Headlines about the travails of Britney Spears have been plastered everywhere for almost four years, but that isn't necessarily all bad for her as a recording artist.
Blackout, the singer's first studio album since 2003, arrives in stores Tuesday, and she still seems to have retained some of the popularity that fueled four No. 1 albums that have sold more than 75 million copies worldwide.
Despite tabloid reports about her marriages and divorce, rehab stints, weight gain, driving mishaps and child custody problems, the 25-year-old singer's latest single, Gimme More, is a sales hit. It topped Nielsen SoundScan's digital songs chart earlier this month and is now No. 8, having sold a solid 527,000 copies in four weeks.
"You almost have to throw out the rule book when you evaluate her," says Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts. "You might think the attention she's gotten doesn't bode well, but the first single has been well received."
The track initially was strongly embraced by mainstream top-40 radio stations, but it peaked at No. 17 and falls to No. 22 this week. Mayfield says it could become a dance hit but isn't likely to gain footing in other major formats.
Spears sold nearly 20 million copies of 1999's ... Baby One More Time and 2000's Oops! ... I Did It Again, but nobody does those numbers anymore. Even the 2 million sold by 2003's In the Zone would be a good showing in this era of digital track downloads and dwindling album sales.
Still, Barry Weiss, president and CEO of Jive Records' parent Zomba Label Group, is bullish about the album's prospects, based on Gimme More's download sales. He says that it's hard to predict how an artist who has been off the market for four years will fare but that the album's high-energy dance/pop is what her fans expect.
"The sound is a maturation from her prior albums," Weiss says. "In the Zone hinted in this direction, and this album fulfills that promise.""With so much noise out there about her, we are trying to keep the focus on the music as much as possible." He says Spears "will do her part" in promoting the album, but the company will be "very selective" about what she's asked to do.
The 12-track Blackout is produced largely by Timbaland protege Nate "Danja" Hills and the Swedish duo Bloodshy & Avant, who helmed her Grammy-winning hit Toxic. Stephen Lenz, editor of AOL Music's PopEater and a contributor to the blog's Britneywatch, says Spears is the site's third-most-searched-for artist and Gimme More is the fourth-most-watched video. The comments he sees there (music.aol.com/popeater) are evenly split between forever-faithful fans and those disaffected by her antics.
He's not sure how that will translate into album sales, but that may not matter. "She's got her money. The point is to stay relevant. She's really feeding this machine, but it's a Catch-22. She needs to stay in the public eye, but stay out of trouble."
Sources: USA Today / BritneyExperts
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