Britney Spears Discography

Britney Spears Discography

American recording artist Britney Spears has released seven studio studio albums, twelve compilation albums, thirty-six singles, two promotional singles and two other appearances. In 1997, Spears signed a recording contract with Jive Records to launch her career. Spears has sold over 100 million albums worldwide and more than 28.6 million digital singles in the United States only, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Billboard ranked her as the 8th overall Artist of the Decade, and also recognized her as the best-selling female artist of the first decade of the 21st century, as well as the fifth overall. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) also recognized Spears as the eighth top-selling female artist in the United States, with 34 million certified albums. She made her chart debut in November 1998 with "...Baby One More Time", which attained global success and reached the top position of every major countries charts. It was followed by the release of her debut studio album, ...Baby One More Time, which opened at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart and US Billboard 200, being later certified fourteen-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Spears' second studio album, Oops!... I Did It Again, was released on May 16, 2000, and became the fastest-selling album ever by a female act in the US with over 1,319,193 units sold in its opening week. It spawned four singles: "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Lucky", "Stronger" and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know". In November 2001, Spears' self-titled album spawned worldwide hit "I'm a Slave 4 U", which is notable for being a musical departure from her previous material. After a two year break, Spears' fourth studio album, In the Zone, was released in November 2003. The album featured "Me Against the Music", a collaboration with Madonna that reached the top position of the European Hot 100 Singles, and "Toxic", which earned Spears her first Grammy in the category of Best Dance Recording, and gained her credibility amongst critics. Her first compilation album, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, was released the following year and sold nearly 6 million copies worldwide.

Following her personal struggles through 2007, Spears' fifth studio album, Blackout, was released in October of the same year. It was positively received by critics, who praised its innovative and modern sound. Unlike all of Spears' previous albums, Blackout was not heavily promoted through magazine interviews, talk-show appearances or televised performances besides a performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards and was not accompanied by a tour either. Even so, it was able to sell over 3 million units worldwide, and spawned hit singles "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me". With the release of her sixth studio album Circus, Spears became the only act in the Nielsen SoundScan era, 1991–present, to have four albums debut with 500,000 or more copies sold in the US. With the releases of "Womanizer" and "Circus", it sold over four million copies worldwide. Spears' third compilation album, The Singles Collection, featured her third US number one single "3". In 2011, she released the song "Hold It Against Me", which made Spears only the second artist in the Billboard Hot 100 chart's 52-year history to debut at number one with two or more songs, just behind Mariah Carey. The track was included on her seventh studio album, Femme Fatale, which debuted at number one in the country.