...Baby One More Time (jive)

01/12/1999 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Wendy Hermanson

Two names Britney Spears has already probably heard enough of by now: " Tiffany" and "Debbie Gibson." At a mere 17 years old, it's more than likely that Spears has never even heard a tune by the two late-'80s teen-queen rivals.

Actually, it's really only Spears's youthfulness and her gender that she holds in common with Tif and Deb. The latter pair were dual epitomes of wholesomeness: Tiffany, princess of the baggy sweater, performed in mall food courts; while Gibson dragged a fluffy teddy bear on the cover of her debut album and employed her suburbanite housewife mom as manager. Spears, meanwhile, leaves her predecessors in Prudeville, prancing about in naughty Catholic schoolgirl costumes and just-short-of-you-know-what-revealing crop tops. Anyone who has sufficiently aged and mellowed enough to recall high school in an objective manner will immediately identify Spears as that one lethal chick: hated for her slight trashiness and (regardless or subsequential) ability to get all the boys. (She was called Nicole at my high school.)

Beyond the straight visual, which is admittedly a bit hard to get past, Spears fronts a catchy little record. Much like Britney herself, the music wastes no time in reeling hapless victims in. Interestingly enough, the overriding feel references '80s dance music (anyone one remember the platinum-selling trio Exposé?), complete with pulsing beats, crashing piano chords, and breathy "baby babys." There are some appropriate nods to the millennium, though: "Soda Pop" fuses in some Jamaican-lite toasting, "E-mail My Heart" discusses today's preferred mode of communication, and "I Will Be There" lifts its main melody directly from the Natalie Imbruglia hit "Torn" (Ednaswap, notify your lawyers). The title track on this album is a bona fide hit: voraciously danceable, viciously infectious, and sure to be a guilty pleasure for many--in more ways than one.