When Britney Spears’ sophomore album, Oops!…I Did It Again, was unleashed into the new millennium on May 16, 2000, Spears was still just eighteen years old (going on nineteen in December of that year). And on the brink of embracing the full extent of her powers (yes, that means sexual powers as much as pop star powers). Thus, wanting to capitalize on the success of her 1999 debut, …Baby One More Time, Spears took no more than a week off in between wrapping up her tour for that album and getting right back into the studio to record the next. Once again working with Max Martin, additional songwriting and production assistance came from Eric Foster White, Diane Warren, Robert “Mutt” Lange, Steve Lunt and Babyface. With such names in the mix, it’s no wonder that Oops!…I Did It Again is, let’s face it, chock-full of some cheeseball ballads that didn’t quite stand the test of time.
In truth, if any “music expert” were to have been asked when Oops!…I Did It Again was first released if the record would have any kind of lasting legacy, most would have likely said no (in a much less polite way). Instead, they probably would have projected that Spears and her “Jive Records kind” would be relegated to some niche pocket of music history, like Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. But even her staunchest detractors couldn’t ignore that Spears became a full-blown phenomenon with the album’s title track and accompanying video (referenced time and time again in the years since its release, mainly via red latex catsuit homages in the form of Halloween costumes). It was an undeniable catalyst for the success of the song, and even got its own MTV Making the Video episode (her second one for the series, following 1999’s “[You Drive Me] Crazy”).
Using the concept Spears came up with, Nigel Dick directed her as a, let’s say, “sexy Martian” playing games with an overly passionate astronaut’s heart. The video’s indelible imagery was to be the first of many “iconic moments” from the album’s visual arsenal. And, considering Spears suffered a minor head injury while working on the set and barely took a break to recover, one would hope the video should have such a lasting impact.
As lasting as the videos for “Lucky” (its importance [especially to gays] recently highlighted in the first scene of the very first episode of Benito Skinner’s series, Overcompensating), “Stronger” and, to a lesser extent, “Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know” (with Dave Meyers, Joseph Kahn and Herb Ritts directing, respectively). Apart from those singles, however, the only other bona fide standouts on the record are “Don’t Go Knockin’ on My Door,” “What U See (Is What U Get” and “Can’t Make You Love Me” (offering a beat that sounds a lot like the one in Backstreet Boys’ 1999 single, “Larger Than Life”). Incidentally, the latter two songs were accused of copyright infringement by Michael Cottril and Lawrence Wnukowski. In the end, though, the case was thrown out. Not that Spears would have paid that much attention to it if it had endured in court. She was much too busy promoting the album, barely finished with the (You Drive Me) Crazy Tour (a.k.a. the Crazy 2k Tour) when the announcement was made that she would be embarking on the Oops!…I Did I it Again Tour, which also marked her first foray into touring Europe. Yet, of the thirteen songs performed, the set list was a near equal mix of tracks from …Baby One More Time and Oops!…I Did It Again. Likely an indication of Spears’ “schizophrenic” “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” state (before she could cohesively formulate that sentiment on said single in 2001).
However, perhaps wanting to more clearly emphasize that she was “not that innocent” anymore, on September 7, 2000, Spears took to the VMAs stage while on tour, performing in an outfit that is still considered one of her most scandalous costumes: matching flesh-colored pants and a bra top adorned with Swarovski crystals that only added to the “nude effect” (though, later in her career, Spears would actually go nude with crystals hand-glued to her body for the “Toxic” video). Thus, the declaration, “Oops, you think I’m in love/That I’m sent from above/I’m not that innocent” became all the more insistent and serious to audiences who were still trying to box her into the “for tweens and teens only” category.
But, don’t get it twisted, Spears continued to maintain plenty of those fans when it came to the audience interested in her work, except that, suddenly, she was attracting a new kind of attention. Her self-confidence and comfortableness with her body leading to the inevitable patriarchal teardown that started in the wake of her 2002 breakup with Justin Timberlake. Because up until that point, having a “steady” meant she couldn’t be branded as a “slut.”
