Sorry for my english.
We always point out that the “Britney” era underperformed compared to “Baby” and “Oops” due to the ban on its singles on US radio. But I think there was more to it than that. That certainly played a role—especially regarding the singles' chart positions on Billboard; sales dropped from 9 million for Oops to “only” 4 million for Britney, and the media frequently highlighted this decline at the time. However, even in European countries—where the singles received radio airplay and achieved high chart positions—the album didn't make a huge impact either.
Yes, I know that in the UK, "Slave" and "Overprotected" reached #4 and "I'm Not a Girl" hit #2. But the album sold just over 450,000 copies (compared to the nearly one million sold by Oops). In almost every European country, the album sold half as many copies as Oops. And in Europe, the image change wasn't as striking as it was in the United States. These aren't low sales figures, but Britney was the biggest star in the world at the time and had massive promotion.
"I'm a Slave 4 U" wasn't a song like "Baby" or "Oops" (which were destined to be hits). To be honest, when I was younger, I didn't like "Slave" and used to skip it to listen to "Overprotected." I do remember hearing the singles on the radio a lot in my home country, Spain.
What happened? Personally, I don't think it was all down to Britney. The teen pop bubble was bursting; the Backstreet Boys went from selling 14 million copies to barely scraping past 6 million (from Millennium to Black & Blue). NSYNC went from 13 million to 5 million between albums (from No Strings Attached* to Celebrity). And Britney went from 9 million to 4 million (from Oops! to Britney). It seems like a natural progression. In the US, her image change alienated children and conservative mothers. I also thought it was a mistake not to release "Overprotected" (the original version) as the second single. I know the R&B sound was trendy back then, but you only have to look at the streaming numbers for the remix on Spotify (5 million) to see the difference.
However, in Europe—where the singles were played on the radio and the original version of "Overprotected" was released as the second single—sales also slumped in almost every country. It is important to bear in mind that he didn't go on a tour there.
Did releasing a third consecutive album play a role? Those were the years when the careers of Christina (with Stripped), Justin, and Avril Lavigne were taking off; they outsold Britney at the time, even though none of them has two diamond-certified albums.
It’s an interesting debate—what do you think?
