Britney Spears

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Oops!...I Did It Again

• Jive

Teen dream queen Britney Spears' debut disc sold nine million copies, but still, she's got problems.

The trouble is, that at 18 years old, she sounds torn between wanting to take on a tougher, more sexual image and playing it straight for the squeaky clean kids who turned her into a superstar.

That dilemma can be heard all over Oops!...I Did It Again, a disc that finds the singer pumping out plenty of the same kind of hyper-produced dance pop that was heard on her earlier effort Baby One More Time. It's tough to blame her. After all, that album all but triggered a cottage industry of blonde-haired, teenage copycats, each in search of their own brand of Britneymania.

But Spears is two years older now, and a seasoned veteran of fan frenzy, and all the good and the bad that goes along with the star-making machine.

"I'm not that innocent," she snarls in the bottom heavy, hit single title track, which starts the disc and sets the tougher tone from the get-go. Later, Spears proves to be even brassy enough to moan and groan her way through the Rolling Stones' lusty rock classic "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," though she changes the line about "how white my shirt should be'' to "how tight my skirt should be."

Tight skirts aside, this is also the Spears who sings songs about crushes ("Can't Make You Love Me"), while squealing and giggling her way through between-song telephone chatter that mixes in lines about cute boys and secret kisses. She's savvy enough to play straight to wispy emotions of her very young fan base on several songs, particularly the overly sweet set closer, which she co-wrote, "Dear Diary."

All in all, this is a minor step forward, but Spears still has a long way to go to prove her staying power.