So it was that her Oops!…I Did It Again era, however salacious, wasn’t met with nearly as much acrimony as her In the Zone period in 2003 (with 2001’s Britney further declaring her sexual freedom via songs like “I’m a Slave 4 U” and “Boys”—plus, Timberlake even had a feature on one of the songs, “What It’s Like to Be Me”). In honor of the album’s twenty-fifth anniversary, however, it doesn’t seem as though Legacy Recordings and RCA (the entities with a much more vested interest in its release than Spears) can quite capture what the album meant at the time. Least of all with what they’re billing as “two new remixes–“Stronger” (Adamusic Remix) and “Oops!…I Did It Again” (Pessto Remix)–created especially for this release.” Along with some “rarities,” though not anything that hasn’t been previously unearthed in some form or another.
In other words, with four additional songs (and six remixes) added to the twenty-fifth anniversary edition, “Dear Diary” is now followed by “Girl in the Mirror,” which was perhaps not played up that much at the time because the motif and pace is too similar to Christina Aguilera’s “Reflection” (and also, it goes without saying that “Girl in the Mirror” sounds, title-wise, a lot like Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”).
The lyrics are predictably corny, with Spears describing, “There’s a girl in the mirror/I wonder who she is/Sometimes I think I know her/Sometimes I really wish I did/There’s a story in her eyes/Lullabies and goodbyes/When she’s looking back at me/I can tell her heart is broken easily.” In another verse, Spears harkens back to the loneliness theme of “…Baby One More Time” (“My loneliness is killin’ me”) and “Stronger” (“My loneliness ain’t killin’ me no more”) by singing, “If I could, I would tell her/Not to be afraid/The pain that she’s feeling/The sense of loneliness will fade/So dry your tears and rest assured/Love will find you like before.” That last line being particularly bittersweet when framed within the present context of Spears’ life, where love hasn’t seemed to find her at all. Only more pain and loneliness.
The following track, “You Got It All” has a “Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know” sound, albeit more up-tempo. Produced by Eric Foster White and written by Rupert Holmes, it has yet another generic feel to it (especially compared to the singles) as Spears sings, “I, I was the game he would play/He brought the clouds to my day/Then like a ray of light [ah, the Madonna influence]/You came my way one night/Just one look and I knew/You would make everything clear/Make all the clouds disappear…/Don’t you know, don’t you know?/You’ve got it all over him/You got me over him.” So basically, Spears is super grateful for this rebound guy. Just as she ephemerally was for K-Fed post-Timberlake.
“Heart” then slows things down even more, offering up a piano ballad that acts as a love letter to Spears’ own, you guessed it, heart. It’s, in many regards, a companion piece to “Dear Diary”—the track that, arguably, holds up the least of all the songs on the record. Originally appearing on Britney: The Singles Collection, there’s a reason “Heart” never caught on. At least “Walk On By” picks things up again at a mid-tempo rhythm, but still finds Spears waxing on about the same subjects: love and its potential to cause heartache. This track also appeared on Britney: The Singles Collection, further underscoring the very obvious notion that the anniversary edition is a half-assed cash grab (further confirmed by a one-line summary of the reissue on Apple Music that reads: “Britney’s blockbuster second album gets new remixes for its 25th birthday). One that Spears herself seems to have little investment in, for she hasn’t mentioned it on her Instagram, nor did she put something up about it on its release day—not that she ever posts anything apart from her whirling and twirling or being tits out on the beach.
But still, it’s yet another strong indicator that people are continuing to make as much profit off her as possible. All while delivering a product that is decidedly “meh,” and actually makes the album come across as slightly worse with the addition of those four “rarities” and six “whatever” remixes (consisting of the following: “Oops!…I Did It Again [Ripnrock ‘n’ Alex G. Oooops! We Remixed Again! Radio Edit],” “Lucky [Jack D. Elliot Radio Mix],” “Stronger [Miguel Migs Vocal Edit],” “Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know [Thunderpuss Radio Mix],” “Stronger [Adamusic Remix]” and “Oops!…I Did It Again [Pessto Remix]”).
In short, it’s very apparent that, in contrast to, say, Taylor Swift releasing her “From the Vault” versions of things for her re-recordings (or even Mariah Carey putting out something like The Rarities), there is very little in the way of a personal touch from Spears on this reissue. Which, sadly, is in keeping with the bulk of her career being hyper-“managed” (read: controlled) by others. Even so, if nothing else, a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the album serves its purpose in making those, like Selena Gomez, who bumped the record when it first came out feel decidedly…not stronger.
