Photo: Jive Records

• Britney Spears

Britney Spears in "Me Against The Music"
Photo: Jive Records

It was the changing of the guard — or at least the meeting of two of the most influential pop divas of all time — when Britney Spears and Madonna hooked up for Brit's single "Me Against the Music," from 2003's In the Zone. The superstars tantalize the audience (and each other) throughout the flirty video.

"Madonna is an icon of an earlier generation, and then Britney of the newer generation. She was at her peak at that point," director Paul Hunter told MTV News about the video. "So it was a challenge to kind of bring both of the worlds together. I wanted it to be a bit of a cat-and-mouse sort of game and a little bit of a foreplay between Britney and Madonna and just sort of tease the audience."

A few years back, Britney revealed that the collaboration came together thanks to the 2003 VMAs — you know, the show where Britney and Madonna locked lips. "I was in the middle of rehearsals for the VMAs and I played her the song, and she was like, 'That's your first single, right?' " Britney recalled. "I was like, 'Yeah, hopefully.' She was like, 'I really like it.' I was like, 'Really?' I was like, 'Well, you wanna do it with me?' She said, 'Yeah.' "

Hunter said the video was all about setting Spears and Madonna apart. "I try to play opposites, when you have Britney in dark and Madonna in white," he said. "And then we see them kind of dance around the bed ... and you think they're gonna get on top of each other and do something crazy."

But Spears said nothing crazy was supposed to happen; it was all about teasing people. "I never actually see Madonna or touch her; I just feel her presence there," she said. "[The song is] basically about just going to a club and letting yourself go and battling with whoever is around you and battling against the music as well. This is my first time doing a collaboration, and it's with Miss Madonna herself."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits. Keep coming back for all things Britney, and let us know your favorite Brit songs, videos, memories and more in the comments below!

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Christian Siriano
Photo: MTV News

Britney Spears has made a career out of crawling around onstage and dancing through her videos in barely there outfits. But when it comes to really nailing down the one moment that Britney was at her most stylish, designer Christian Siriano says it's all about her understated look when she performed onstage with Madonna in 2008.

"My favorite Britney moment was when she was kind of having this tiny bit of a comeback, right at the beginning," he told MTV News. "And it was when she wore the beautiful black pants and that white blouse onstage with Madonna. I thought that was so chic and so not her, so that's why I really liked it."

Britney also dazzled Siriano's senses at the 2008 VMAs. "And then obviously when she won all of her music awards recently in that sequin dress," he recalled. "And she looked really chic, but I liked it. I think it worked."

She also could do no wrong at the 2001 VMAs. "She did wear a black Dolce and Gabbana minidress, like, years and years ago," he remembered. "That was good. That was really good. Even though it was crazy, that was good."

Siriano said he would love to tackle the challenge of designing a little something for the pop star. He's already got Lady Gaga on his résumé, so why not?

"I always say, 'Britney, I would love to do it,' " he said. "I would love to make something fabulous for her because fashion-wise, it's very interesting. She's one of the biggest pop icons but ... it's never about clothes ever. It's so weird, because every other of these pop divas it's so much about clothing and fashion, and it's not with Britney. It's very strange."

But, Siriano applauded her down-to-earth, girl-next-door sense of style. "On her down days, she's just a normal girl and in her cutout jeans and Uggs and cutoff T-shirt," he said. "And I think it's kind of cool that it's so real."

• The Evolution Of: Britney Spears

• Britney Spears

Britney Spears in "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman"
Photo: Jive Records

Britney Spears had been grappling with her budding adulthood when she released her third album, simply titled Britney, in 2001. With songs like "Overprotected" and "Let Me Be," Spears seemed to be letting out her adolescent angst. But on the single "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," which was also featured on the soundtrack for her flick "Crossroads," the singer wanted the world to know that she was ready to be treated like an adult.

For the video, director Wayne Isham just wanted to have Britney out in nature — even if the setting seemed a bit dangerous for a pop star. "I go, 'Let me check it out first,' " Isham told MTV News about having Britney stand on the edge of a cliff. "She understood that if my fat ass was out there and I could stand there, then she could stand there," he laughed.

The singer might have been willing to take the risk, but she still had some trepidation about standing on a cliff. "The wind started picking up a lot and almost dropped me over," Spears recalled. "And I was like, 'OK, gotta go.' "

Nonetheless, Isham loved the way the video looked and said there was no green screen involved. "She went out there and, without a safety cable, just stood there with those cowboy boots on," he said. "She was standing on the edge in her cowboy boots, looking hot. We'd be right on the edge, and she had not a blink of fear."

