With a November 2001 Las Vegas performance that became an HBO special, Britney Spears headlines a visual spectacle that surpasses even Vegas's stage shows. From the opening "Oops! I Did It Again" to the closing "I'm a Slave 4 U," Spears and her dance troupe athletically romp through a live, life-size, 90-minute music video. There's no musical emphasis (usually the original recordings play while Spears nominally pays attention to what she's supposed to be singing), but that's not the point.

Soft-spoken offstage, Spears becomes someone else entirely in front of an audience: numerous costume changes, a plethora of filmed footage, awesome acrobatics, and a gigantic stage set create the ultimate triumph of visuals over music. During the encore, "Baby One More Time," rain drenches Spears, giving a born entertainer one final opportunity to leave her fans awestruck. The concert was broadcast live to four military bases, and Spears acknowledges the soldiers' service in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. --Kevin Filipski

Pop idol Britney Spears stars in this sweet coming-of-age movie about three childhood friends who've grown apart, but find out they may still have a lot in common. After graduating from high school, Lucy (Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana), and Mimi (Taryn Manning) decide to take a road trip to L.A. to audition for a record label. Along the way, there's a lot of heartbreak and female bonding (not to mention a lot of midriff-baring--in her first scene, Spears jumps on her bed in her underwear, singing along to a Madonna song), as each of the three girls learns more about herself and life. Crossroads could have been trite schmaltz, but the script has some grit and the direction is fresh and relaxed--and, most significantly, Spears is far more sympathetic and engaging than you might expect. Also featuring Dan Aykroyd and Kim Cattrall. --Bret Fetzer

Britney Spears: In the Zone is a busy batch of Britney-mania, much of it featuring Spears in crisp dance numbers supplemented by behind-the-scenes glimpses and chatter. The heart of this DVD is an ABC television special featuring toned-down but still sexy performances of "Toxic," "Breathe on Me," and "I'm a Slave 4 U." A fun highlight is Spears's hip-hop collaboration with the Ying Yang Twins on "(I Got That) Boom Boom," one of the few numbers in the star's stage repertoire with a little room for spontaneity. Between songs one finds Spears gushing over her grandfather, praising her entourage, describing the emotional toll of being in the public eye, and, most interestingly, talking a little about writing songs. Also included here is footage from Spears's Times Square performance on MTV, a couple of videos and related featurettes, and a CD including alternative mixes of "Toxic" and "Me Against the Music." --Tom Keogh

Watch teen-pop queen Britney Spears cavorting in the sun and surf in Live and More! Part concert video and part travelogue, it features eight songs performed live on Hawaii's Waikiki Beach, including of course hits from her smash album Oops!... I Did It Again, in front of thousands of enthusiastic fans, the youngest of whom can be spotted mouthing the words while perched on their big sisters' shoulders. These songs are interspersed with clips of her "down time" in Hawaii: learning to hula at the Polynesian Cultural Center, playing with a dolphin, holding a dance rehearsal at Waimea Falls, and parasailing. She also gives an impromptu pizza party at the home of her "No. 1 fan" and drops in on a classroom--photo ops, sure, but also a genuine thrill for the kids.

Completing this grab bag are three music videos ("Oops!... I Did It Again," "Stronger," "Lucky") and clips from when she hosted Saturday Night Live. Most of the sketches ("Woodrow the Homeless Man," "Britney Judges Dance Tryouts") require her to play herself, but she does stretch out (a little) as author Dawn Paslowski on the fictional talk show Morning Latte. She also performs "Oops!... I Did It Again" and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" on the show and pokes fun at gossipmongers by noticeably padding herself. While this helter-skelter programming may frustrate those longing for a straight concert video, the sheer variety of material collected here makes Live and More! a real screamfest for Britney-philes. --David Horiuchi

