Great Debate: Can Britney Spears Make A Comeback?

By Brendan Butler and Lexi Feinberg: 2007-04-17 20:15:01

Can Britney Spears Make A Comeback?

Yay!

-- Brendan Butler

OK, so maybe I’ve never paid sufficient mind to the Britney Spears saga over the last eight years. Since the bubbly 16-year-old debuted on TRL with “…Baby One More Time,” leading guest Mark McGrath to exclaim, “Man, I can’t wait until she’s 18!,” it appeared this was a girl who could fall prey to others’ whims.

If mommy says you’re going to be a pop star everyday from the age of 2, then by God, that is what you are and that’s all you will identify yourself as. Britney was cute, Britney was light, Britney was fun and she had to keep it up, until she couldn’t. (Who’s to say we all could, either?) Somewhere between being a pop superstar and a young mother of two, Britney forgot, or was prohibited, to grow up.

I forget whether it was Mahatma Ghandi or Chuck Palahniuk who said something to the effect of, “Only through complete self-destruction can you be resurrected.” Britney never found who she was before the world decided for her; now it’s time for her to do just that. But performing is what she knows--and remember, the girl can seriously bust a move, which I don’t think fans are done witnessing yet.

No rush, though. Britney’s in a place where she knows who her friends are, and while that’s a painful place to get to, it’s surely kind of beautiful in a way. Now we should give her the time to find Jesus, Buddha, Allah, or whatever it takes to bring her comfort through the night. So if and when she decides to resume her performing career, I’ll tune into the event see the pop princess reclaim her throne or rip it to shreds entirely. It’s Britney’s life; she’ll be who she wants to be.

Nay!

-- Lexi Feinberg

The only thing people love more than a success story is a good old-fashioned fall-from-grace story. As much as people obsessed about Britney Spears, from her titillating "…Baby One More Time" Catholic schoolgirl tease at age 17 up to 2003's "Toxic," it's nothing like how it is now. Everyone and their grandmas are gabbing about the fallen pop princess, and generally getting off on her misery just a tad too much.

Still, we all know the stories and have likely relayed a few ourselves. But now Britney wants to take her name out of the tabloids and put it back into accredited music magazines. Namely, she wants to make a comeback.

Can such a task be accomplished? She has recruited the help of hotshot producer Sean Garrett (who has worked with Beyoncé) and is planning to release an album sometime this year. Timbaland and ex beau/fellow former Mousketeer Justin Timberlake have also offered to lend a hand.

But with fans rapidly turning their backs on her--let's not forget that one of her top fansites shut down--does anyone really want to see her catapult back into the music stratosphere?

My guess is no. Although some people will buy her new album, if only for the curiosity factor, she'll never attain the success she had before. Part of Britney's appeal--since, let's face it, she's always been more of a performer than a singer (just like her idol Madonna)--is that people found her cool/erotic/inspiring/relatable. Now her prime is a faded thing of the past. Goodbye arousing performer who sold over 76 million albums worldwide; hello washed up mother of two.

Lately, like Paris Hilton, she is more or less famous for nothing. And I suspect that is exactly how the masses will want to keep it.

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Jairo Acevedo \"Mr. Spears\'\' Says:
April 17th, 2007 at 20:58
Yes i know britney spears will make a "good" comeback and i want her to for everyone will think she is good again.....as for k-fed if i was britney i woiuld left him a long ass time ago lol but about her comeback i know she can do it i will root for her as long as she stands :D:D

don Says:
April 19th, 2007 at 01:59
Yes Britney can make a beautiful come back .If any one can make a come back Britney can .She will be just as great as she ever was.It will be like she never left .You can't keep a great woman like Britney down. She rocks. I totaly love Britney Jean Spears. I have all her CDs and DVDs she's ever made. LOTS OF LOVE always....

Christopher Says:
June 5th, 2007 at 08:08
I don't think so! Finally people are waking up and realizing that this woman has been a fake all along. She can't sing and she can't act, she's not even attractive anymore. Way back when, she was "HOT" because she was just another blonde teenage girl shaking her ass on tv, but where's the real talent?
She never "sings" LIVE, it's all done by a playback and I think that's wrong. Why pay so much money to see someone mime to a playback. I don't feel sorry for her, she's running all the way to the bank with the money all these fools pay her. I have no respect for her as a so-called artist or as a parent.
If i'm going to spend alot of money to see someone SING and PERFORM LIVE! I go with someone like Jennifer Hudson who doesn't need to lip-sync. I won't pay a dime to see a tacky, can't sing, gum chewing dumb trailer stripper.

