Britney Spears

Although Britney Spears’ career is often viewed through the lens of major ’80s teen-pop luminaries such as Debbie Gibson or Madonna, the vocalist outgrew her prefab, mall-music image and became one of the 21st century’s most adventurous pop stars. Spears’ initial performing experience came on TV, as a cast member on a ’90s reboot of The Mickey Mouse Club. After her time on that show ended, the Kentwood, LA-raised artist became a pillar of the nascent Y2K teen-pop boom: Her 1999 debut, ...Baby One More Time, was certified diamond (10 times platinum) in less than a year, and the next year’s Oops!...I Did It Again shipped 9 million copies by mid-2001. Multiple dance-geared hits followed, courtesy of collaborations with sonic icons—Swedish pop guru Max Martin (“...Baby One More Time”), adventurous production team The Neptunes (“I’m a Slave 4 U”), and electro mavens Bloodshy and Avant (“Toxic”). Sales aside, however, Spears became one of the biggest pop stars ever due to the savvy way she expresses the complicated calculus of being a woman in the modern world. Her lyrics tackle massive fame, romantic drama, and the challenge of maintaining a sense of self—all of which translates to an emotionally vulnerable persona that finds Spears asserting she’s a survivor (“Stronger”), sexually empowered (woe to the cheater depicted in “Womanizer”), and not a pushover.