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Britney`s comeback -- Still in the zone?
LA, Nov 10: Two years ago, she sang plaintively that she was `Not a girl, not yet a woman.`
LA, Nov 10: Two years ago, she sang plaintively that she was "Not a girl, not yet a woman."
For the past couple of months, former pop princess Britney Spears, 21, has been out to prove that girlhood is but a distant memory, posing topless and bottomless for magazine covers and smooching publicly with Madonna to promote her recording comeback.
"In the Zone," Britney's first album for two years, hits record stores on Nov. 18 following her decision in August 2002 to take a break from the business that had turned a wholesome teen from the American South into a worldwide pop phenomenon with album sales of 60 million.
Two years is a lifetime in the fickle pop music industry as Madonna, the mother of reinvention, knows all too well. So once the TV specials, the eye-popping photos and the media furor over her "not that innocent" new image blows over, Britney's success as a recording artist will depend on the music.
"It really comes down to how good the songs are. Any kind of image is not going to sustain you for that long unless there is really some substance there," said Jeff Pollack, a leading radio and music consultant.
"What really matters in a music career is getting played on the radio, on MTV, getting legitimate acceptance as an artist. Britney faces a transition now. In terms of phase one of her reinvention, it's working," Pollack said.
Pollack expects the new CD to have a strong first week and to make it easily into the Top 10. But "if the record in not in the groove then program directors at music channels are not going to keep playing it." The first single from the album, "Me Against the Music," boosted by a steamy video featuring Britney's new pal Madonna, has been playing fairly well on radio.
Three weeks after its release, "Me Against the Music" was in 14th place in Radio and Records trade publication's tally of national U.S. airplay. The as-yet-unreleased "In the Zone" album was 42nd on the Amazon.com top sellers list, behind new CDs from Sarah McLachlan, Sting, Sheryl Crow and The Beatles "Let It Be...Naked" which is also released on Nov. 18. Bureau Report
"In the Zone," Britney's first album for two years, hits record stores on Nov. 18 following her decision in August 2002 to take a break from the business that had turned a wholesome teen from the American South into a worldwide pop phenomenon with album sales of 60 million.
Two years is a lifetime in the fickle pop music industry as Madonna, the mother of reinvention, knows all too well. So once the TV specials, the eye-popping photos and the media furor over her "not that innocent" new image blows over, Britney's success as a recording artist will depend on the music.
"It really comes down to how good the songs are. Any kind of image is not going to sustain you for that long unless there is really some substance there," said Jeff Pollack, a leading radio and music consultant.
"What really matters in a music career is getting played on the radio, on MTV, getting legitimate acceptance as an artist. Britney faces a transition now. In terms of phase one of her reinvention, it's working," Pollack said.
Pollack expects the new CD to have a strong first week and to make it easily into the Top 10. But "if the record in not in the groove then program directors at music channels are not going to keep playing it." The first single from the album, "Me Against the Music," boosted by a steamy video featuring Britney's new pal Madonna, has been playing fairly well on radio.
Three weeks after its release, "Me Against the Music" was in 14th place in Radio and Records trade publication's tally of national U.S. airplay. The as-yet-unreleased "In the Zone" album was 42nd on the Amazon.com top sellers list, behind new CDs from Sarah McLachlan, Sting, Sheryl Crow and The Beatles "Let It Be...Naked" which is also released on Nov. 18. Bureau Report