Everything that went wrong with the Glory Era. (A non-negative thread.)

[HeadstrongWolf]

8 minutes ago, musicrainbow said:

Love the recap! I personally loved glory! It lives in my car cd player (where I skip MOTM everyday on my way to work).  I haven't been so into Britney/her music in so many years.  I was so excited for the christmas show in chicago and need to see her in vegas before she stops.  I hope they get it together for B10 and make the music as great, but without all the problems.

 

And where can I find the solo version of make me??????

In the masterpost thread in the media section.

[musicrainbow]

Thank you!

[njcthree]

On 5/8/2017 at 11:39 PM, HeadstrongWolf said:

First off, let me say, I am not bashing Britney here.

I'm simply detailing and archiving everything that happened during the Glory era.

 

 

 

After signing a deal with Planet Hollywood and releasing her 2013 album Britney Jean, which caused mass controversy, Britney hit the studio for another 2 years or so working on her biggest album, putting more effort than she has in the last decade.

 

Rumors about #B9 came when the third single of Britney Jean, Alien, was ultimately scrapped. The pro-tools session had leaked, and caused massive controversy when it was discovered that Myah Marie absolutely did vocals for the song that made it onto the track itself. (Along with the infamous glitch.)

 

Flashback to late 2013, when we watched I Am Britney Jean. Remember when Larry said Alien was gonna be a single, and when it was, it was going to be added to Piece of Me?

 

We all know how that panned out.

 

So with Britney Jean being ultimately scrapped from that point on, Britney began to hit the studio and from what we heard, what she was working on was incredible, mind-blowing, and said to be her best work in years.

 

Of course rumors came along and things happened. Insiders were saying "It's Britney's best work! It sounds like a mix between In The Zone and Blackout!"

But then again, we hear that everytime Britney gets in the studio.

 

Later on, we get 2 new songs from Britney in the more "experimental" sense.

 

We got Tom's Diner - a collaborative effort with legendary prodcuer Giorgio Moroder, who originally produced the song in the early 90's. Before the track leaked, we got a snippet of an alternate version of the song, with clearer vocals, while the leaked version (also the album version) had Britney's vocals processed through a vocoder. The song was never panned as a single to the disappointment of many fans, and the clear vocal version still to this day has not leaked.

While the song gave Britney an idea on how to move forward in the "electronic" sense, and with the fan-backlash of the use of the vocoder, it definitely had a helping hand with the way of the vocals of her then-upcoming album.

 

And then we got a more "urban" attempt - Pretty Girls ft. Iggy Azalea.

Infamously, this track was backlashed from the start, and had quite the messy release.

Fans were reluctant for Britney to work with Iggy Azalea, who at the time was being scrutinized for racist comments on twitter she made years prior.

While fans were primarily upset Britney was working with a "problematic" rapper, set-photos from the music video shoot ended up online and fans suddenly had hope again.

Many rumors were going around saying "It's the lead single from #B9!"

 

The track had a messy start that gave fans a bad feeling from the get-go.

The cover was released, with a photoshopped Britney and Iggy in space. And then moments later, was deleted from Britney's twitter account. (Luckily, fans had saved the image.)

This sent fans into a panic, saying "The single is gonna be scrapped!" and giving wild speculation to the single-cover controversy saying "They used Britney's face from a 1999 photoshoot!" (Rolling Stone to be specific.)

However, the cover was uploaded the next day with one slight change.

Instead of "BRITNEY SPEARS FT. IGGY AZALEA" the track now said "BRITNEY SPEARS & IGGY AZALEA."

So literally, the single cover was changed because Iggy felt like it was more of a duet than a feature.

 

However, the track was ultimately dropped from Glory, because Iggy didn't know how to keep her mouth closed. After the track was "done", Iggy went on Twitter and said if Britney had promoted the song more, it would have been more successful. When a fan cricitized her comment, she said she doesn't have to "kiss Britney's ass" all the time.

Afterwards, Iggy's worldwide tour had been cancelled - Britney replied with the shadiest tweet saying "At least I have a summer full of shows to look forward to!"

 

Afterwards, the track was dropped from Glory, and performed for a while longer on Piece of Me, until the next setlist renovation. All instances of Iggy were done with a pre-recorded backdrop. The song was never mentioned again.

 

 

After the fiasco of Pretty Girls and the less-quiet backlash of Toms Diner not being a single, Britney was reportedly hitting the studio harder than ever. Since that was all the information we were given, fans were terrified that there would be a possibility of will.i.am returning for Glory. We were given confirmation that will.i.stop and Myah Marie were not on the album. Though some fans thought otherwise.

will.i.am never commented on the subject, while Myah Marie straight up denied being on Glory. She has admitted that she was on Britney Jean, but "didn't know they were going to use her vocals on the final album".

