Monday, October 7, 2024

Tears for Spears: Britney’s New Album Comes in a Lackluster 5th Behind Duck Dynasty Carols

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Britney Spears: do she even have a constituency? As the 31 year old former teen queen heads to Vegas, her recording career is on the wane. This week she sold around 108,000 copies of her “Britney Jean” album. That’s considerably less than her peers, such as Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Selena Gomez in their debut sales weeks.

Justin Bieber should watch the Britney saga closely. Spears’s stardom came in her late teens and early twenties. Her mental breakdowns and public spectacles didn’t help. But like most invented pop stars, Spears was not designed for a shelf life of more than five years. The fact that she sold even 100,000 copies this week is pretty good. But sales like that won’t sustain her over the next decade.

“Britney Jean” indeed sold fewer copies than the Duck Dynasty family The Robertsons, singing Christmas carols. (I cannot believe anyone in their right mind is buying or even listening to that.)

Britney will be alright. Even though “Britney Jean” is a non starter, the former pop tart will sell tickets in Vegas. And she’s got her Perfume. At least she made the effort. Way down the charts from number 4, around 20, is Lady Gaga’s scuffed and abandoned “ARTPOP.”

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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