'Baby One More Time'

On this blog, I talk a lot about films, books and records all released before I was even born.

It is an honor, however, to be able to talk about music or movies that were right in my wheelhouse. Britney Spears is in my wheelhouse.

It was my freshman year of college when she released "Baby One More Time" and the video for the song of the same name.

Needless to say, it drove all our pants crazy watching her in the short plaid schoolgirl skirt dancing and singing despite the fact that I wasn't necessarily attracted to her because she looks like she has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Anyway, I do remember the timeline for Spears. There was the innocent, Mickey Mouse club album and then the edgier second album and then she went super-sexy with the leather outfits and songs that hinted at bondage and all that.

With all that (and the head shaving and other crazy moments), we forget that first album and just how gigantic and important it was as a piece of teen-bop Americana.

First off, we'd like to think, as adults, that music directed at teenagers (whether it's Frankie Avalon, Dion, the Patridge Family, New Kids on the Block, Spears, N'Sync or the Jonas Brothers) is passe and beyond us. However, as noted, this music has been around forever and it'll be around in 100 years.

Secondly, listening to this album, it was shocking to realize how much sex Spears was already selling despite the innocent, girl-next-door exterior.

Look at the album cover. Where do your eyes go. If you don't say between her legs into the black hole in her skirt, then you are lying.

Open up the liner notes. Fold it out. What do you see. It's an extra-large photo of Spears in a seemingly innocent pair of jeans (oddly very bulky in the crotch area) and tank top. However, the part that you see when you first start unfolding the notes is her bulky crotch.

Spears is about sex. She's always been about sex. Frankly, it's unfair.