A great read from the series. Britney, truly, has always been synonymous with pop. Be it pop music, pop culture - she has been a triumphant example of everything related to these avenues. This is an excellent, multi-layered read, not only covering and analysing her career or her music, but the media and fan culture, for example.

maybe I just didn’t realize what type of book this was going to be. as a Britney stan i am all too familiar with the lore behind Original Doll and the Blackout processes, so i was hoping to gain a bit more insight besides what us fans already knew.
I was a bit confused because at first it’s written almost anti-Britney as there’s lots of mentions of Danja and the male production team, and Brit’s limited studio presence; until we introduce quotes from her collaborators defending her input on the album. the author also goes on random asides which had nothing to do with Blackout (for example there was a whole tangent about Dr Luke and Kesha). it just seemed quite messy

33 1/3 has proven to be an exceptional series, detailing how a carefully curated selection of albums gets made, as well as their role in the zeitgeist and the music industry.

The little gem on Britney Spears’ Blackout is an excellent read, one that encapsulates both the music industry in the early aughts and Britney’s role in pop culture at the time. This is not the best album by the artist by any stretch, nor the most musically interesting, but it was probably the best choice for this kind of examination, and the resulting read is both a fascinating cultural exploration and a fun nostalgia trip. Even the infamous “Bimbo Summit” makes an appearance!

I expect this series varies a bit because it uses different authors for different albums, so all the credit to Lasky for putting together such a terrific read. It’s a good mix of music and pop cultural commentary, as well as a look back with the benefit of 2023 hindsight into some appalling revelations about our collective value system at the time the album dropped.

I remember when Britney Spears dropped Blackout. I was in my early 20s, in law school. I followed celebrity gossip closely, though I tried to avoid Perez Hilton because I found his habit of drawing splooge on young women distasteful. There was no denying that Britney was a whole-ass mess, but the album she released in the midst of this turmoil became one of the most well-regarded of her career. In this edition of the ongoing 33 1/3 series, Natasha Lasky does a deep dive on the record, examining everything from the producers behind it, like Danja and Bloodshy & Avant, to the paparazzi culture of the time, which rewarded people like Perez and the photographers that would stop at nothing for a shot of one of the maligned, breathlessly covered out-of-control ingenues of Hollywood. A few songs (“Gimme More”, “Piece of Me”) see lots of focus, but I’d hoped for a more comprehensive look at the entire tracklist. Nevertheless, this is a very good read, especially for a pop-culture focused Elder Millennial like me.

What is interesting about Natasha Lasky's take on Britney Spears's album Blackout is that, outside of its historical reception, she feels comfortable enough to claim its classic status without any defensiveness. This is the correct position to attack a 33 1/3 book, but also one which I think is correct about this album. Even those who have knocked it at its time have come around to its status, and perhaps what is more interesting is how such an artist-specific and seemingly personal album is actually the one she is least involved in writing and even producing. Lasky explains that neatly, in amongst other seeming conundrums on the album (why is the biggest hit not written by the main produce despite to all intents and purposes sounding like it should be).

Britney is a fascinating topic here and this isn't as hyper-focussed on Blackout as some other 33 1/3's are on their subject album. There are even tracks that she doesn't even really discuss. In the end this turns out to be 50% on Blackout, 50% on Britney herself and her fandom. Initially, the extensive section on the internet wars of fansites and who her fandom had become seemed a little off-topic to me, but actually, it did all come back to the centre in the end (though I do think Lasky misses a group of mid-noughties fans who embraced Blackout, pop music nerds like myself). The proof of any of these books is listening to the album whilst reading the book and discovering (or rediscovering) aspects you previously overlooked. I know the Britney story, and it surprises me that the album is so much less personal (in as much as written and/or from Britney) than the lyrics and stance suggest, but that a team that intimately knew her, wanted to celebrate her and give her the ironically most personal statement makes sense for such an iconic noughties pop album.

I was so excited to see this book. What a journey! Even a Britney fan will learn a lot, and a non-Britney fan will appreciate her contributions to music and culture. Loved it.

“Britney Spears’s Blackout” is a slim, concise volume that nevertheless gives interesting, well-researched context to Britney Spears’ career and “Blackout” album (Jive Records, 2007.)

In moving from her early days of sweet pop songs to the harsher tones of “Blackout,” Spears herself aged and evolved, heavily influenced by the way that she was treated by her family, management team and producers, each who had an idea of who Britney was and should be, and each who had different methods of controlling her toward their desired outcome.

This book explores deeper into the reasons why that might be. The author’s research is presented against not only the final version of the album, but also the personalities and motives of the people who made it, fans and online media.

Lasky explores Spears' creative journey and its milestones in relation to “Blackout,” leaving the reader to understand that it represents Spears’ attempt to assert herself in a world that increasingly constrained her, as an artist and as a person.

**This book was provided on loan from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Once again the 33 1/3rd series makes me care about an album I otherwise would have discounted. I was never a fan of Britney Spears (and I'm still not) but she is an undeniable part of pop music history and this book goes a long way to argue for her place in it.

