up her shirt for the '... Baby One More
Time' video and show off her belly, nobody said no to her, and it became a
classic."
The future
Very few music artists have been as successful as Britney at her age, says her
ICM agent, Nick Styne.
"The Beatles, Michael Jackson and even Madonna, who was considerably older
when she started to achieve a lot of success, didn't have the kind of run (Spears)
has had so early on, and she's just turning 21," Styne says. "This has all
happened in the past four years. She's got to figure out in her own way where to
go with her next record and where to go in her career."
That is the question hanging over Spears' head and speculated on continually in
the media following Britney's supposed hiatus following her Dream Within a Dream
Tour in the summer. In a classic case of backlash, the media in particular seemed
eager to see her fall after her astounding run (or, as Francis Ford Coppola once
said, "Who the gods want to destroy, they first make successful.").
But Spears seems to be taking it all in stride. Her "break" did not last long, and
soon she was back at work writing songs.
"She's only taken a couple of weeks off and has been writing music and going
ever since," Lynne Spears says. "She just didn't want to be under tour time or
stressed-schedule time. Britney loves what she does, so she doesn't really want
to not do it; she wants to be in control of it and not be on some rigid schedule."
Those outside of Spears' family also recognize the importance of not looking at
the clock.
"It may take her a while to get there or she may wait a while to get it right, but
she's going to do the right thing," MTV's Tom Calderone says about the
all-important next step. "But you are also looking at someone who is so hands-on
that she won't misstep. The fact that it's her fourth album already at the age of 21
is an incredible feat right there -- how many people can say that?"
Spears says she sees herself working at a less-frenetic pace in the music world,
with more time spent on other passions.
"I will probably do an album every two years," she says. "The ultimate dream is to
do movies in between -- that would be awesome. But I will never be able to leave
my music."
Spears is at work on her fourth album and is finishing out the year meeting with
record producers. She has sat down with Daft Punk and frequent Madonna
collaborator William Orbit (1998's "Ray of Light") and has scheduled
meet-and-greets with Steve Morales, Missy Elliot and Timbaland in an effort to
evolve her style.
"Musically, I seriously think I am going to do a little bit more rock, hip-hop and
just play with it," Spears says. "That's the direction I'm in now, but who knows? A
month from now, it may change, and I could come up with this amazing, amazing
song, and then everything just kind of shifts."
Rudolph says fans should look for a more adult Spears, complete with grown-up
lyrics and a display of what she is capable of vocally. No matter what she
decides, this 21-year-old is ready to prove that she is no longer the girl in that
midtown Manhattan dance hall.
"I just know that my next albums to come will definitely be more 'me,'" Spears
says. "I'm growing up right now, and I couldn't go back and sing '... Baby One
More Time' again. I have to grow."
http://hollywoodreporter.com/hollywo...ent_id=1771663
Great article about Britney past/future 
