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Note to Britney re:
1999 Grammies: Bay-bee, you wuz robbed!
Christina Aguilera Best New Artist? Puh-leeze! ...Baby One More
Time -- 12X platinum (largest debut since Alanis), four mega
singles/videos, Rolling Stone cover, host of SNL -- no respect up
in here. But that's cool, 'cause Best New Artist is a proven jinx
(remember Arrested Development?) and Christina ain't shakin' no
giant sequoias, knowhatamean? While Chrissie's 24-second clock
be steady tickin', you hooked up with Swedish teen pop svengali
Max Martin, Rodney ""Darkchild"" Jerkins,
Mutt Lange, Steve Lunt,
Barry J. Eastmond, wrote a great song (""Dear
Diary"") all by yourself,
and threw down a buzzer-beating slam dunk, Oops!...I Did It
Again.
...Baby was a
singing-like-Whitney-Mariah-Taylor-Dayne-in-
your-bedroom sorta affair; wide-eyed and innocent. After the
plastic surgery rumors, lascivious ""fan""
Web sites, endless
gig-to-hotel-to-promo-event-to-plane forced marches, velvet rope
dramas, job-related injuries, Britney knows what time it is. At
18
summers, Baby Girl is still beaming innocence, but now it's in a
really-feeling-Janet-TLC-Michael-Madonna-self-empowering-
attitude way. She tightened up to lighten up.
Taking no shorts,
Oops!… I Did It Again opens up with the
block-rockin' title tune. Y'all have heard it everywhere for the
last
month -- the ""I'm not that innocent""
refrain, ""…Baby One More Time""
melody hook, the so-'99 cute mid- song vignette, those cellphoned
""yeah-yeah-yeahs"" -- an extremely addictive
pop song.
It's also a tongue in cheek homage to ABBA (Europop girl chorus,
chugga-bop organ-drums-bass, icy synth strings) and Madonna
(True Blue era). The girl's got ears. The remaining 11 tracks are
just
as transcultural space-time warped dance-pop crazycool.
On Shania Twain's
""Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know"", Mutt
Lange works a Taste of Honey ""Sukiyaki""
riff, fingersnaps, Eagles-
esque chorus into an '80s hair band power ballad groove that
Britney
soul-maxes with a vocal that channels both Stevie Wonder (via
""Knocks
Me Off My Feet"") and Shania herself. ""(I
Can't Get No) Satisfaction""
is a clever Jerkins slow-down beaten-fuzz-guitar Stones spirit
catcher
illed-up by Brit's punk diva steez; ""Lucky""
is classic star-crossed girl
pop (""If there's nothing missing in my life/Then why
do these tears
come out at night?""); ""Stronger""
is a deliriously wicky-wacky
abstraction of ""Rhythm Nation.""
Oops!… I Did It
Again proves beyond a doubt that
Britney Spears is The One. Who got next?
-Tom Terrell February
23, 2001