Britney Spears: In The Zone (Summary)

Britney Spears' fourth album, "In The Zone", was most definitely a change in style, image, and vocal phrasing for her. Working with producers such as Bloodshy and Avant, Penelope Magnet, and even Moby, and experimenting with elements of Middle-Eastern style Hip-Hop music, Britney had made it clear that she was not the same girl that she used to be, the girl who had spawned out hits such as "...Baby One More Time" and "Stronger".

The material on this album covers more mature themes to her previous albums, with messages about love, dancing, and intimacy as the main plot for the record. Britney's vocals had also become somewhat thinner, softer, but more mature by this time. Britney was no longer the over-excited schoolgirl she had been portrayed as in the late 1990's.

"In The Zone" was a commercial success, creating an output for the hit songs "Toxic", "Everytime", and "Me Against The Music", a collaboration with American singer-songwriter Madonna. The album was promoted by numerous television appearances, and a similarly-titled DVD release. "Outrageous", another track from the album, also had a single release, and an incompleted music video featuring Snoop Dogg (now Snoop Lion) was made for the song. The reason the "Outrageous" music video was left incompleted was because while filming a dance scene for the clip, Britney injured her knee and later had to go through surgery for it.

As well as experimenting with Middle-Eastern style music, a few songs on this album make a clear nod to dance and trip-hop music. A few numbers on this record, including "Don't Hang Up", a bonus track, "Early Mornin'", "Shadow", "Everytime", and "Showdown" make that evident.

Meanwhile, another unique thing about this album in Britney's catalogue is that Britney in fact wrote a lot of the material. Either writing or co-writing 9 of the album's 13 main songs and one of the two bonus tracks, "Don't Hang Up", "In The Zone" was a much more independent project then her earlier work.

One of the songs that Britney wrote almost entirely herself was "Everytime", which I believe is an excellent song and one of the best Britney has written. The music video for "Everytime" portrayed
Spears as a famous singer, which is what she already was at the time, but fictionally portrays her being overwhelmed by large crowds of paparazzi and arguing with her on-screen boyfriend.

I believe that this record is one of Britney's best, and includes the substance that some of her later work lacked. The album cover, shot with a blue tint, also encouraged me to buy the album myself, and that was definitely not a mistake...

Summary taken from my blog http://lukeandthemusic.blogspot.com.au.