BRITNEY SPEARS - The Singles Collection

I've never had much sympathy for the Britney Spears persona, for her being, despite herself, a symbol of an America that's straitlaced on the surface but deep down violent, harsh, "pornographic" in the same way as the children's beauty pageants she probably took part in herself as a little girl before landing on TV. And yet seeing this latest collection of hers on the shelves at Walmart, with artwork worthy of a perfume box aimed at teenage girls, made it strike me as the ideal souvenir for getting a snapshot of recent American pop culture.

The many photos shown inside the cover are stills taken from her various videos, and they show how, over ten years, the image she's put forward - that of a sexy blonde lolita - has never really changed much, becoming, at most, more provocative with time and age; the booklet, meanwhile, is one long litany of Billboard chart positions for every track included, millions of albums and singles sold, gold and platinum records earned around the world.

In short, with her second greatest hits (five years after the first, with only two new albums in between), her record label seems to be insistently underlining that Spears is still the goose that lays the golden eggs, the world's number one popstar, America's reassuring yet titillating sweetheart; never mind that, in reality, even on US radio, the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus are increasingly stealing her spotlight, and that, after her famous breakdown, her still-considerable success looks ever more provisional – a giant with feet of clay.

Because the doubt, ten years on, remains the same: for how much longer will Jive Records be willing to invest millions in her (rather than in fresher faces), to buy ready-made songs for a girl who has absolutely no control over her own music (of the 17 greatest hits on offer, only 2 are co-written by her), who never sings live (just a few days ago in Australia there was heated controversy over a concert performed entirely to playback), and who, when she's not panting, has a voice so flat and nasal that it could easily be swapped out for the digital voice of a satnav?

Behind these 17 hits could be any averagely attractive American girl with little personality and questionable talent: the result wouldn't change much. What would remain is still a handful of songs that, for better or worse, have shaped a paradigm of top-of-the-charts American pop over the last decade.

So it's almost interesting to trace, in chronological order, the evolution/devolution of "her" output: evolution because, from the bombastic, plasticky arrangements of Max Martin in her always rather childish early days ("…Baby One More Time" and "Oops!… I Did It Again"), things moved first to the hypnotic, highly erotic beats of Neptunes ("I'm A Slave 4 U" and "Boys"), then to the more complex, distorted productions of studio wizards like Bloodshy & Avant (the Middle Eastern strings of "Toxic" and the reckless sonic/vocal collage of "Piece Of Me"), before returning to a renewed Martin in a more electro but no more mature guise (the unreleased "3" and "If U Seek Amy"). Devolution because, while her early singles were supremely catchy tracks with carefully crafted melodies designed to conquer radio stations worldwide, over time her songs have appeared increasingly deconstructed, built on half-sketched melodies entirely at the service of whatever beat happened to be fashionable ("Radar" and "Piece Of Me" are the most glaring examples, but just listen to the repetitiveness of "Gimme More" and "Womanizer" too). That said, these later efforts are decidedly stronger – in fact, the second half of the collection is without doubt the most satisfying and impressive run of "big hitters". Even so, more than anything, it sounds like a series of impressive technical showcases for whichever producer was on duty, rather than a collection of genuine songs.

Only a couple of tracks could have been left out: the mawkish, adolescent "Born To Make You Happy" and the thoroughly saccharine "Everytime" (one of only two tracks bearing her own songwriting credit, the other being the less-than-memorable duet with Madonna, "Me Against The Music"), a track she must be especially attached to, seeing as it's the only one she performs live on her latest tour.

It's hard to make predictions about her future, or to guess which and how many of these songs will manage to survive once their owner's commercial run eventually comes to an end. While we wait for answers, "The Singles Collection" is nonetheless an interesting crash course on one of the most popular, manufactured and manipulated figures showbiz has ever produced.

Thanks to Giampiero Cingolani for the quoted assist at the top.

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03/12/2009