 

With Myah being ridiculed into the shadows, will.i.am too furious (probably) to comment on the album, the album only had one more fear: Dr Luke.

 

Fans were afraid Dr Luke would be on the album, as he created monster hits with Femme Fatale, and a favorite from Britney Jean, Brightest Morning Star.

No comments were given from officials, until the album dropped. Dr Luke was not on the album, possibly due to sexual assault accusations from Kesha, who Britney had also worked with during Femme Fatale. Dr Luke also had a record-breaking number of copyright infringement cases against him - one of which was even on "Hold It Against Me", which reportedly copied the melody of one song, and took the title and double-entendre from a country song. While the case was dropped, fans were still afraid of Dr Luke tainting the Glory era.

 

Only until it was discovered he wasn't involved with the album. (Surprisingly.)

And neither was will.i.am. (A huge relief to those who survived Britney Jean.)

The only thing we WERE looking forward to was that DJ Mustard would be on the album. (Holy shit!)

 

 

With her direction planned, Britney began to work on the album with new producers and writers to create what we now know today as "Glory".

 

The first hint we had at the album was a picture Britney had posted on instagram that said "GOODBYE", but inside the letters of "GOODBYE" were also the words "GAME CHANGER".

 

Later on, a tweet Britney posted capitalized three words "JUST LUV ME".

Fans were CERTAIN that the first single for the album would be the rumored "Just Luv Me".

Unfortunately, it didn't pan out.

An earlier hint that went largely noticed were mysterious pictures of the moon Britney had tweeted - and then deleted.

 

Rumors circulated saying the album would drop early 2016. Then Summer 2016. While we still didn't get much, it wasn't until her performance at the 2016 BBMA's that we were told her new single "Make Me (Ooh)" would be debuted.

 

However, when the show came, the track was absent.

Later reports said "The track wasn't finished." Fans were let down, but not for long.

 

Later on, music video clips and snippets of the song began to rise online, with the raciest video Britney would have put out in months. It was also revealed that rapper G-Eazy was on the track.

However, this turned into one hell of a mess that still, to this day, we talk about constantly.

 

With a LQ to MQ phone-camera recording of the video playing on a computer screen with the timeframe in the lower corner, fans were ecstatic to see it.

While the video was supposedly finished, it was scrapped. Producer David LaChapelle had his name removed from the credits and they HOPED it would quitely slip under the rug.

 

It didn't. Fans were outraged. They wondered where this incredible music video went, and why we were given a music video made out of a rushed-as-hell music video that had a similar plot, with multiple shots of Britney dancing to the song. The subtitle (Ooh) was also dropped from the official single title.

Some fans liked the video. Others didn't.

The original video still has not leaked to this day - We only have clips. The ending is missing entirely.

 

However, we do have a fan-shot behind the scenes video of Britney and LaChapelle sitting in a tractor, assumingly used for the end of the music video where men in nude-colored speedos would grind on the machine.

Britney was not having it. In the video, you can hear her screaming "I DON'T LIKE THIS!" and when leaving the machine, you can definitely hear her call LaChapelle an "ASSHOLE!"

 

However, the video was scrapped due to "creative differences". Supposedly.

We all know Britney wasn't comfortable with that last scene, fought with the director, and that was it.

 

Why the finished scenes were never released, we may never know.

 

While this fiasco went noticed by Britney's team, they decided to release an alternate cut of the music video (a few months after the album dropped), which contained nothing but the dance scenes from the album photoshoot. The video was released through Britney's short-lived mobile game, "Britney Spears: American Dream".

 

But that's not the end of the fiasco of the first single. After the debut of Make Me (ft G-Eazy), a radio version debuted with an entirely different bridge, completely replacing G-Eazy's verse with recycled clips from the verses, along with some extra adlibs, and an amazing high note which... Some people actually liked more than the official version.

But where did it come from?

Was this the original version of Make Me?

Was this what was meant to be performed at the BBMA's?

Why did Britney's team decide to suddenly throw G-Eazy on the track?

 

In my opinion, I firmly believe the solo version was the original intended version of the single. But that's just me.

 

The first single fiasco didn't stop there. Then came the first time Britney had performed at the VMA's in 9 years, since the "infamous" Gimme More performance.

While fans were blown away, especially after Britney debuted a live mashup with G-Eazy's "Me Myself and I" singing Bebe Rexha's parts, G-Eazy then messed up his own verse on his song. Afterwards, people assumed by the way he grabbed the back of Britney's head at the end of the performance, he tried to initiate a kiss. It didn't happen and the rumors still go around to this day.

