Britney Spears - Biography
By David Downs
American pop icon Britney Spears was auditioning for television shows by the age of eight, playing a demonic child on stage by age ten, and leaving home for a television career by the age of 12. By age 15, the ambitious, blue-collar girl from the South had signed to Jive Records, who manufactured her into a galactic teen pop sensation, not to mention a cautionary tale. Her 1999 solo debut smash ... Baby, One More Time (Jive) went to number one on the charts and is certified Diamond by the RIAA. Six more albums of platinum bubblegum followed, even as her artistic output became eclipsed by personal tragedy. Spears has sold over 83 million units in less than a decade and has had four consecutive number one albums on the Billboard Top 200. But the fruits of her ambition distanced her from her family, boyfriend Justin Timberlake, and then husband Kevin Federline. She became a tabloid editor’s dream by going pantyless, shaving her head, doing drugs, losing custody of her kids, and completely spinning out of control while still minting hits like the high voltage track “Womanizer” on 2008’s Circus (Jive). Spears has transcended pop stardom to become the prime symbol and disastrous example of America’s most deep-seated desires.
Britney Spears was born on December 2, 1981 in Kentwood, Louisiana, a rural location about an hour from New Orleans. Her father, a construction contractor, was reportedly a drinker and philanderer who divorced his first wife two weeks before he married Spears’ mother, an elementary school teacher. At the age of three, Britney was enrolled in choir and was winning talent shows by the age of six. She auditioned for the Disney Channel’s The New Mickey Mouse Club at the age of eight, but was rejected. She began studying at the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan as her family went bankrupt.
In 1991, she landed a part as a demonic child in the off-Broadway musical Ruthless. At the age of 11, she was finally cast in The New Mickey Mouse Club along with Christina Aguilera, Keri Russell, and ‘N Sync’s Justin Timberlake. The show was canceled after Spears’ second season and she returned to high school in Louisiana. At the age of 15, Spears auditioned for executives at Jive Records in New York, where lawyer Larry Rudolph was working on ‘N Sync with Johnny Wright, a boy band manager. She was signed and Rudolph sent Spears to Sweden to record with producer Max Martin, who had produced of Ace of Base, Backstreet Boys, and ‘N Sync. Martin had already written her future smash hit “... Baby One More Time.”
Spears looks extremely young and innocent on the album cover for ... Baby, One More Time (1999 Jive), while the title track evokes sex and domestic abuse. Rivaling her music, Spears projected the titillating image of a virgin sex symbol from which protestant America simply couldn’t avert its eyes. Her work has been cited in critical books like Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism is Corrupting our Future by Ben Shapiro. Spears sang of codependence and madness on her debut single “... Baby One More Time,” and it became an odd prophecy. Provocative to adults and addictive to tweens, ...Baby One More Time was a global knockout, going ten times platinum even in the Philippines. A Rolling Stone cover story in March of 1999 had the 17-year-old Spears playing her childishness off her sexuality and rumors swirled that the underage girl had breast implants.
Touring her debut album, Spears was reportedly humble and naïve, a hard worker bothered by drunken visits from her father. She began going out with Justin Timberlake in 1999. He was a level-headed guy who gave her some ballast, and she began a pattern of relying on men to provide stability in lieu of her father. Her psyche was unstable, and the breast surgery rumors got to her. She also lost the 2000 Grammy Awards for Best New Artist to teen pop sensation Christina Aguilera – just one of the many girls who began nipping at her career’s heels.
Just as brassy, synthetic, and bright as before, 2000’s Oops!...I Did It Again (Jive) went diamond in the U.S., entering the charts at number one and selling over a million copies in its first week of release. Timberlake was outed to the media as her boyfriend and her management pushed the fairy tale that the two would remain abstinent until marriage. Britney (BMG), released in 2001 while she was 19, would begin Spears’ carefully scripted and public transition to becoming a woman. “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” “Overprotected,” and The Neptunes-produced “I’m a Slave 4 U” failed to hit the top ten. Acts like Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne began playing off Britney’s highly packaged image to sell an alternative. She reportedly began sleeping with tour choreographer Wade Robson, who was a friend of Timberlake’s. After Timberlake broke off his relationship with Spears, her parents divorced. The girl began appearing in the press partying heavily and engaging in high profile liaisons with actor Colin Farrell and Limp Bizkit vocalist Fred Durst, who boasted about it on live radio.
2003’s In the Zone (Jive) would signal the beginning of the end for Spears’ manicured image. The highly sexualized singles “Toxic,” “Everytime,” and “Me Against the Music” helped In the Zone hit number one on the Billboard 200, and “Toxic” nabbed a Grammy for Best Dance Recording. Unfettered from family and Timberlake, Spears found herself involved in a two-day marriage with childhood friend Jason Alexander, followed by the highly erotic Onyx Hotel tour. She began secretly dating former backup dancer Kevin Federline, a high school dropout from Fresno, California with one illegitimate child and another on the way. The two got matching tattoos of dice on their wrists and filmed each other for a panned reality show, Chaotic.
Spears asked Federline to marry her in 2004 and the two had a highly publicized wedding party complete with tracksuits embroidered with the words MAIDS and PIMPS. Spears then entered her baby-making epoch, having two kids followed by a divorce from Federline in November of 2006. Still partying hard and flashing her lady parts at photographers, associate Paris Hilton nicknamed her “The Animal.” Spears wound up in rehab at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads in Antigua. Spears checked herself out after one day, tried and failed to get her kids from Federline in Los Angeles, and was filmed having her head shaved to massive public attention.
Malibu’s Promises Treatment Center took Spears in and after she completed rehab, she worked on a comeback album. She performed at a few small shows on the West Coast, including a widely panned performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Her management company dropped her eight days after the performance, yet her new album Blackout (2007 Jive) came out to good reviews. In early 2008, she lost custody of her children to Federline and was later taken by force to a psychiatric hospital twice in one month. Constantly stalked by paparazzi, she started dating one of them until her family and manager forced him out of her life. Her seventh album, Circus (2008 Jive/Zomba), produced the single “Womanizer,” which became Spears’ first number one single in nearly a decade. The album went platinum. She continues to tour, record, and make the headlines. In 2011 she released Femme Fetale, and joined television's talent program The X Factor as a judge.
