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Oops!... I Did It Again is Britney Spears' second studio album which was released on May 16, 2000 by Jive Records.

Album Background[]

After vacationing for six days following the completion of the "...Baby One More Time Tour" in September 1999, Britney Spears returned to New York City to begin recording songs for her next album; the majority of the recording took place in November.

The album featured contributions from Max Martin, Eric Foster White, Diane Warren, Robert Lange, Steve Lunt, and Babyface.

The songs: "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Walk On By" (later covered by Gareth Gates), "What U See (Is What U Get)", and "Don't Go Knockin' On My Door" were the first to be recorded at Martin's Cheiron Studios in the first week of November; followed by "Stronger" and "Lucky", which were finalized (along with the title track) in January 2000.

Spears recorded "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" at Robert Lange's villa in Switzerland in December 1999; Lange produced the song. The song "Where Are You Now" was an outtake from her debut album. "Girl in the Mirror" and "Can't Make You Love Me"'s instrumental track and melody were recorded in the fall of 1999 in Sweden, with Spears recording the vocals in mid-January at Parc Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Spears returned to New York, linking up with producer Steve Lunt to record Diane Warren's song "When Your Eyes Say It" at Battery Studios on Friday, January 28, 2000, which preceded her TRL appearance that day.

The track "One Kiss from You" was also recorded at Battery Studios, but was later finished at 3rd Floor in New York City. Spears also recorded the last track for the album "Dear Diary" which would later be completed at East Bay Recording in Tarrytown, New York and at Avatar Studios in New York City.

Another song recorded during these sessions was "Heart". Her cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" was recorded with Rodney Jerkins at Pacifique Recording Studios in Hollywood, California during February 24–26, 2000 after attending the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards.

By January, the then-untitled album was halfway to completion; Spears had worked on it primarily in the United States and Sweden, and finalized material in New York City. She was heavily pressured after the huge commercial success of "...Baby One More Time", stating: "It's kind of hard following ten million, I have to say. But after listening to the new material and recording it, I'm really confident with it."

Upon the album's release, Spears said: "I mean, of course there's some pressure", and added: "But in my opinion, [Oops!] is a lot better than the first album. It's edgier – it has more of an attitude. It's more me, and I think teenagers will relate to it more."

Geoff Mayfield, director of Billboard charts, added that the decision to release Oops!... I Did It Again less than a year and a half after Spears' debut amounts to "very smart timing. My philosophy is when you have a young fan base, get 'em while they're hot."

Tracklisting[]

  1. Oops!...I Did It Again 3:31
  2. Stronger 3:23
  3. Don't Go Knockin' On My Door 3:14
  4. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 4:28
  5. Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know 3:50
  6. What U See (Is What U Get) 3:14
  7. Lucky 3:25
  8. One Kiss From You 3:23
  9. Where Are You Now 4:39
  10. Can't Make You Love Me 3:16
  11. When You Eyes Say It 4:06
  12. Dear Diary 2:46

Chart Performance[]

In the United States, "Oops!... I Did It Again" reportedly sold 500,000 copies in its first day of release. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 1,319,193 copies.

With its success, Spears held the record for the highest first-week sales by a female artist; this record was held for 15 years, only to be surpassed in November 2015 by the album, "25" by Adele, (which sold over 3.38 million albums in the United States in its first week).

The album fell to number two in its second week, with additional sales of 612,000 copies; it held this position for fifteen consecutive weeks.

By its fifth week of availability, "Oops!... I Did It Again" had sold over three million copies and had passed five million copies by August.

On its seventeenth week on the chart, it was certified septuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of seven million units.

The album spent eighty-four weeks on the Billboard 200, thirty-one weeks on the Canadian Albums Chart, and two weeks on the US Catalog Albums.

The album debuted at number eighty-two on the European Top 100 Albums, and quickly peaked at number one; it sold over four million copies within the continent, being certified four-times Platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

"Oops!... I Did It Again" reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, selling 88,000 copies in the first week of release; it remained in the top five for four weeks. The album debuted at number one in Canada, selling 95,275 copies in its first week.

It topped the French Albums Chart and the German Offizielle Top 100, also being certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), double gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) and triple platinum by Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), denoting shipments to retailers of 900,000 units, 200,000 copies sold and 900,000 units shipped, respectively.

Additionally, the album debuted at number two on the Australian Albums Chart, and spent ten weeks in the top twenty; it became the fourteenth highest-selling of 2000 in the country and was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) the following year after shipping 140,000 copies to retailers.

"Oops!... I Did It Again" opened at number three on the New Zealand Albums Chart and was certified gold after just one week on the chart. The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) ultimately certified it double platinum.

It became the third best-selling album of 2000 in the United States, selling 7,893,544 albums according to Nielsen SoundScan and fourth best-selling album according to Billboard Year-End of 2000.

On January 24, 2005, "Oops!...I Did It Again" was certified decuple platinum (diamond) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Also, the album landed at number twenty-seven on BMG Music Club all-time best-sellers list with 1.21 million units, behind Shania Twain's album, "The Woman in Me" (1.24 million) and Nirvana's album, "Nevermind" (1.24 million). As of July 2009, it sold 9,184,000 copies in the United States, excluded copies sold through clubs, such as the BMG Music Service.

Critical Reception[]

"Oops!... I Did It Again" received favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, it received an average score of 72, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Giving the album four out of five stars, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic noted that the album "has the same combination of sweetly sentimental ballads and endearingly gaudy dance-pop that made 'One More Time'," but remarked that: "Fortunately, she and her production team not only have a stronger overall set of songs this time, but they also occasionally get carried away with the same bewildering magpie aesthetic, [...] giv[ing] the album character apart from the well-crafted dance-pop and ballads that serve as its heart. In the end, it's what makes this an entertaining, satisfying listen."

Billboard magazine wrote that "'Oops!...' indicates that she's developing a soulful edge and emotional depth that can't be conjured with a glass-shattering note," praising the album for consistently cast[ing] Spears as a young woman coming to terms with her inner power—and that's a darn good message to offer an impressionable audience."

Entertainment Weekly's David Browne gave the album a "B-" rating, writing that the album "reminds us once again that the best new pop can be a blast of cool air in a stifling room."

Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone gave the album a three-and-a-half out of five stars rating, calling the album "fantastic pop cheese, with much better song-factory hooks than 'N Sync or BSB get", also noting that "the great thing about Oops!, under the cheese surface, is complex, fierce and downright scary, making her a true child of rock & roll tradition."

A writer of NME reported that "she's modern-day pop perfection realised in a nearly, human form", commenting that "she's done it again."

Lennat Mak of MTV Asia named it "a brilliant second album", writing that Spears "is armed with a more mature and seasoned pop star look, stronger and poppier songs, and of course, extensive media exposure."

Andy Battaglia of Salon called the album "a masterpiece of sorts not for its message but for the way it applies the conventions of the pop-musical medium."

Website The A.V. Club was more mixed, calling it "a joyless bit of redundant, obvious, competent cheese, recycling itself at every turn and soliciting songwriting from such soulless hacks as Diane Warren and assorted Swedes."

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