In fact, if Britney was a maker of bubblegum pop, her career would have already been over - and it would have been over in 2003/4. Before “In The Zone” came out, almost every newspaper carried an article on her imminent comeback and speculated that she would never be able to make the transition from Tweeny Star to young adult audiences. And they were right in saying that if she hadn’t been able to do that, there was nowhere else for her to go.

However, it turned out that “In The Zone” was NOT bubblegum pop. It was cool, smart, bang-up-to-date, chilled out, highly clubbable dance-pop and Britney’s audience followed her willingly. At that time, industry analysts noted that her demographic was now the 18-26 range. Pop “experts” and kewl-as-f@ck DJs - who blamed her for the turn-of-century pop revival - had wanted her demise soooo badly, but she confounded them yet again.

None of this had anything to do with her having an excellent media image. As far back as 2003-4 people were talking about her having gone “off the rails” following the Justin debacle and media talking-heads were already commenting that she was more of a celebrity and gossip-magnet than a musician.

Anyway, we all know what has happened since. The only person she falls short of in popular estimations of the runners and riders in the “wacko” stakes is Michael Jackson and he doesn’t get 5 percent of the stories written about him that Britney does. So anything she does to sell product is now faced with considerable and unprecedented levels of consumer resistance.

In that situation, if “Blackout” had received bad press and equally bad word-of-mouth it really WOULD have been the end of her career. But this time, the critics seemed to remember the leap in credibility and change in audience demographic that came about with “In The Zone” and treated her like a relatively significant, influential pop musician. The vast majority of reviews have been excellent, with “her best album ever” assessments flying around. Word-of-mouth too has been highly favorable and almost everybody who has heard the album a few times seems to love it.

Yes, sales have been disappointing so far - although there is the chance of “Blackout” being a slow-burner. But what is more important is that almost everyone agrees it’s a great album. It’s complete rubbish to give all the credit to the producers. Artists like Kelly Rowland and Jennifer Lopez have had the best of production too, yet their recent albums have flopped - not because these girls had a bad public image but because their albums were below-par.

If “Blackout” had sold twice as many copies but gotten bad reviews and a lot of fan disappointment, I’d have been a lot more worried. It would have looked as if her time was coming to an end, she’d had a good run but didn’t really have what you could call a CAREER in front of her. But the quality of “Blackout” and the great reception it has had ensure that she DOES genuinely have a career now. A career based, not on the “best PR in years”, not on being beautiful and sexy, not on being America’s sweetheart, but on musical excellence. People, including critics, have set the bar high for her. They EXPECT good things from her albums - good ADULT things - and she is delivering.

How to build on this highly favorable climate, step up to the next rung of the credibility ladder AND make new fans is the true challenge facing Britney. It’s all in her hands now.

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