Over the years, various music videos of Spears have been hailed for their major impact on pop culture and are deemed amongst the most influential music videos of all time. At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, she was honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, presented to her by Lady Gaga, who said "the industry would not be the same without her". Spears ranked at four on VH1's 50 Greatest Women of the Video Era list, ahead of most of her contemporaries and behind only veterans such as Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Whitney Houston. In 2020, Billboard ranked her eight on its 100 Greatest Music Video Artists of All Time list.
Showing Season 5 of 10
Blackout
2007
Blackout produced three singles. "Gimme More" peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming her highest-peaking single on the chart since "...Baby One More Time" (1998), and reached the top ten in additional 16 countries. "Piece of Me" peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, but replicated the international commercial success of its predecessor. Its accompanying music video won Spears her first MTV Video Music Award, winning Video of the Year, Best Female Video and Best Pop Video in 2008. "Break the Ice" did not fare as well as its predecessors, peaking at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. Originally intended as the fourth single, "Radar" was later included on Spears' following studio album Circus and was released as its fourth and final single in June 2009.
01. Gimme More
2007-10-05
The video begins with a blonde Spears sitting and laughing in a bar with two female friends, but stops to look at a brunette Spears calling out to her on a small stage in front of them, wearing a leather vest, a studded belt, panties and fishnet stockings while sporting a tattoo on her biceps. She dances erotically around a pole and up against a mirror. Throughout the video, she continues to dance and flip her hair while special effects lights flash around her as the camera moves slightly in and out of focus to the beat of the song. The video's light systems change from black and white with aura-like blue and pink hues to full-blown color.
02. Piece of Me
2007-12-14
The video begins with four blonde women changing their clothes, putting make up on and dancing in a bedroom. Outside, several paparazzi are taking pictures of the situation through the window. Spears appears in front of a multi-colored, illuminated background wearing a short brown fur vest, a sequined black bra and ripped low-rise jeans. Then they enter a nightclub, with Spears wearing a purple satin dress. Spears starts flirting with a man and guides him into the women's bathroom, where she discovers he has a hidden camera in his chest. She writes "Sucker" in his forehead. There is a dance sequence until the song ends, in which Spears and the four women dance in the bathroom.
03. Break the Ice
2008-03-12
The video begins with Spears wearing a short black bodysuit and knee-high black boots, standing on the roofs of a futuristic city. As the first verse begins, she breaks into a research facility and battles with suited henchmen. Spears ends up gaining access to a highly secured laboratory and walks through aisles of clones held in liquid cocoons. She sees that one is a clone of her, kisses her and plants a bomb on the tank. After this, Spears infiltrates the base of the apparent villain, kissing him, and then destroying him, revealing him to be a robot also. From there, she dodges a bullet and sets off a panic among the newly arrived henchmen, meanwhile the bomb's timer runs lower and lower. Next, there is a wide shot of the building exploding, while Spears is jumping and "Victory" is depicted on the side of the structure. The video ends with the phrase "To be continued...".