 

However - the biggest controversy about the VMA performance?

Right after the performance aired, there was a leaked Snapchat video of G-Eazy doing a line of cocaine on some random woman's breasts.

No one knows if this was before or after the performance. But if you ask me, it could have very possibly been before, as performers are known to do drugs or drink liquor before a show due to nerves.

Not trying to take a shot at G-Eazy, but with the cocaine video and messing up your own verse, it seems like it to me.

 

Despite the cocaine controversy, it was largely ignored. G-Eazy still was there for a majority of surprise performances with Britney on stage.

 

Afterwards, Britney then uploaded a teaser for a commercial for her at-the-time-new perfume "Private Show", which shared the name of a song on the album. 

When the full trailer was released, there was only one small discrepancy with the teaser.

There was a different outfit. And to this day we still don't have the full clip with the original outfit from the 15 second teaser. (Which was then later recycled into an outfit for Piece of Me.)

A Christmas commercial was also put out for Private show, about 30 seconds long, with about 2 or 3 extra shots of Britney dancing in the "white" outfit.

 

Small leaks began to happen left and right. Some fake, some not.

(One popular fake I remember was something about "rollerblades in the sky with you", or some shit like that.)

Fans were extremely hyped when the tracklist leaked - especially when hearing the title "Coupure Electrique", which translated, means "Power Outage", or if worded a different way in French, "Blackout".

With Britney's team knowing we love Blackout, fans were officially FLOORED when the album dropped and they heard Coupure Electrique. Some still debate that it's the best song on the album.

 

However, with leaks came controversy. It was proven that the photoshoot was actually just the scenes from the released Make Me video, which fans replied with "unprofessional". However, with a scrapped video, a pending release date what else was there for Britney to do?

Personally - I like it.

 

Then came another controversy - G-eazy was the only feature on the album, which had several fans raise an eyebrow.

 

When pre-ordered on iTunes, Glory began to release a few songs - Private Show, Do You Wanna Come Over, and Clumsy - before the official release of the album. Fans had overwhelmingly positive reaction to the songs. And even then, we had small snippet leaks of "Just Luv Me", which may or may not have been a demo.

Rumors were also circulating that the entire album stems were going around before the album leaked, and the snippets we got were made with the stems and mixed in a way that the original holder of said stems could track where and who leaked it.

 

Regardless, when the album was finally dropped, fans were blown away by every single track on the album. Fans were screaming about how the bonus tracks "were even better than the album tracks".

 

But it didn't stop there. Things got even more and more weird with the Glory era.

 

First, people noticed that the DJ Mustard track didn't make the album - a huge letdown for people hoping for that "urban sound". Rumors then said it would be on his next mixtape. It wasn't.

Second, people were then confused about the tracklist. While iTunes had Do You Wanna Come Over? as track number 7, the official CD Disc had the track as track 2.

Personally, I like Invitation - DYWCO - Make Me. 

Mostly because I feel like the lyrics of Invitation slightly contradict Make Me.
"Not gonna beg so don't make me."

 

Regardless, the tracklisting was slightly messy.

When inserting the physical disc of Glory, I remember seeing "If I'm Dancing" spelled as "If I' M Dancing", which I had to instantly fix. This was mostly an error on iTunes' part, and I believe the issue has been resolved.

 

That's not the end of the fiasco surrounding Glory.

After the album dropped, we were all fighting about the second single.

A majority of people said Do You Wanna Come Over? While another majority said Liar.

 

Ultimately - we were told the second single would be Slumber Party.

 

We all accepted this as okay. Until it was reported that artist Tinashe would be on the track.

This instantly threw fans into a rage, with some saying Tinashe ruins every track she gets on and how she's featured on remixes because it's almost guaranteed for radio play, as long as "Tinashe" is in the title.

 

However, when the remix dropped, fans tended to actually LIKE the Tinashe version more. While Tinashe recorded the second verse, a chorus, some backing vocals, adlibs on the second chorus, Britney ALSO added a few adlibs on the new version of Slumber Party.

(I was a doubter, called her Tinashit, etc. But I took all that back after watching the video.)

 

The music video dropped, and we were all blown the fuck away with how incredibly sexy it was. Everyone who didn't like Tinashe instantly did. Everyone who didn't like Slumber Party was instantly a fan.

 

But... Again, there was a slight mixup.

 

When the video premiered on YouTube, it had a different version of the Tinashe remix, missing Britney's added adlib at the end. On the official vevo channel, the song was the single version.

Later on, the audio on YouTube was corrected and never mentioned again.

(Except for fans who ripped the audio.)

