Editing Britney Spears (section)

===Voice===
{{Listen
| type        = music
| filename    = Britney Spears - You Got It All.ogg
| title       = "You Got It All"
| description = The cover of [[The Jets (Minnesota band)|the Jets]]'s song was Spears's first recording for her then-label Jive in 1997.<ref>{{harvnb|Knopper|2009|p=92}}</ref> The prominent use of [[melisma]] and [[vibrato]] as she continuously raises key into a high range was viewed as a [[Mariah Carey]] influence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1004945/a/...Baby+One+More+Time.htm |title=...Baby One More Time – Album Review |work=[[CD Universe]] |access-date=March 4, 2011}}</ref>|format1=[[Ogg]]|filename2=Britney Spears - Freakshow.ogg|title2="Freakshow"|description2=The track is built around the 'wobbler' effect of [[dubstep]], and her vocals are pitched down low, making her sound masculine.<ref name=guardian/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/poptimist/6734-poptimist-10/ |title=Poptimist #10: Britney in the Black Lodge (Damn Fine Album) |last=Ewing |first=Tom |date=November 20, 2007 |access-date=December 21, 2021 |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]. Ryan Schreiber}}</ref> She has been credited as one of the artists who prompted the genre within a pop mainstream audience.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/jan/10/britney-spears-hold-it-against-me |title=New music: Britney Spears – Hold It Against Me |first=Michael |last=Cragg |date=January 10, 2011 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref>
| pos         = right
}}

Spears is a [[soprano]].{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:<ref>{{cite news |url=http://uk.music.ign.com/articles/829/829550p1.html |title=Britney Spears – Blackout Review |work=IGN |date=October 23, 2007 |access-date=January 28, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712171542/http://uk.music.ign.com/articles/829/829550p1.html |archive-date=July 12, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name="SopranoToBass">{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zxhnyrd#zxpsvcw |title=Soprano to bass: Can you find your voice? |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=November 29, 2017 |first=Tim |last=Rhys-Evans |archive-date=December 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222191126/http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zxhnyrd#zxpsvcw |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="billboardvmas">{{cite news |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-vmas-performance-make-me-7488019/ |title=Britney Spears' 2016 VMAs Performance: An Effective, But Not Entirely Glorious, Bid to Regain Pop Superstardom |magazine=Billboard |date=August 26, 2016 |access-date=December 21, 2021 |first=Jennifer Keishin |last=Armstrong}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.idolator.com/7644147/britney-spears-glory-album-review |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160828022713/http://www.idolator.com/7644147/britney-spears-glory-album-review |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 28, 2016 |title=Britney Spears' 'Glory': Album Review |work=[[Idolator (website)|Idolator]] |date=August 29, 2016 |access-date=December 22, 2017 |first=Jonathan |last=Riggs}}</ref>}} Other sources state that she possesses a [[contralto]] [[Voice type|vocal range]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=Jeremy |last2=Kayes |first2=Gillyanne |date=May 27, 2014 |title=Successful Singing Auditions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LU6JAwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4725-3849-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Thakur |first=Pradeep |date=2010 |title=Britney Spears Is Coming-back! |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M1RwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 |publisher=Pradeep Thakur & Sons |page=20 |isbn=978-1-257-08704-4}}</ref> Prior to her breakthrough success, she is described as having sung "much deeper than her highly recognizable trademark voice of today", with Eric Foster White, who worked with Spears on her debut album, ''[[...Baby One More Time (album)|...Baby One More Time]]'', being cited as "[shaping] her voice over the course of a month" upon being signed to [[Jive Records]] "to where it is today—distinctively, unmistakably Britney".<ref name="hughes145">{{harvnb|Hughes|2005|p=145}}</ref> Rami Yacoub, who co-produced Spears' debut album with lyricist Max Martin, commented, "I know from [[Denniz Pop]] and Max's previous productions, when we do songs, there's kind of a nasal thing. With N' Sync and the Backstreet Boys, we had to push for that mid-nasal voice. When Britney did that, she got this kind of raspy, sexy voice."{{sfn|Bronson|2003|p=377}}

Guy Blackman of ''[[The Age]]'' wrote that "[t]he thing about Spears, though, is that her biggest songs, no matter how committee-created or impossibly polished, have always been convincing because of her delivery, her commitment and her presence.&nbsp;... Spears expresses perfectly the conflicting urges of adolescence, the tension between chastity and sexual experience, between hedonism and responsibility, between confidence and vulnerability."<ref name="The Age">{{Cite news |last=Blackman |first=Guy |title=Musical Spears |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/music/2009/10/24/1256147928875.html |newspaper=[[The Age]] |date=August 25, 2009 |access-date=November 21, 2009}}</ref> Producer [[William Orbit]], who worked with Spears on her album ''[[Britney Jean]]'', stated regarding her vocals: "[Britney] didn't get so big just because [she] put on great shows; [she] got to be that way because [her voice is] unique: you hear two words and you know who is singing".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.hungertv.com/feature/interview-william-orbit/ |title=The Interview: William Orbit |publisher=Hunger TV |date=June 20, 2014 |access-date=January 2, 2015 |archive-date=January 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102030318/http://www.hungertv.com/feature/interview-william-orbit/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Spears has also been criticized for her reliance on [[Auto-Tune]]<ref>{{cite web |first=Aly |last=Weisman |title=Unedited Britney Spears Song Without Auto-Tune Leaks And It's Painful |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/what-britney-spears-sounds-like-without-auto-tune-2014-7 |website=Business Insider |access-date=April 8, 2018 |date=July 1, 2014}}</ref> and her vocals being "over-processed" on records.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://guardianlv.com/2014/07/britney-spears-the-outworldly-confusion-of-alien-video/ |date=July 9, 2014 |access-date=June 13, 2019 |title=Britney Spears: The Outworldly Confusion of 'Alien' [Video] |work=Guardian Liberty Voice |last=Brown |first=Jonathan}}</ref> Erlewine criticized Spears' singing abilities in a review of her ''Blackout'' album, stating: "Never the greatest vocalist, her thin squawk could be dismissed early in her career as an adolescent learning the ropes, but nearly a decade later her singing hasn't gotten any better, even if the studio tools to masquerade her weaknesses have."<ref name=allmusicblackout>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/blackout-mw0000487827 |title=Blackout – Britney Spears |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |access-date=December 18, 2016 |publisher=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref> Joan Anderman of ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' remarked that "Spears sounds robotic, nearly inhuman, on her records, so processed is her voice by digital pitch-shifters and synthesizers."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Anderman |first=Joan |title=Beneath Her Sexy Growls, a Girlhood Interrupted |newspaper=The Boston Globe |page=D.1 |date=December 7, 2001 |issn=0743-1791}}</ref>

Kayla Upadhyaya of ''[[The Michigan Daily]]'' has provided a different point of view, stating: "Auto-tuned and over-processed vocals define [Spears]'s voice as an artist, and in her music, auto-tune isn't so much a gimmick as it is an instrument used to highlight, contort and make a statement."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/12-britney-jean-review-10 |date=December 10, 2013 |access-date=June 13, 2019 |title=Pop queen loses voice on 'Britney Jean' |work=The Michigan Daily |last=Upadhyaya |first=Kayla}}</ref> Adam Markovitz of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' opines that "Spears is no technical singer, that's for sure. But backed by Martin and Dr. Luke's wall of sound, her vocals melt into a mix of babytalk coo and coital panting that is, in its own overprocessed way, just as iconic and propulsive as [[Michael Jackson]]'s yips or [[Eminem]]'s snarls."<ref name=ew2011/>