This book is a great exploration of the beginning of the time right before Britney was placed in her conservatorship.

We see that the signs of Britney's eventual breakdown were before us the whole time. Like many people, when I saw the picture of Britney, shaven headed and swinging an umbrella at a car, I thought she was a full on crazy person. But this reductive way of thinking discounted the pain and anguish Britney experienced as someone who was unable to live a happy life. We should have seen how deeply unhappy she was instead of clicking on the links painting her as out of control. Lasky does a great job of painting Britney as a weary, tired person whose life wasn't her own. Hindsight is 20/20, but the signs were all there for us to see.

Lasky also does a great exploration of early Internet fandom. She is able to contrast two different people, Jordan and Cara. Jordan was able to create the number one Britney fan site and is still seen as a prominent Britney expert. Cara was the one who put herself out there with the "Leave Britney Alone" video. Lasky used their stories to explore both early Web and YouTube fandom. Every movement has a beginning, and these early stories are always interesting to read.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who's interested in the music of the mid 2000s. You won't regret it.

I have to admit I picked this book out of a morbid curiosity as to what happened to Britney during this time. I remember feeling sorry for her and her attempt of a comeback when I was younger. Fortunately, I have become a bit more media savvy in the years since this initially happened.

Britney Spears's Blackout by Natasha Lasky is an excellent addition to the 33 1/3 series, highlighting both the production, reception, and influence of the album. I went back and listened to this album while reading this and what an iconic album! Such an interesting and well written book.

I'm a huge Britney Spears fan and hope to pick this up in the future but something with the format was making it horribly difficult to read due to the small font and direction in which the pages would scroll. I am so sorry but still look forward to this one!

This book was a delight. Many culture writers describe Spears in a defensive stance-- making her as either a genius or a victim. This sets the tone-- Lasky writes about Spears with warmth but is clearly also doing journalistic work here. I learned a lot about how pop music is made, the collaborative process and relationships between producers and artists. This book gave me a greater appreciation for Spears and the work of her producers.

When I found out a book about Blackout was being written I was elated. It’s no secret I’m a huge Britney fan and Blackout is easily her most iconic work. I was excited to dive deep into the production and creative process…but that’s not at all what this book is. This is like 75% a rehashing if Britney’s troubles during the time, and much less of a testimony of the genius that is Blackout. While, yes, the struggles of the 2007-2008 era are something unavoidable to the creation of Blackout, how much time is spent on this is unnecessary. This read as an essay of Britney’s life during the her struggle, and much less of a deep dive into one of the greatest achievements in pop music. The only new or intriguing information we get surrounds Danja. Britney fans, skip this one. You’ll learn nothing new.

This is my first experience with a 33 1/3 book. I definitely learned a few new things about Britney's life and career. It was written well and nicely summed everything up. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan. I will be reading about more artist from this publication in the future..

I can't help but feel I may be punushing the book, but I just didn't have enough time with it to make my peace. The 33⅓ series is well regarded by my best friend, and the writing holds up well enough despite the niche of the topic.

As a millennial, I have followed Britney since she came out which was around middle school-age for me. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for her, and I honestly felt like I grew up along with her. Blackout has continued to be my favorite album of hers, so I was stoked when I saw someone write about this era of Britney's discography. I learned so much from this book that I didn't already know! I loved hearing about Britney's vision, and it really drove home how tragic the conservatorship has always been for her, even from the start. She truly has never been able to do what she wanted in any way. It was great to hear about all the producers, engineers, and writers that contributed to the album. I did feel that the chapters about the Britney fans (especially the ones that ran the blogs, and Cara Cunningham aka Chris Crocker) ran too long. However, I suppose they added to the reasons why Blackout has become somewhat of a "cult favorite" nowadays. Blackout was not successful and got panned when it first came out. I enjoyed this book, and I think any Britney fan would love to read this. Thank you, NetGalley and publisher for the ARC!

I am delighted that I was given the chance to read an ARC of Britney Spear's Blackout by Natasha Lasky, which is part of the 33 1/3 book series by Bloomsbury Publishing. Delighted, as Blackout is one of my most played albums of the past 15 years, and I once compared it to Radiohead's Kid A to a friend (who laughed at me when it was released, but guess who's laughing now), which should tell you I think it is a sonic masterpiece. I also think it's one of those albums that has absolutely stood the test of time, which can't be said for every Britney album, especially the earliest ones. Anyway, I shall stop this stanning to say that I was delighted Blackout was getting the 33 1/3 treatment. On to the review of that book.
I enjoyed parts of the book, however I feel the story deviated from what this series is meant to be. The parts that covered the actual making of the album, the production, and the release were super interesting and informative. It was what I expected to find here. However, a great deal of the book centered around what I consider to be gossip, fan theories, and just general deviation from the actual album. Yes, parts of it added context to the album's release and the reasons it resonated with fans and flopped with critics at the time, but a lot of it seemed completely superfluous to the background of the album.
There's also the fact that this is being released right on the tails of the conservatorship ending, and a new life for Britney, and so the updates near the end feel dated already. She's married now. She's moved. She's about to release her own memoir. I feel like this book would have been better if it had happened 5 years ago or in another 5. Releasing it now seems opportunistic.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

