In the mid-2000s, few people were more famous than Britney Spears. But as she began to stumble in her personal life, the price of the public’s fascination was more than just a few nasty late-night jokes. Paparazzi swarmed Spears’ home and her family, turning the singer into a tabloid punching bag. But when you’re a platinum-selling pop princess, the show goes on even when you desperately need an intermission. In the midst of madness, Spears began recording an album that would become her defining statement, 2007’s Blackout.

Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums revisits the album at a time when Spears’ music — and the raw treatment she received from the public and the press — is being revisited and rethought in a big way. Collaborators and friends, from the A&R rep who was one of Spears’ closest allies to the producers who crafted visceral hits like “Piece of Me,” tell the story of how Spears’ made classic songs in the eye of a hurricane. The result was an album that stood as a middle finger to Spears’ critics and established a dark, danceable sound that influenced pop for years to come.

New episodes of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums release every Tuesday, only on Amazon Music.

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