Seventeen-year-old actress Britney Spears couldn't land more than a role in an off-Broadway update of The Bad Seed until she scored a contract with the Backstreet Boys' record company. She was flown to Sweden's Cherion Studios, the Lolita-pop doll house where 'N Sync, Robyn, Five, Ace of Base and the Backstreeters all record their Eurofied impersonations of teen-targeted American R&B. Spear's theatrical experience has paid off: The Swedish-designed dance grooves of her slinky, S&M-tinged smash, ". . . Baby One More Time,"recall the glory days of S-S-S-Samantha Fox, effectively transforming this ex-Mouseketeer born in a tiny Louisiana town into a growling jailbait dynamo. Yet the ballads of her debut evoke the worst of Debbie Gibson, even as Spears mimics the mannerisms of her hero Mariah Carey. While several Cherion-crafted kiddie-funk jams serve up beefy hooks, shameless schlock slowies, like "E-Mail My Heart," are pure spam.

“Time to Pretend”

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”