Born in rural Louisiana, teen popster Britney Spears was groomed for stardom from the start. She spent her early childhood performing in talent shows and dance reviews before, at age eight, she was discovered by a TV producer who hooked her up with a New York agent. Britney spent her summers in New York studying at the Off-Broadway Dance Center and the Professional Performing Arts School and began picking up television commercials. At 10 she landed a role in the Off-Broadway production "Ruthless" and a year later was cast in the Disney Channel's popular "Mickey Mouse Club Show." After two years of taping the Disney show in Orlando, Britney returned to Louisiana and set her sites on a career in pop music. She was quickly recruited by Jive Records, home of the Backstreet Boys, and teamed up with Eric Foster.(Whitney Houston, Hi-Five) and Max Martin (Robyn, Backstreet Boys), who produced her debut album. 

Baby One More Time hit record store shelves in early 1999 and became one of the best selling albums of the year, helping to earn Spears a Grammy nomination for "Best New Artist." (The award went to teen queen rival Christina Aguilera.) Spears' sophomore effort, Oops!...I Did It Again, came out in May 2000. The album sold 1.3 million copies during its first week of release, beating Mariah Carey's record for the highest first-week sales by a female solo artist. OOPS I did it again….. Britney Spears carries on the classic archetype of the rock & roll teen queen, the dungaree doll, the angel baby who just has to make a scene. She has nothing to do with Lolita and everything to do with Ann-Margret's pink capri pants in Bye Bye Birdie. Buddy Holly called her Peggy Sue, Ricky Nelson called her Mary Lou, the Beach Boys called her Barbara Ann, and her boyfriend called her at Beechwood 4-5789. It's her party and she'll grind if she wants to. Shooting at the walls of heartache, bang bang, she is the warrior. 

Britney is a solo starlet working the girl-group shoop shoop, and if she's no Dusty Springfield yet, she's up there with Lesley Gore, Connie Francis and Claudine Clark. Oops! . . . I Did It Again is fantastic pop cheese, with much better song-factory hooks than 'N Sync or BSB get. The usual Swedish suspects provide sugary disco bombast along with guest producers Rodney Jerkins and Mutt Lange. In the terrific title hit, the music comes from Barbra Streisand's "Woman in Love," the words evoke Morrissey circa "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish," but that brutal growl is all Britney, articulating a violently ambivalent sexual confusion her audience can relate to, kicking and screaming for the right to figure out her desires before the world decides for her. She's in the dressing room, trying on various styles of adult sexuality that don't quite fit yet, and her fans know how that feels. As the Crystals used to sing, girls can tell. 

You can hear the same fury in her brilliant version of the Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as she vandalizes the words ("how white my shirts could be" becomes "how tight my skirt should be" -- perfect) and snarls in libidinal frustration. Let it bleed, Miss B: Clearly it's just a matter of time before Christina Aguilera strikes back with "Have You Seen Your Mother, Britney, Standing in the Shadow?," followed by Jessica Simpson's "Under My Thumb," Mandy Moore's "Ruby Tuesday" and the Backstreet Boys' "Back Street Girl." That's the great thing about Oops! -- under the cheese surface, Britney's demand for satisfaction is complex, fierce and downright scary, making her a true child of rock & roll tradition