Is Britney's Blackout a Comeback?
Soundscan Reveals Spears' New Album Failed To Meet Projected Sales
Nov 7, 2007
On October 30th Britney Spears’ latest attempt at a career comeback was met with resistance with opening week sales of her 5th studio album entitled Blackout coming in at approximately 290,000 total units (according to a Nielsen Soundscan chart release to Billboard.com).
Were Opening Week Sales Legitimate?
While some would not consider 290,000 units a failure, the common knowledge fact that most record labels personally purchase thousands of copies of their artists’ albums in an attempt to gain a #1 debut on music charts such as Billboard's Top 200 should be taken into account. Even the efforts of Britney’s die-hard fans at Breatheheavy and MySpace websites to support Ms. Spears by purchasing multiple copies of the album from different sources (so that each sale would count as an individual unit); should be considered. Britney’s self-proclaimed biggest fan Chris Crocker was personally seen in x17 video purchasing approximately 20 copies of Blackout (10 for himself and 10 to distribute to the homeless). It makes you wonder how many of the sales were genuine and how many were from those trying to manipulate the system.
Music versus Personal Drama
Reviewing this album created an interesting dilemma. In order to be objective, Britney’s personal dramatics had to be left out of the equation. However, since some of the songs on the album reflect her personal issues, her personal life was inevitably considered. The truth is, for every positive on the album, there were two negatives. A song like “Break The Ice” mixed an urban pop beat with a catchy melody (sung by her backup singers) was countered by a song like “Hot As Ice” which had Britney singing in a childish, whining voice while referring to herself as a “living legend” and unfortunately did nothing but add to the speculation that she refuses to accept the fact that she is not 16 anymore. Similar sentiments could be made about “Heaven and Earth” whose 80’s style production sounded really out of place among the other urban dance songs.
Superficial Pieces of Britney
Another song like “Piece of Me” had Britney’s voice shrouded by semi-fun, studio-created robot vocals and was more along the lines of what she needed to do to make this album work for her. But songs like “Radar” which showcased her minimal vocal talent and “Get Naked (I Got A Plan)" -- which had a male vocalist singing a nerve-grating rubber band twang while Britney sang the deeply intuitive lyrics “get naked” over and over again -- didn’t quite step up to par.
Is Blackout enough to resurrect the career of a troubled pop star? Read more about the albums' overall production and Britney's chance of success in: Blackout Stalls a Career Comeback.