The Joker Says:
July 30th, 2007 at 13:37
It looks like Ms. Spears 15 minutes are just running out now, given that her recent celebrity has little to do with her music and a lot to do with her bizarre personal antics. I suspect that much of the reason for this is that she no longer has the managers and handlers that were a big part of her rise. She's making those decisions herself now (or her current minions are), and it's starting to show, in the form of 15 minute lip-synch 'concerts' being the best she can do in terms of live performance, bizarre interviews with the tabloid press, personal scandal (Brit has managed to achieve the near impossible -- making K-Fed look like a more responsible parent than her) -- an ongoing train wreck.

It could be argued that nearly everything that she has accomplished up to now was due to superior marketing rather than any discernable talent (besides being able to wiggle her ass). Now, even her ability to do the latter seems to be in doubt.

She's supposed to have an album coming out at some point. It will probably sell respectably (a few million) due to her fanatical fans that haven't got the message yet. The tween girl market (most of Britney's fans, one assumes) is a fickle one, and not having released any new material in four years means that most of them will have abandoned her for other things by now. (Four years is almost half a lifetime for some of them!). To new tweens encountering her for the first time, she will be old hat and unfashionable. Her forays into other media (most specifically acting) have been a disaster, so there aren't too many other career options in the entertainment biz.

Hopefully, she can sensibly manage the pile of ash she made in her glory days (and has kept, thanks to a good pre-nup before she married K-Fed).

Ontario Emperor Says:
October 15th, 2007 at 03:51
I think that Britney CAN come back. Whether she WILL or not is another question. She has the following things going for her:

1. She actually CAN sing. I heard a recording of her as a child on one of these music shows, and she actually DOES have some musical talent somewhere in there.

2. There have been artists who have lost their initial popularity and have returned. Rick Nelson was the first artist to come to mind, but there have been some huge artists (Sinatra and Elvis) who fell out of favor and then came back after reinventing their sound.

3. The comparison to Madonna may prove to be a positive thing for her. Neither Madonna nor Britney are about to be confused with Beverly Sills or Aretha Franklin, but Madonna has demonstrated a capability to change her sound and maintain her popularity - some that Britney herself was able to do in the past.

However, the biggest difference between Madonna and Britney may be in terms of personal control. I'll admit that I don't know either woman personally, but Madonna appears to be a person who knows what she wants, who makes the decisions, and who gets her people to buy into her vision. Britney doesn't seem to be that type of person. But there's the chance that she could develop the capability.

Alex. Says:
January 30th, 2008 at 15:37
I laugh at some people i really do.

Christopher,
"I don't think so! Finally people are waking up and realizing that this woman has been a fake all along."
Okay then. What the HELL is fake about her? How can "chewing gum" make somebody fake? Do you need to get your facts straight? Yeah, you do.
Don't you think for one second that maybe if you lost your kids to some lowlife, drug-addicted (yes, DRUGS, HE was the one who was discovered FIRST to be taking drugs infront of the kids) peice of shit like Kevin Federline YOU'D be a bit on your worst?
How the HELL anybody can say that HE deserves to keep the kids totally bewilder me. Does it not strike you that he's already had 2 children elsewhere and left them, hmm? Where are your minds at? For gods sake, all you ever do is read what's put in the papers and NEVER read between the lines. NOT EVERY SINGLE REPORT YOU READ IS TRUE. Just because you see Britney looking a total state suddenly you jump to the conclusion of her being FAKE, trash, with no talent (even though she's what, had number ones going for the past 9 year or so? oh no of course she has no talent. she's only sold billions of albums worldwide)...
Get a grip, for gods sake.
It really gets to me how people can sit and slag her off when they DONT EVEN KNOW HER.
Spoken to her, have you? She told you her problems?
Fucking lowlives.
Get real and live your own life.

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Great Debate: Can Britney Spears Make A Comeback?

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