At 30 minutes, Britney: The Videos is even shorter than Britney's outfits! It has only four videos and is padded with one live performance, two commercials, and a featurette about her first starring role, in the movie Crossroads. Her fans won't mind, of course. The videos for "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know," "I'm a Slave 4 U," and "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" show the star is a born performer, while "Overprotected" features Crossroads outtakes as Spears lip-synchs in character from that movie. Also included is the eye-opening performance of "Slave" from the 2001 MTV Video Awards (complete with live snake), her "Joy of Pepsi" commercial, a teaser for Spears's HBO special from Las Vegas, and a glimpse at a Vogue magazine photo shoot to the strains of the song "Anticipating." Spears's cover of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is heard during DVD chapter breaks. --Kevin Filipski

MTV's relentless self-promotional machine rolls on with this 55-minute compilation of performances from the channel's annual Video Music Awards show (described here as "the only award show that matters"--easy for them to say, since they invented it), ranging from 1990 to 2002. Image is paramount to this operation, especially if there's a little titillation involved; thus we have the sex-kitten antics of Britney Spears and Shakira, the spectacle of a bare-chested Nelly wearing his jeans not only below his boxers but barely above his knees, and the sheer absurdity of MC Hammer's costumed cast of thousands crowding the stage for "You Can't Touch This." But there's also some good music here (Nelly's electrifying "Country Grammar," the Brian Setzer Orchestra's swinging "Jump, Jive & Wail," Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's entertainingly over-the-top "Crossroads"), as well as short features on "turntablism" and pop songwriting. --Sam Graham

MTV's relentless self-promotional machine rolls on with this 95-minute compilation of performances from the channel's annual Video Music Awards show (described here as "the only award show that matters"--easy for them to say, since they invented it), ranging from 1990 to 2002. Image is paramount to this operation, especially if there's a little titillation involved; thus we have the sex-kitten antics of Britney Spears and Shakira, the spectacle of a bare-chested Nelly wearing his jeans not only below his boxers but barely above his knees, and the sheer absurdity of MC Hammer's costumed cast of thousands crowding the stage for "You Can't Touch This." But there's also some good music here (Nelly's electrifying "Country Grammar," the Brian Setzer Orchestra's swinging "Jump, Jive & Wail," Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's entertainingly over-the-top "Crossroads"), as well as short features on "turntablism" and pop songwriting. Of course, some may argue that the likes of Jewel (who plays solo) and Pink don't exactly qualify as rock artists, but there are plenty of genuine rockers here. And even if they wear their influences on the sleeves, people like Lenny Kravitz (with the neo-Hendrixisms of "Are You Gonna Go My Way"), Silverchair (the Nirvana soundalike "Tomorrow"), and INXS (with the late Michael Hutchence coming on like Jim Morrison) put on a good show--as do the predictably outrageous Marilyn Manson (who's preceded onstage by a marching band), the loud bratty, and fun Blink 182 (appearing with a chorus line of midgets), and the always-reliable U2 ("Please," from 1997). Nothing amazing here, but entertaining nonetheless. --Sam Graham

In the six years since her debut CD ...Baby One More Time set Billboard charts a-trembling, Britney Spears has pried open pop music's rusty cage and sprinkled her sex-kittenish fairy dust around like long-overdue disinfectant. She has also arguably done more for the neglected navel than Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce have done for the derriere. But despite her well-earned reputation for boldness (to which releasing a greatest-hits package after just four discs can only add), Britney calls it quits at making claims about her vocal talent. And that works in her favor. Because while My Prerogative is an exciting and even at times superb record, its merits lie almost exclusively in each track's production. From the Abba-esque choruses of her earliest hits ("...Baby One More Time," "Crazy") to the twitching, pulsed-up grooves of 2001's "I'm a Slave 4 U" to the technified bleeps and swizzles of 2003's self-skewering "Outrageous," the pop princess proves she's been largely content to let her in-studio performances take a back seat to the rhythm. With beats as consistently good as the ones she's managed to recruit, though, it's hard to blame her. "Toxic" and "Me Against the Music" mash trance and hip-hop into the mix, and the three previously unreleased joints don't shrink from sliding headfirst into new sound, either. The Bobby Brown cover and title track stomps and bomps to a bared-teeth backdrop, and "Do Somethin'" creates such dancefloor urgency it should come with a siren. "I've Just Begun (Having My Fun)" treads two steps shy of crossing the Britney-bred boundary between sexy and raunchy, but fans will hope it's autobiographical anyway. For detractors the song--and the disc as a whole--should signal a long wait till the party's over. --Tammy La Gorce

