Britney Spears

In the late 1990s, Madonna had long since become a mature artist, turning her back on the carefree dance-pop of her early days. Teenage singer Britney Spears picked up on this specific Madonna era, albeit with a more girl-next-door approach. Her coy mix of innocence and sensuality (and infectious songs) made her a superstar, and helped inspire the teen-pop phenomenon that soon dominated pop music. By the early '00s, Spears was casting about for a more adult image, and remade herself into a vixen, experimented with acting and reality TV, and had two children with the controversial wannabe rap star Kevin Federline. While her personal life pre-empted her musical output for a while, she seemed on the road to artistic recovery after the 2006 birth of her second child. A critically lambasted appearance on the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards and a very public custody battle with Federline worked against her, but her concurrent album release BLACKOUT bought her some credibility with the fickle music press.

• pop