I imagine I share this impression with millions of people around the world, young people who have grown up alongside Britney, including those talented few who are venturing into pop music themselves at the current moment. Its cover - Britney peering through a beaded curtain, her midriff exposed - I could probably sketch from memory. The most potent memory I have was lugging its hard plastic CD case with me everywhere I went - from day care to home, to the grocery, to home again. I Did It Again Britney was a star blooming into herself.Īs for me, I was 5 years old when the album came out. Not yet fully weighed down by the paparazzi, tabloids, gossip, and vulturous media eye, Oops!. Together, they formed a multifaceted, simultaneously relatable and aspirational pop star while also sketching out the blueprint of a sound that would rule pop music for the better half of a decade. Of course, there's the title track, but there was also the empowering anthem “ Stronger” that followed, the dreamy, unexpectedly vulnerable narrative of “ Lucky,” and the R&B yearn of “ Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know,” just to name a few. With help from now legendary pop producers Max Martin, Darkchild (aka Rodney Jerkins), and more, Spears delivered unrelenting bop after unrelenting bop. I Did It Again remains as fresh, relevant, and wholly idiosyncratic as the day it was released, arguably gaining cachet as time goes on.

Two decades later, one would be hard-pressed to name a Britney record that hasn’t solidified itself as a time-tested masterpiece.

'My ultimate goal is to be around for a really long time and be someone like Madonna or Janet Jackson,' Spears told MTV at that time. sold over 1.3 million copies in its first week, breaking the record for most first-week sales by a female artist (Adele's 25 claimed that title 15 years later). She was at a new height in her still young career, the first peak of what feels like many - her face on lunchboxes, Barbie dolls, toys, and apparel. She'd teased the new era a few months prior with the title track, its music video blasting across screens around the world, forming the now-iconic image of Britney in a red latex catsuit conquering space.

Twenty years ago, on May 16, 2000, an 18-year-old Britney Spears unleashed her sophomore album, Oops!.

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