It’s been 26 years since Britney Spears upended pop culture with her second album, Oops!…I Did It Again. It was released on May 3, and by May 28 had topped almost every global album chart. By the end of the year, it charted in the Top 5 in nine countries.
Oops!…I Did It Again was massively successful and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. In its first week, it sold 1.3 million copies, holding the record for fastest-selling album by a female artist for 15 years. That record was finally surpassed when Adele released 25 in 2015.
But Spears’ second album remains a cultural touchstone of the new millennium. Its success at the time had much to do with the release timeline, dropping only a year and a half after Spears’ debut, …Baby One More Time. Her fanbase was huge, but young, with wavering attention spans. Releasing a second album right after the commercially successful debut was just good planning.
According to Britney Spears, Her Second Album Featured a More Mature, Confident Sound
Spears indicated that there was mounting pressure to meet, and hopefully surpass, the success of the first album at the time. But if she was ever nervous about the new album, she never let it show. In fact, she told MTV News that she was “really confident with [the new material].”
She added, “I mean, of course there’s some pressure.” Then clarified, “But in my opinion, [Oops!] is a lot better than the first album. It’s edgier—it has more of an attitude. It’s more me, and I think teenagers will relate to it more.”
While discussing the album during interviews at the time, Britney Spears often spoke of how she related more to this album’s themes and lyrics. A year had passed since …Baby One More Time, and she felt she’d matured and grown more confident. That, in turn, showed up in her vocals. Additionally, while Oops! was treated as a sequel to …Baby One More Time, there was a clear deviation from the bubblegum pop of her debut.
“It’s not something I changed purposefully,” she told MTV News of the album’s R&B-focused pop sound. “It’s just something that kind of changed on itself with me being older. My voice has changed a little bit, and I’m more confident, and I think that comes across on the material.”
This came through on her cover of The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. Produced by Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Spears’ cover was almost unrecognizable, in a way that appealed to a new, younger audience. It was nothing less than pure Y2K pop.
Shania Twain Lyrics, A ‘Titanic’-Inspired Breakdown, and More Influences on ‘Oops!’
Additionally, Spears said she related most to the single “Don’t Let Me Be the Last To Know”. It was a moderate hit in the U.K., but didn’t chart in the U.S. However, it was co-written by Shania Twain and Mutt Lange, who also produced the single.
“When you hear the song, it’s so pure and delicate. It’s just one of those songs that pull you in,” Spears said at the time. “I think they wrote it especially for me, because the lyrics of the song, if you really listen … they’re more of what I can relate to, ’cause they’re kind of young lyrics, I think. I don’t think Shania would probably sing some of the words that I’m saying.”
One of the most out-of-the-blue moments on the album, but arguably the most memorable, is the Titanic-inspired dialogue in the middle of the title track. You remember, the guy gives Britney Spears the Heart of the Ocean, she says “But I thought the old lady dropped it into the ocean in the end?” and the guy says “Well, baby, I went down and got it for you.” In response, Spears gives a conflicted-sounding “Aw, you shouldn’t have.”
The post On This Day in 2000, Britney Spears Set Records With an Iconic Album Inspired by Titanic, Shania Twain, and More appeared first on VICE.