I have always seen but never read any of the 33 1/3 books but I am so glad that my first one is for Blackout by Britney Spears, an iconic childhood favorite album tied to some major pop culture events. Natasha Lasky misses no bases diving deep into behind the scenes production, the pop culture surrounding the album at the time, paparazzi and gossip media’s damaging effects on it’s reception, etc. I loved the analysis of the importance of this album to the LGBTQ+ community and how it became a cult classic by resonating with many of us. Very informative and interesting read which has me interested to check out more of the 33 1/3 collection! Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the e-ARC.

It is, indeed, Britney, bitch. And not that I'm saying the 33 1/3 list can lean a bit rockist or anything, but not before time. To the extent that I was a little worried this might just restate the general recent discourse about the shoddy treatment of Britney in particular and female celebrities in general by the noughties (though Lasky prefers 'aughts') media. Not so: where some entries in the series can be overwhelmed by their agenda (looking at you, Achtung Baby), this one remains rooted in close reading – of the album itself, Britney's finest; the CVs of its star and producers; the atmosphere in which it arrived; the response of the world at large and the fan culture. Lasky goes beyond the obvious talking points to look at how media mergers propelled the increasing ubiquity of celebrity coverage circa Britney's 'meltdown', and how the particular form that coverage took at the time was a function of a very specific technological moment, where digital cameras and gossip blogs were a thing, but Instagram et al had yet to give the famous the opportunity to manage their own story. And it's crazy to realise that this was all 15 years ago, and that as Lasky notes, so much of early online fan culture is already lost; we lived through this, and yet that shift from fandom being something reports would mock from outside, to people proudly asserting their fandom as a qualification, already exists in a massively incomplete form, the records of MySpace and old fora as incomplete as the lost libraries of antiquity.

Before we get to that point, though, we need to know how Britney got there, and here as throughout the difference to the endless think pieces and their generalities is immediately evident. I don't know how deep a dig it took Lasky to find, for instance, Britney's Mickey Mouse Club tutor talking about her implicit trust in authority figures, but however deep it was, I didn't know it, and none of the stuff people were posting around her emancipation seemed to have taken the trouble. But then, most of them were trying to stand up a take, and facts and nuance tend to get in the way of that, don't they? So I've definitely seen the quote before where Max Martin talks about how Britney's inexperience let him make the record he wanted to make with ...Baby One More Time, but not the one with her talking about how, even right back there at her debut, she stayed up late the night before so her voice would sound rougher and better fit the song. Or the other Max Martin quote, where he calls her a genius. Not that he worked on Blackout, but Lasky has been equally thorough when it comes to the producers who did, Danja (with his at the time uncharacteristic interest in the album as a form that can make a coherent statement) and the more reclusive Bloodshy & Avant.

The other big difference to those think pieces is that, as Lasky reminds us, discussion of pop stars has only advanced so far since those dark days over which the press have recently been weeping and rending clothes; Britney can be a victim now, instead of a figure of hate or fun, but that's still putting her in another, very limiting role, one predicated on notions of agency and authenticity that tend to favour creators of a particular type, and gender, and (not that Lasky emphasises this one to the same extent) class. Against which flattening, the book never lets Blackout become a victim impact statement, always emphasises the irreducibility of its mood/s: "Though Blackout is an album of club bangers, its subject – more than fucking or dancing or drinking – is the difficulty of establishing a self in public. Sometimes she gets off on the attention, like in Gimme More; sometimes she gets annoyed with it, like on Break The Ice. The record feels no need to resolve those inconsistencies." And, very wisely, nor does the book, giving us the detail to better understand the rainbow rather than attempting to unweave it. If I have one quibble, it's with the one time it does attempt to narrow Britney down by describing her as "about as straight as they come" bar the Madonna kiss, which at the very least requires a strictly MMF reading of 3 that I'm not sure the song supports. That's an uncharacteristic moment, though, especially when you compare the insightful section on how the personas Britney and Paris Hilton created have parallels to the constructed femininity of drag. That chapter, incidentally, has the wonderful title 'Bimbos of the Apocalypse", taken from a New York Post summary of the supposed unholy trinity the pair of them formed with Lindsay Lohan (a unit Lasky points out was barely even a set, much less the doom of Western civilisation). All three of the chapters proper having titles with a similar IDGAF energy, as befits the album: we also get "Just Real Bitches In A Fake-Ass World", derived from the fan who so famously insisted the world "leave Britney alone", and of all people Diamanda Galas is responsible for "A Sicko Producer's Dream". Which was obviously my favourite, simply because it's so easy to picture a mixing desk added at the bottom of that Onion pic. And wouldn't a "Yes...ha ha ha...yes!" fit right in with all those asides and little snatches of speech on Blackout?

(Netgalley ARC)