Spears said in 2001 that the song was actually intended for the "Crossroads" soundtrack before she included it on her album. "The song was written for the movie once we had the decision to make the music part of the movie," she said. "It's an inspirational song, and it's probably one of my favorite songs that I've ever sang."

And the video is one of Isham's favorites too. "I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience with her and what she's doing right now," he said. "She stepped into it with positive energy. She ended up stepping out and kicking ass."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits. Keep coming back for all things Britney, and let us know your favorite Brit songs, videos, memories and more in the comments below!

• Britney Spears: The Singles Collection

• The Evolution Of: Britney Spears

• Britney Spears

Bon Jovi's <i>The Circle</i>
Photo: Island

Music fans appear to have taken a break from holiday shopping last week, as sales of the top albums took a noticeable dip, and the latest #1 debut did just about half the business Carrie Underwood's Play On did the week before to hit #1.

Jersey icons Bon Jovi take over the top spot on next week's Billboard albums chart with their latest, The Circle, which sold just about 163,000 copies according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan. That was just over half of what the band's previous #1, the country-tinged Lost Highway, did in its first week in 2007. It was enough, however, to keep tenor Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas at #2 (136,000) and to knock Underwood down to #3 (128,000) as her second-week sales plummeted by 60 percent.

The only other debut in the top 10 is from righteous metallers Flyleaf, whose Memento Mori lands at #8 on sales of 56,000. The rest of the top 10: the "Michael Jackson's This Is It" soundtrack (#4, 117,000), Taylor Swift's Fearless (#5, 91,000), Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 32 (#6, 68,000), Michael Bublé's Crazy Love (#7, 58,000), Glee: The Music Vol. 1 (#9, 56,000) and the soundtrack to "New Moon" (#10, 53,000).

Among other new releases, Switchfoot touch down at #13 with Hello Hurricane (39,000), and Dashboard Confessional's Alter the Ending hits #19 (30,000). Buzz rapper Wale sneaks in at #21 with Attention Deficit, followed by Britney Spears' Singles Collection at #22 (27,000).

Quite a few country acts got a bump after winning big at the CMA Awards, including Lady Antebellum, whose self-titled disc shoots up 130 percent and 13 spots to #11 (45,000), and best "new" artist Hootie and the Blowfish singer Darius Rucker, whose country disc Learn to Live jumps more than 20 spots to #27 (23,000). Other country gainers that performed or won on the show included the Zac Brown Band, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean.

Otherwise, the chart has been pretty quiet, with masked party rappers Hollywood Undead slamming to #29 with the remix CD/live DVD Desperate Measures (21,000), Jason Mraz a bit behind at #35 with the live disc Jason Mraz's Beautiful Mess (16,000) and an AC/DC box set, Backtracks, debuting at #39 (16,000).

Some of last week's top debuts had serious falls. The Foo Fighters' Greatest Hits stumbles 17 spots to #28 after business fell by 50 percent (22,000). Weezer's Raditude shed more than 73 percent of its debut business to nose-dive 25 spots to #32 with sales of 18,000. And Slayer's World Painted Blood skidded 67 percent, dropping 32 spots to #44 on sales of 13,000.

The deck should get shuffled next week with the long-awaited release of 50 Cent's Before I Self-Destruct, the latest from Norah Jones, John Mayer, Leona Lewis and OneRepublic, as well as debuts from Justin Bieber and Kris Allen.

• Britney Spears: The Singles Collection

• Bon Jovi
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Britney Spears in "Stronger"
Photo: Jive Records

Up until the release of "Stronger," Britney Spears had not yet truly made the leap from teen pop star to femme fatale. Most — if not all — of her videos were glossy, pastel-colored romps about falling in and out of love. It wasn't until she worked with Joseph Kahn on "Stronger," from her 2000 Oops! ... I Did It Again LP, that Spears began to emerge as a darker, more dangerous version of sexy.

"For 'Stronger,' she said, 'I would like to dance in a chair and drive in a car and break up with [my] boyfriend,' " Kahn told MTV News. " 'Those are your three elements.' And then, as a director, you go, 'OK, well, how do I make that cool?'

"I think this video is interesting because it's got a very sophisticated, adult look to it," Kahn (who has helmed dozens of music videos, including Brit's "Womanizer" and Chris Brown's "Crawl") continued. "It's definitely a departure from the sort of candy-colored videos she was doing before, so I always thought this was the transition between Britney the teenage pop star and Britney the sort of diva she became."

Kahn ended up taking those elements and creating a semi-futuristic world in which Spears walks into a club, breaks up with her cheating boyfriend and triumphantly walks in the rain, knowing her life is better off without him. But it was the pivotal dance sequences with the metal chair that defined the aesthetic for the video.

