[MUSIC]
Alison Stewart: This is All of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We are in the middle of a Silver Liner Notes. We are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Britney Spears' debut album, Baby One More Time came out when she was just 17 years old. My guests are Annie Zaleski and Lauren Michelle Jackson. Lauren, you reported on Britney Spears' memoir, The Woman and Me for the New Yorker. This comes after a few years of really reexamining the way that Britney Spears and young actors and musicians like her, especially women, were treated in the '90s and the 2000s. How does Britney address this in her memoir? Does she write about, as someone texted to us, about young women being used and abused and ground around in the entertainment industry?
Lauren Michelle Jackson: Yes, she has a lot of opportunities in the memoir to address the way that she was treated by the press, Even during the early days of the release of this album, and even finding ways of critiquing the way that her artistry ended up being packaged during this time. She thought it was very strange that she would be presented in a quasi-virginal image when she's like, "I have a boyfriend, I've been sexually active, I've never said I was any of these things that the media and the label want to present me as."
Of course, the most significant and most dire occurs around shortly after her break up with Justin Timberlake, where you have people like Dan Sawyer interrogating at the of 21 over, "Why did you break America's sweetheart's heart?" It's just somewhat absurd to even think about, and being chased by paparazzi and really crucified for doing what many early 20s people do outside of the spotlight. Party, get drunk, have fun with their friends, make poor decisions that at the end of the day aren't really hurting anyone, an overnight marriage, or something like that.
Where it gets really tragic, I think, is when her children are getting involved. She talks about her recording of the 2007 album Blackout and how she had to record that album in 30-second intervals because the paparazzi were just really literally right outside the studio doors and just being chased. It's quite harrowing and yet she also is trying to, I think, in this work, really empathize or sympathize and reach out to her readers and try to have them put themselves in her shoes, even though she's experiencing this thing that virtually almost nobody on the planet can actually genuinely emphasize with.
Alison Stewart: Annie, what do you think is the musical legacy of this album? Maybe one more time.
Annie Zaleski: That's such a big question. I think first and foremost the Max Martin sound. He had worked with the Backstreet Boys before that, but he worked so heavily on this. He basically came to be one of the people who dominated pop music through the 2000s. He ended up working with Taylor Swift, among other people. Just the sound of it and just the fact that it was female-led. Obviously, there were the people that Britney admired, like Whitney and Mariah, but when you look at the 2000s, there were so many solo female artists that had their time in the spotlight.
Obviously, Christina Aguilera, who Britney crossed paths with so many times. When Beyonce eventually went solo, you look at across genres, too. Women's solo artists really were so, so dominant in the 2000s and so there's that as well. In the fact that she was 17, and she was so young and though, it really paved the way even for modern artists like Olivia Rodrigo, who were very young, too. Basically, it asserted the fact that young women had things to say, and young women deserved a place in the spotlight. It's just so groundbreaking. I think it was so inspirational to so many musicians coming up.
Alison Stewart: My guests have been Annie Zaleski and Lauren Michelle Jackson and we've been talking about Baby One More Time, Britney Spears' debut album which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. We really appreciate it
Annie Zaleski: Thank you for having me.
Lauren Michelle Jackson: Thank you for having us.
Alison Stewart: Let's go out on Britney Spears Thinking About You.
[MUSIC - Britney Spears: Thinking About You]
Ah, ah-ah
Ah, oh, ah-ah
Friends say I'm away
Because I'm down with you every day
Alison Stewart: I just want to let you know we've got an Instagram post that says, "Hi Team Olivet, we're listening to your program now and saw you're discussing 25th anniversary of Britney Spears' debut album and wanted to let you know we're celebrating it with a free dance party at our Gowanus venue tomorrow night." That is from the Bell House Instagram. Anybody wants to get Britney Spears' dance moves on, you know where to go.
[MUSIC - Britney Spears: Thinking About You]
You speak and there is no other
Voice that I can hear
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