Britney Spears - Britney/In The Zone

"Britney" is the third studio album by Spears, released in 2001. The album features a mix of pop and R&B tracks, with themes centered around growing up and out, often toiling in the awkward I'm Not a Girl, But Not Yet a Woman phase of Britney's life. This album was a pseudo-companion to the film starting Britney, Crossroads, a coming of age road trip film. The lead single, "I'm a Slave 4 U," was a hit and marked a departure from Spears' earlier teen pop image and made the sexuality on display more overt in the music. The album received mixed reviews from music critics but was commercially successful, selling over four million copies in the United States and over ten million copies worldwide."In the Zone" is the fourth studio album released in 2003. This marked a further departure from Spears' earlier pop-forward approach. The sexual come ons hit in full stride here, despite Britney's insistence in interviews that her art is motivated by a love of fun and dance. But we are no prudes, and we have nothing to moralize. Unfortunately, this is just an even less interesting or well-constructed record. If nothing else, this record has Toxic -- perhaps the best song on offer in Britney's oeuvre.All in all, the Britney Spears story is a once in culture type of history. She's an incredible performer. While her way too prolonged conservatorship is the center point of discussion these days, it's worth taking a look back even further to see how she became one of the biggest stars of all time.