However coy she might be in her public statements, Britney Spears leans more than a bit toward the provocative on In the Zone. Less concerned with aiming at the mainstream radio dial than in the first days of her career, she and her collaborators make this as street and club ready a record as possible. The opening duet with Madonna, "Me Against the Music," is worthy, but the bigger superstar’s presence serves almost less as a performance than a key to Britney’s intentions: as Madonna did on albums such as Erotica , Ray of Light, and Music, she’s out to bend current trends to her needs. R. Kelly, Moby, and Ying Yang Twins all provide stirring moments that draw on everything from Bollywood to Southern hip-hop, while one of the most impressive tracks, "Touch of My Hand," joins the proud tradition of Cyndi Lauper’s "She Bop." She still lacks a fully formed artistic vision of her own, but Zone, with its many get-free anthems, puts her much closer. --Rickey Wright

Debbie Gibson never recorded anything as sexy as Britney Spears's white-funk smoker "...Baby One More Time." Unfortunately, neither does the 17-year-old Spears's debut album contain anything else that remotely approaches that instant hit single. A few of the disc's cuts are pleasantly catchy, but too much of its space is given over to icky ballads ("E-Mail My Heart"?) and other unconvincing moves such as the dancehall-lite "Soda Pop." --Rickey Wright

Yes, she did. Even if the title track's chorus is a blatant rip-off of the Barbra Streisand/Barry Gibb duet, "Woman in Love," it's still darn catchy--much more than anything from 1999's ...Baby One More Time (save the album's fab title tune, of course). With the rest of the 12 songs here, the teen queen pretty much delivers a remake of her last album. Songs like "What U See (Is What U Get)" and "Stronger" show Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin in his element, churning out another and yet another slick smash with staccato synth beats and heavily overproduced melodies. But even at his strongest points, he can't bury Britney's voice far enough below the virtual guitars--and it's obvious this girl ain't no Celine. Except for the horrendous ballads, however, that doesn't make a stitch of a difference. The pop songs have all the qualities of memorable tunes--the choruses are clear and catchy, the beats are bouncy enough to make you shake your bonbon, and the singer is about as randy for love as Austin Powers is for a shag. Edit out the low-water mark--when Britney mutilates the Rolling Stones' misogynist anthem, "Satisfaction," by oversexualizing it with inserted "uh"s ("I can't get no, uh, satisfaction")--and you've got a hit-packed album that's as guilty a pleasure as reruns of Beverly Hills 90210. --Heidi Sherman

Where Britney Spears's first two albums hewed to the early-'60s formula of one strong single plus a stack of filler--a fair bit of which ended up on the radio anyway--her third justifies itself as a full-length listen. Led by the single "I'm a Slave 4 U," a Neptunes-helmed piece of electrofunk that promises she'll do anything you want as long as it's dancing, the album continues through superior versions of Spears's poses. Calculated frustration with the adult world? Calculated independence? Sheer celebration? Check, check, and check: "Overprotected," "Let Me Be," and a cover of "I Love Rock & Roll" that brings to mind its bubblegum roots. Even without the joyous disco tribute of "Anticipating" and the not-icky ballad "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" providing symbolic respite from the rest of this machine-tooled music, Britney is one of the most human discs of the current teen-pop boom. If it spins off the deserved string of radio/video smashes, it may even buy this superstar a second 15 minutes. --Rickey Wright

The fourth in the series of Top 40-tracking compilations strikes a good balance between pop radio played-to-death singles, R&B standouts, and straight-up rock chart stormers. The beginning of the disc is packed with requisite teen pop; however, the Britney Spears offering "(You Drive Me) Crazy" will probably disappoint those who were hoping for the more recent "Oops!... I Did It Again"). This disc, where the Italian group Eiffel 65's dance-pop smash "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" lives in the same space as Blink 182's "All the Small Things," Ben Harper's "Steal My Kisses," and Macy Gray's "I Try," is like channel surfing during drive-time radio hours and scoring with every hit of the "seek" button. --Beth Massa

