…Baby One More Time

This album is a mess. But probably by design to get a single out of it matter what. I'd this a decent album? No. Is this an album id listen to again besides the first 2 songs? Also no, but man does it hit a zeitgeist. Plus I'm only giving this a 5 because I know that there are assholes just giving this a 1 because it's brithey and I have to void one out

Now a camp classic, but camp is about knowing something sucks and loving it anyway for the lols. I don't understand why we're all supposed to retcon this into being good. bUt ShE's aN iCoNiC pOp KwEeN! Who cares? Does pretending this is good somehow make it worth the abuse we now know she endured bc of it? Celebrating this is just celebrating the abusive corporate monoculture that victimized her. Sure, it was a defining sound of its time, but so was kid rock and the chilli's baby back ribs song. This music sucked in 1999 and it sucks now and nostalgia for pre 9/11 adolescence isn't fixing anything.

I get why this is on the list, but apart from a couple songs there's not much here for me. Something about pop music from this era (Christina A, J Lo, etc.) makes me feel like I'm stuck in a stuffy doctor's waiting room on a hot day. "Born to Make You Happy" is such a problematic song, I can't even start. Given what we know now about how Britney was abused over the years, I really find it hard to enjoy this album at all

First things first, not my jam... I had to listen to this in headphones at the dead of night so no one would catch me. Obviously it's the monster debut album from the preeminent pop star of the 21st century, starts off strong with the title track but then dips when the second song "You Drive Me Crazy" comes in as it's not the far superior single version. Song three, "Sometimes", is pleasing enough for a mushy pop ballad but thereafter is far more misses than hits and full of emotionless generic pre-millennium pop beats that could have been lifted from a preset library. She would go into better things as far as her career was concerned, but was this as good as it got? It was definitely the biggest commercial success she'd experience but it just felt so empty out with a few fleeting moments.

No... No place for this on this list

Yet another ex-1001 album!™
http://1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie.wikidot.com/album-artists-a-z-ex

Dreadful album. But ...Baby One More Time still hits the nostalgia hard. Oh how teenage me wanted to go to that school!

When this came out I pretty much completely disregarded it. I'd long stopped listening to Top 40 radio by that point. I heard the singles without trying to of course, but I never listened to the album. Never crossed my mind. I was pretty far from the target audience. If you'd confronted me with having an opinion on it back then, I probably would have decried it as total shit. Now, twenty some years later, it's nothing that really causes any sort of emotional reaction one way or the other. A carefully crafted pop record if anything. The singles are the standouts for sure. Otherwise, it sounds like she is throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. It's kind of all over the place. She hadn't quite dialed in the personality/image she wanted to project yet, and I guess she had to segue out the Disney thing as well. Not sure this belongs on the list as much as her followup does, but I suppose it was a big deal in mass culture.

Meh. Very very pop, not my thing at all, and yet, there is something there. The acoustic indie covers of some of the songs are better, but also show the songs are ok without all the production and nonsense.
"Email my heart" might be the most 1999 song title I have ever heard though, and most of the album just sounds like filler; especially the terrible remixes that close out the album. However, 1 good and 2 decent songs (3 of the 4 singles) => better than the albums that get 1 ⭐ (but only just - like 1.5000000001/5!)

DIVA!

I was trying to find a way to rate this higher than a 1. It has two singles that topped the charts, so it can't be THAT bad, can it. Yes, yes it can. It's terribly dated, way overproduced, bland, AND infuriating at the same time. It's really not good, and I'm glad it was removed from future versions of the book.