L'Oreal Hair Zone Mall Tour

In June 1997, Spears was in talks with manager Lou Pearlman to join female pop group Innosense. Lynne asked family friend and entertainment lawyer Larry Rudolph for his opinion and submitted a tape of Spears singing over a Whitney Houston karaoke song along with some pictures. Rudolph decided to pitch her to record labels, which required a professional demo. He sent Spears an unused song from Toni Braxton; she rehearsed for a week and recorded in a studio with a sound engineer. Spears traveled to New York with the demo and met executives from four labels, returning to Kentwood the same day. Three rejected her, arguing audiences wanted pop bands such as the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls, and "there wasn't going to be another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson or another Tiffany." Two weeks later, executives from Jive Records returned calls to Rudolph. Senior vice president of A&R Jeff Fenster stated, "It's very rare to hear someone that age who can deliver emotional content and commercial appeal. [...] For any artist, the motivation—the 'eye of the tiger'— is extremely important. And Britney had that. "They appointed her to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month, who reportedly shaped her voice from "lower and less poppy" delivery to "distinctively, unmistakably Britney." Spears recorded ten songs with White, including "Autumn Goodbye", "E-Mail My Heart", "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart", "I'm So Curious", "I Will Still Love You", "Luv The Hurt Away", "Soda Pop", "Thinkin' About You", and "You Got It All". The singer also recorded a cover of Sonny & Cher's 1967 single "The Beat Goes On". White was responsible for the vocal recording and song production, while additional production was done by English electronic music group All Seeing I.

After hearing the material, president Clive Calder ordered a full album. Spears flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded from March to April 1998, with producers Max Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, among others. Martin showed Spears and her management a track titled "Hit Me Baby One More Time", which was originally written for American R&B group TLC; however, they rejected it. Spears later claimed that she felt excited when she heard it and knew it was going to be a hit. "We at Jive said, 'This is a fuckin' smash'," revealed the label's A&R executive, Steven Lunt; however, other executives were concerned that the line "Hit Me" would condone domestic violence, and later revised it to "...Baby One More Time". The singer revealed that she "didn't do well at all the first day in the studio [recording the song], I was just too nervous. So I went out that night and had some fun. The next day I was completely relaxed and nailed it. You gotta be relaxed singing '... Baby One More Time'." By June 1998, the album was done, and Spears embarked on a promotional tour sponsored by L'Oreal. ...Baby One More Time was released as Spears' debut album on January 12, 1999.

Spears did small sets in malls and food courts around the United States, mostly in larger cities. Spears' set was around 30 minutes, and she only had two female dancers with her on the stage. Her label, Jive Records, has said that this tour was created to promote Spears' upcoming debut album (...Baby One More Time) and prepare for her first major tour. This tour is also known as the Hair Zone Mall Tour, because it was sponsored by L'Oreal. The "shopping mall tour" idea also worked well for '80s teen pop star Tiffany.[1]

1. "(You Drive Me) Crazy"
2. "Sometimes"
3. "Thinkin' About You"
4. "Deep in My Heart"
5. "Born to Make You Happy"
6. "...Baby One More Time"

Note

• This setlist would later be used as Spears' opening act set list on the NSYNC In Concert Tour.[2]

Works cited

• Blandford, James R. (2002). Britney. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-9419-5.
• Hughes, Mark (2005). Buzzmarketing: get people to talk about your stuff. Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1-59184-092-3.
• Daly, Steven (April 15, 1999). "Cover Story: Britney Spears: Britney Spears : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone (Jann Wenner). ISSN 0035-791X
• Hughes, Mark (2005). Buzzmarketing: get people to talk about your stuff. Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1-59184-092-3.
• ...Baby One More Time liner notes. Jive Records (1999)
• "Cover Story: Britney Spears". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. April 15, 1999. Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
• Ray W. Keziah (2004-03-14). "E! Entertainment Special: Britney Spears" (in English). 60 minutes in. E!. Archived from the original on 2012-06-14.
• Knopper, Steve (2009). Appetite for self-destruction: the spectacular crash of the record industry in the digital age. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-5215-4.
• Staff, Blender. "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born - Blender". Blender (Alpha Media Group). ISSN 1534-0554.
• Parish, James Robert (2002). Hollywood divas: the good, the bad, and the fabulous. Contemporary Books. ISBN 978-0-07-140819-6.
• Blandford, James R. (2002). Britney. Music Sales Group. ISBN 978-0-7119-9419-5.