Britney Spears

More than any other single artist, Britney Spears was the driving force behind the return of teen pop in the late 90s. The blockbuster success of the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys certainly paved the way for her own commercial breakthrough, but Spears didn’t just become a star – she was a bona fide pop phenomenon. Not only did she sell millions of records, she was a media fixture regardless of what she was (or wasn’t) doing; among female singers of the era (many of whom followed in her footsteps), her celebrity star power was rivaled only by Jennifer Lopez. From the outset, Spears’ sex appeal was an important part of her image; the video for her debut single, “…Baby One More Time,” outfitted her in full Catholic-school regalia, and sent her well on the way to becoming an international sex symbol.
Spears had a secret weapon in Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin, who had a hand in the vast majority of her hits as a writer and/or producer. With Martin crafting the sort of contemporary dance-pop and sentimental ballads that made stars of the Backstreet Boys, Spears kept on delivering the goods commercially, as her first three albums all topped the charts.