Blackout (Britney Spears Album) - Recording

Recording

"It's definitely Britney, but the next level. With songs like 'Toxic,' she was very innovative, and we're trying to top it. Push it to the next thing. The album wouldn't come out in a while anyhow, since it's at the very beginning. When it comes time to promote the album, she'll be in a different headspace where that's going to be the main thing. But right now, she's happy juggling music and motherhood."

—J. R. Rotem talks about working with Spears in May 2006.

Earnest recording of the album began in 2006, according to a Spears' representative. Spears first met Rotem in Las Vegas, Nevada in March 2006, and enlisted him to work on the album after listening to Rihanna's "SOS". They wrote and recorded four songs together, including "Everybody" and "Who Can She Trust". In July 2006, she started working with Danja, who contacted songwriters such as Keri Hilson, Jim Beanz, Marcella Araica and Corte Ellis to work with him. The team wrote seven tracks for Spears: "Gimme More", "Break the Ice", "Get Naked (I Got a Plan)", "Hot as Ice", "Perfect Lover", "Outta This World" and "Get Back". Danja explained that the creative process was not difficult at first since he was "left to do pretty much whatever I wanted to", and "if she felt it, she was gonna ride with it. If she didn't, you’d see it in her face." Hilson wrote "Gimme More" with Spears in mind after Danja played her the instrumental, saying, "I just started singing, 'Give me, Give me,' and added a little more in and just having fun and messing around really." Spears began recording with them at Studio at the Palms in Las Vegas in August 2006, while she was seven months pregnant with Jayden James. Recording continued at Spears' house in Los Angeles, three weeks after she gave birth. Hilson commented that "She gave 150 percent. I don’t know any other mother that would do that." Danja added that despite all her problems in her personal life, "As far as her work ethic, I haven't seen anybody come in like that and do what you go to do." Regarding the sound of the album, He deemed it as bigger, more mature and "a new Britney", explaining, "I come from hip-hop, so it's underlined with, but I throw it down."

Kara DioGuardi, co-producer of "Heaven on Earth" and co-writer and co-producer of "Ooh Ooh Baby" worked with Spears while she was pregnant with her second child. DioGuardi said that Spears "worked really hard" and called her "unstoppable". In September 2006, Rotem told MTV News that him and Spears were trying to innovate the current sound of radio at the moment, exemplifying Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous". In November 2006, Spears recorded "Radar" with Ezekiel Lewis and Patrick M. Smith of The Clutch at Sony Music Studios in New York City. Lewis had wanted to work with her for a long time and was motivated to produce something for her that was going to "help her project become a great project to come back with". Smith stated that the team tried to create a record "for the Britney Spears that we know and love" and that it did not "touch on anything that was really dealing with all the stuff that she was dealing with." Both commented that although Spears arrived late to the recording sessions, she caught them off guard with her efficiency and professionalism, with Lewis adding, "It was absolutely nuts, and she took directions very well. I don’t know what I was expecting because we went in to cut that record the day after she filed divorce from Kevin." T-Pain, who co-wrote "Hot as Ice", was in the studio with Spears in February 2007, and stated that one of the three songs they recorded was finished in only an hour. He said that he "thought she was going to be sitting on the couch eating Doritos or nachos or something but she came in, shook my hand, gave me a hug and went right in the booth. She got in there and put it down."

"Heaven on Earth" was written by Nicole Morier, Nick Huntington and Michael McGroarty, the latter two known as Freescha. Although Morier had been writing songs with Greg Kurstin and other artists, she felt she "hadn't really found niche" until she wrote "Heaven on Earth", which she described as "a very honest song". After she played the song to her publisher, they met with Spears and her A&R Teresa LaBarbera-Whites, who both loved it. Morier described "Heaven on Earth" as the song that transformed her career. Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, known as Bloodshy & Avant, co-wrote and co-produced four tracks: "Piece of Me", "Radar", "Freakshow" and "Toy Soldier". When the album was considered to be finished, they were persuaded by LaBarbera Whites to work on a new track. Winnberg commented that it had always been "an unwritten rule" to not write songs about Spears' personal life, since "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex", an answer song to Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River", was rejected by her record label. However, the duo wrote "Piece of Me" with Klas Åhlund anyway as an answer to Spears' critics, and sent it to the singer who "loved it". Winnberg stated, "We knew that the song broke all the rules we had, When she came to the studio, she was extremely psyched, had learned the lyrics by heart in the car, and recorded the song on half an hour." Before the album's release, LaBarbera-Whites told MTV News that the album "shows a lot of growth as a performer. She was very involved in the songs and how they turned out. It's her magic that turns these songs into what they are." Among the producers who worked in Blackout but did not make the album were Scott Storch, Dr. Luke and Ne-Yo.