 

But this wasn't the end of Glory. Afterwards, fans were shocked when they noticed that reprints of the album replaced the solo version of Slumber Party with the Tinashe version. A move never pulled by Britney's team.

Around the same time, it was also discovered the Japanese edition of Glory would have "Mood Ring", the DJ Mustard track we all wanted so desperately.

And ironically, several fans praised it to be the best song on the album.

Then there were TWO versions of the Japanese CD - Both with Mood Ring, one with solo Slumber Party, one with Tinashe.

 

Also around that time, Britney announced that Glory was to be printed on vinyl - the first official album vinyl she had done since Baby One More Time. An obvious big deal.

And fans that pre-ordered the vinyl got their names printed on a poster which was folded in the vinyl insert.

Even this caused controversy - at least with me and a few other people.
Several fans mentioned that they recieved their vinyls damaged, scratched, cracked, or even broken. Luckily, mine was just chipped and plays just fine. Although it likes to skip ahead of Side 3 which starts with Better. My vinyl likes to skip a bit of the intro.

With the low quality production of the vinyl, many fans, including myself were extremely furious.

 

Remember when I threatened to give out the direct phone number to the administrator of the company who produced the vinyls?

I sure as fuck do.  

 

With us giving Glory so much love, we were blown away.

Only to have an amazing era cut short.

 

Everyone was disappointed. The era was done?

But why?

 

We still don't have an official answer, other than the rumored "it just didn't sell".

 

All we really got were 2 (3, 4 if you include the unreleased Make Me) music videos, the Private Show commerical(s), and Make Me, DYWCO, and Slumber Party added to Piece of Me. Tinashe also joined Britney on stage for some performances of the song.

 

So what really happened with the Glory era?

We will never know.

 

This era was short lived and had very little leaks - in fact, I believe the only leaks were a stem pack, a pro tools session, and Instant DejaVu (which happened a little after Glory, but who cares?)

 

Although the era was dramatically messy, it still worked and Glory still turned into the masterpiece it is today, and still regarded as some of Britney's best work.

 

I am 110% here for Experimental Britney, and I am ready to archive what's gonna happen when she leaves Planet Hollywood and starts B10 tbh.

 

when did myah confirm she was on britney jean?

[HeadstrongWolf]

3 hours ago, njcthree said:

when did myah confirm she was on britney jean?

You really late aren't you?

 

Myah never directly said she was on it.

Except for Alien, where she said "she didn't know they were going to use her vocals on the final".

And when a fan met her, they thanked her for "her work on Britney Jean", to which she replied "thank you."

[Wendy Williams]

2 hours ago, HeadstrongWolf said:

You really late aren't you?

 

Myah never directly said she was on it.

Except for Alien, where she said "she didn't know they were going to use her vocals on the final".

And when a fan met her, they thanked her for "her work on Britney Jean", to which she replied "thank you."

Does exist any threads/articles/posts about these things? 

[naruball]

Fans can overanalyze things all they want. Bottom line is, the general public doesn't care about Britney. They just don't. Not even magazines write stories about her like they used to. There is no real controversy around her name. Just like so many other artists faded away, Britney has, too.

 

It sucks but it is what it is. I'm just glad Slumber Party happened. Awesome song with one of her best videos ever. The scene with the spilled milk (or whatever that was) was epic. Had Ariana, Taylor, Nicky or any of those artists done Slumber Party, it would have been a worldwide smash hit.

[HeadstrongWolf]

On 6/1/2017 at 4:42 AM, naruball said:

Fans can overanalyze things all they want. Bottom line is, the general public doesn't care about Britney. They just don't. Not even magazines write stories about her like they used to. There is no real controversy around her name. Just like so many other artists faded away, Britney has, too.

 

It sucks but it is what it is. I'm just glad Slumber Party happened. Awesome song with one of her best videos ever. The scene with the spilled milk (or whatever that was) was epic. Had Ariana, Taylor, Nicky or any of those artists done Slumber Party, it would have been a worldwide smash hit.

But the intellegent people of the world would have hated it because we don't like those trashy artists here  

[Wendy Williams]

On 1. 6. 2017 at 11:42 AM, naruball said:

Fans can overanalyze things all they want. Bottom line is, the general public doesn't care about Britney. They just don't. Not even magazines write stories about her like they used to. There is no real controversy around her name. Just like so many other artists faded away, Britney has, too.

Because RCA doesn't care about promo and spend minimum money to low-sale performers, if they have some new big-sales singers and Britney+her team don't care also about everything because they just want to do minimum things for got maximum money (for example cheap invest for Vegas show and expensive tickets, almost zero promo, almost zero singles, almost zero physical content...)...everything in 2017 is just about sucking money from 90's nostalgia and not about new content.