"She pitched it to me as an original concept by herself, but the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of the chair sequence, in terms of how it applies to music videos, was Janet Jackson's 'Pleasure Principle' — the iconic chair sequence in that." Kahn recalled.

Like Jackson, Spears wasn't afraid to get sexy in the clip, even if her handlers were a bit nervous that she was going too far. "There's a shot here where I'm tracking with her, and her legs are spread, and Larry [Rudolph], the manager, was like, 'Don't do that.' " Kahn said. "And she was like, 'Yes, definitely do that.' "

Oddly enough, one aspect of the video that Kahn was insistent upon was Spears' eye shadow. "One of the big things I wanted to do here, that I was just obsessed with ... I know it sounds really strange, but I wanted her to have gray eye shadow," he said. "And I think it looks really good. I remember when I was looking at the close-ups, Britney goes, 'You're really obsessed with this gray eye shadow!' and I go, 'Yes, absolutely.' But if you look at it, it just makes her eyes pop like crazy."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits. Keep coming back for all things Britney, and let us know your favorite Brit songs, videos, memories and more in the comments below!

• Britney Spears: The Singles Collection

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Britney Spears in "Oops!... I Did It Again"
Photo: Jive Records

Britney Spears had everyone buzzing after releasing several sexy videos from her debut album, including the pop-tart clips for " ... Baby One More Time" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy." So when Britney released the first video from her second album for "Oops! ... I Did It Again," she decided not to mess with a good thing and once again worked with frequent collaborator Nigel Dick, who this time reinvented Spears as a sexy, otherworldly vixen.

" 'Oops!... I Did It Again' was the first single from her second album, so there's definitely the sense that this is Britney's second album," Dick told MTV News about the expectations surrounding the video's release in 2000.

Like the concepts for her earlier videos, Britney also had a very clear idea of what she wanted for the now iconic "Oops!" clip. "This whole idea was my idea," she told MTV in 2000. "I was like, 'I want to be on Mars, dancing on Mars.' "

But it seems that the pitch she gave Dick at the time was even more specific than just dancing on Mars. " 'I want to be in a red jumpsuit. I want to have a really cute spaceman, but there can't be any rockets,' " Dick said, recalling Spears' request for the now-unforgettable red-latex catsuit. "There was another catsuit, actually, which was fantastic, which I loved, and the night before, I was told that Britney hired this guy that worked with Michael Jackson," the director said. "And so we're going to use that catsuit. So that's the catsuit."

Spears revealed that there was a bit of a freak accident on the set. "There was a camera, and there was an overhead shot, and they were filming me and the camera fell," she said. "And it kind of knocked me out, and there was drama ... but it was fine."

Another key part of the song, when Britney starts talking about "Titanic," posed a bit of a problem for Dick, but it wasn't one Spears felt she needed to deal with. "There's a bit about the Titanic in the middle, and I was like, 'What are we going to do about that?' " he recalled, laughing. "And she says, 'Don't worry. You'll sort it out.' "

In 2000, Spears talked about why the video needed to be effects-heavy. "It's really futuristic. It's going to be the first video that I've done to have a lot of special effects," she said. "I think it's more mature. It's edgier. It's funkier. It's fun."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits. Keep coming back for all things Britney, and let us know your favorite Brit songs, videos, memories and more in the comments below!

• Britney Spears: The Singles Collection

• The Evolution Of: Britney Spears

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Britney Spears in "(You Drive Me) Crazy"
Photo: Jive Records

After Britney Spears established herself as a pop-star Lolita in her video for "... Baby One More Time," the singer slowed things down a bit with her single "Sometimes." But she didn't leave her dancing shoes off for long. In the kitschy "(You Drive Me) Crazy," Britney showed the world that she's not just a sexy schoolgirl; she can be a sexy waitress too!

"Actually, the concept of the video is all my idea," Spears told MTV in 1999, adding that she thought the choreography would be "big." "It would be cool to be in a club, and we're dorky waitresses, and we break out and start dancing."

In an interview in 1998, Spears explained that she thought "Crazy" was an extension of her breakout hit, "... Baby One More Time," which makes sense, since both were written and produced by Max Martin.

"It's an uptempo [song]," she said. "Kinda like '... Baby One More Time,' same feel a little. A bit of rock in it."

Nigel Dick, who also directed "... Baby One More Time," said that although it was extremely easy to work with Spears on the video, it wasn't as easy to convince Adrian Grenier to make an appearance in it. Since the song was on the soundtrack to "Drive Me Crazy," Grenier and co-star Melissa Joan Hart were supposed to be featured in the clip as well.

