Let’s take Jordan Miller of BreatheHeavy as an example of this mindless, tasteless madness. He says “These days it looks as if fans have more ideas for Britney's upcoming album than her management does. Is this what the ever-so-accessible world in pop music has come down to? Asking fans for a quick answer to crank out a quick album to make a quick buck?” Hang on, buddy. These are some of the most argumentative, hard-to-please fans in the entire world of showbiz. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to try and please them for once? Some of them HATED “Circus” and have never stopped sayng so. Jordy Miller says “The next album shouldn't focus more on a glitzy theme than the music itself, something "Circus" is terribly guilty of. Where's the substance? Where's the meaning? "Mmm Papi" just didn't cut it for me.” Yet it was a Number One album and loads of people loved it. “Mmm Papi” and “Mannequin” most definitely did it for me - both are works of pop genius, and if Lady GaGa had released them, fans would have been orgasmic.

When “Blackout” came out, it was NOT a Number One. Many fans declared it a flop. A fair proportion of them said Britney was barely present on the album. It was all the producers’ work. No matter that she was Executive Producer for the one and only time and A&R supremo Teresa LaBarbera Whites spoke openly about Britney’s contribution in putting the album together. Fans claimed that Britney “phoned her vocals in from her crack den”. Or “had to be propped up in the studio while she slurred out her drugged-up vocals into the Autotune”. Or that the harshness and madness of the album reflected the near-insanity in Britney’s life. It was voted the NME’s worst album of the year.

Yet, with the benefit of hindsight, “Blackout” is now seen by many as her artistic zenith. As my long-standing blog noted, it was included in the Times of London’s list of the Top Ten albums of the decade. I like it better than I did, but I still maintain that it’s musically far less interesting than “Circus”. So there are widely conflicting views on what fans want to see on Britney’s next album. When the question was asked on one of the forums I visit, I simply answered “Beyonce? Lady GaGa?” Jordy Miller thinks “artists with a creative, independent spirit are catching up and redefining industry standards”. GaGa stan much? So how the hell are Jive to know what to do? I see no problem in their inviting opinions.

Now on to the next point. Jordy Miller, along with quite a few misguided others, thinks the next album is being “rushed” out and is her second in two years. Helllooooo???!! Circus came out in November 2008. The new album won’t see the light of day till November 2010. I make that two years SINCE the last album. And why does anyone think that’s a “rush”? Is it because we’ve gotten used to pretentious little girls like Christina Aguilera trying to convince us that it takes 4 or 5 years to put together something worthy of her “genius”? This business of straightforward artists like Aguilera and Timberlake taking years to deliver a straightforward album is a modern affectation and fans are idiots if they fall for it.

Back in the last century, taking the 60s as an example, despite the incredibly low-tech, time-consuming analog technology involved in making an album, artists often released them at a rate of MORE THAN ONE A YEAR! All of the Beatles epoch-making and highly original albums were released in the space of 5 or 6 years! Now we’re in a position where a top-class mix engineer can mix an entire album in a few days. Britney pops into recording studios all the time and lays down a few tracks. The entire world of producers, so much larger now than 50 years ago, is invited to submit ideas and tracks. Record companies nowadays don’t have to make a commercial gamble on over-pressing a million copies of an album in vinyl, only to see it flop. An album isn't such a big deal anymore. So, put it all together and you have to conclude that there is NO reason why an artist shouldn’t release an album every two years if her fans want it.

In the future, it’s reckoned that albums will be a thing of the past and artists will simply put tracks out into the digital domain as they record them, and it will then be for fans to choose to download them to their iPods as and when they find them. In this scenario, the gradual feed of a few tracks a year into the millions that are already available will scarcely be noticed, never mind complained about as having been “rushed out”. This business of complaining that Britney is producing TOO MUCH is ludicrous, uncomprehending, inaccurate, prejudiced, shortsighted and biased BULLSHIT.

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