In the six years since her debut CD ...Baby One More Time set Billboard charts a-trembling, Britney Spears has pried open pop music's rusty cage and sprinkled her sex-kittenish fairy dust around like long-overdue disinfectant. She has also arguably done more for the neglected navel than Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé have done for the derrière. But despite her well-earned reputation for boldness (to which releasing a greatest-hits package after just four discs can only add), Britney calls it quits at making claims about her vocal talent. And that works in her favor. Because while My Prerogative is an exciting and even at times superb record, its merits lie almost exclusively in each track's production. From the Abba-esque choruses of her earliest hits ("...Baby One More Time," "Crazy") to the twitching, pulsed-up grooves of 2001's "I'm a Slave 4 U" to the technified bleeps and swizzles of 2003's self-skewering "Outrageous," the pop princess proves she's been largely content to let her in-studio performances take a back seat to the rhythm. With beats as consistently good as the ones she's managed to recruit, though, it's hard to blame her. "Toxic" and "Me Against the Music" mash trance and hip-hop into the mix, and the three previously unreleased joints don't shrink from sliding headfirst into new sound, either. The Bobby Brown cover and title track stomps and bomps to a bared-teeth backdrop, and "Do Somethin'" creates such dancefloor urgency it should come with a siren. "I've Just Begun (Having My Fun)" treads two steps shy of crossing the Britney-bred boundary between sexy and raunchy, but fans will hope it's autobiographical anyway. For detractors the song--and the disc as a whole--should signal a long wait till the party's over. --Tammy La Gorce

With 16 music videos under her belt, Jennifer Lopez has a few things to say in this sexy anthology about what it takes to connect people to her songs. She says them concisely in an interview that wraps around The Reel Me's collection of sweet ballads, sweaty dance music, and jagged hip-hop, but the videos actually speak for themselves. "If You Had My Love" makes a closed-circuit, home-security system a vehicle for catching J-Lo in an amorous mood--a ridiculous idea, of course, but terribly hot just the same. "No Me Ames" finds Lopez and Marc Anthony playing an embattled couple in a dramatization of their powerful duet. Other highlights include "Feelin' So Good," in which the star plays a hairdresser who blows her paycheck on a night out with the girls; the "Ain't It Funny" remix, with its deep colors and sassy attitude; and "Jenny from the Block," co-starring Ben Affleck. --Tom Keogh

Like Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez has entered the singing-dancing-acting zone of the bona fide superstar and has developed an ego to match her talents. J. Lo, the follow-up to her multiplatinum 1999 debut On the 6, makes little attempt to tinker with the Latina-soul formula that record patented, employing an army of coproducers and writers (including partner Puffy) to assemble a slick 15-track affair. If anything, Lopez's sound is safe, even retro, with some tracks looking back to the 1980s--particularly the Michael Jackson-influenced "I'm Real" and the funky, impressive "Play." Her Puerto Rican background comes to the fore on a handful of Spanish numbers, notably "Cariño," which samples Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria's "Sofrito" to impressive effect. It goes badly wrong on the "La Isla Bonita" soundalike "Ain't It Funny," which merely serves to reinforce the impression that Lopez is happy to settle for being the Latina Madonna. --Mike Pattenden

With 16 music videos under her belt, Jennifer Lopez has a few things to say in this sexy anthology about what it takes to connect people to her songs. She says them concisely in an interview that wraps around The Reel Me's collection of sweet ballads, sweaty dance music, and jagged hip-hop, but the videos actually speak for themselves. "If You Had My Love" makes a closed-circuit, home-security system a vehicle for catching J-Lo in an amorous mood--a ridiculous idea, of course, but terribly hot just the same. "No Me Ames" finds Lopez and Marc Anthony playing an embattled couple in a dramatization of their powerful duet. Other highlights include "Feelin' So Good," in which the star plays a hairdresser who blows her paycheck on a night out with the girls; the "Ain't It Funny" remix, with its deep colors and sassy attitude; and "Jenny from the Block," co-starring Ben Affleck. --Tom Keogh