"The big issue is that Adrian Grenier did not want to be in the video," the director told MTV News. "So, I was given instructions to ring him up and make sure he appeared in the video. I said, 'You know what, Adrian, I just think it would be great for your career, and Britney's a great girl and she's fun to work with.' Eventually he came around."

Given that Grenier and Hart mostly just stand around and look cute in the video as Brit and company dance around them, it's unclear how much it did for their careers. But Spears clearly hoped that the large scale and quality of the dance production would give her a boost. "I honestly think this video will hopefully take me to the next level," she said in 1999.

Dick fondly recalled working with the singer on the clip, but added a little-known piece of trivia about the video. "That 'crazy' sign is still there. It was still hiding behind something," he said. "Britney came to the set completely rehearsed. Certainly whenever I worked with her, she had an extraordinary work ethic, which I was always impressed by."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits. Keep coming back for all things Britney, and let us know your favorite Brit songs, videos, memories and more in the comments below!

• Britney Spears: The Singles Collection

• The Evolution Of: Britney Spears

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Britney Spears appears in the "It's Britney!" iPhone app
Photo: Snappy Apps LLC

Britney Spears is getting up close and personal with her fans through the just-launched iPhone and iPod Touch app "It's Britney!"

The app, available in the iTunes App Store for $1.99, has seven features, including messages from Britney, news from the singer, photo galleries, a frequently updated home screen and Twitter updates. There's also a sparkler feature, so fans can hold up their phones at her shows and dazzle the pop star.

The Be Britney's Dancer feature allows fans to put their faces on photos of Britney's dancers and be onstage with her. Additionally, when fans shake the phone with the Shake Shake Shake feature, they can hear Britney say, "It's Britney, bi---!" from the song "Gimme More."

"See now there really is an app for everything!" Spears tweeted. "I just got a demo of my new iPhone app that comes out Monday and I'm playing with it on my phone non-stop. I love it!!"

Spears isn't the first artist to get into the app game. Diddy launched an app that lists his favorite restaurants, clubs and more, while T-Pain puts fans in his shoes with his Auto-Tune app. Lil Wayne and Fall Out Boy also keep in touch with fans through their apps.

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits. Keep coming back for all things Britney, and let us know your favorite Brit songs, videos, memories and more in the comments below!

• Britney Spears: The Singles Collection

• Britney Spears

Britney Spears in "... Baby One More Time"
Photo: Jive Records

In 1998, Britney Spears sauntered down the halls of high school, dressed in uniform, singing about the boy who broke her heart. " ... Baby One More Time" let the world know that a new pop starlet was in town.

"I decided to try this idea that someone had thrown at me and they hated it — they absolutely hated it," the video's director, Nigel Dick, told MTV News. "So I jumped on the phone with Britney and she says, 'Well, I now I think it should be about me in school and there be lots of hot boys around,' and that was pretty much it — oh, and a bunch of dancing. And my response was, 'OK.' "

In a 1998 interview with MTV, Spears revealed that she wanted the video to reflect the lives of her fans, so she wanted to set it in a school. "The first idea we had for the video was so off the wall," she said. "I was like, 'I want something a lot of kids can relate to.' It's just a fun video."

Britney's "Lolita"-esque schoolgirl look may have resonated with kids, but it didn't exactly please their parents. And Dick gives full credit to Spears for that idea. "My idea originally was just jeans and T-shirts, and we were at the wardrobe fitting and Britney holds up the jeans and T-shirts and says, 'Wouldn't I wear a schoolgirl outfit?' " he said. "Every piece of wardrobe in the video came from Kmart, and I was told at the time not one piece of clothing in the video cost more than $17. On that level, it's real. That probably, in retrospect, is a part of its charm."

Later on, in 2000, Britney would sit down with MTV and explain why she decided on the semi-risqué fashions. "Me showing my belly? I'm from the South; you're stupid if you don't wear a sports bra [when you] go to dance class, you're going to be sweating your butt off," she explained. "It was such a wonderful experience. All these people there, working for you. I had my own trailer. It was an amazing experience."

Dick said at the time all his colleagues wondered why he would want to work on a video for a 16-year-old unknown, but he had his reasons. "My response was, 'It's a great song. I don't know anything about Britney. I never watched the "Mickey Mouse Club." She seems like a great kid and she's very enthusiastic,' " he said. "But I just love the song. It's just a great song."

When Britney sat down with MTV in 1998, she echoed the sentiment, noting that as soon as she heard it, she knew she had to record the track. "It's a song every girl can relate to," she said. "She regrets it. She wants him back."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits. Keep coming back for all things Britney, and let us know your favorite Brit songs, videos, memories and more in the comments below!

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