‘Baby One More Time’ Came Out 20 Years Ago, And We’re All Closer to Death

This is a story about a girl named Britney… Twenty years ago today, on October 23, 1998, 16-year-old songstress Britney Spears dropped her debut single, “…Baby One More Time.” And oh baby, baby pop music hasn’t been the same since.

The song was obviously a smash hit. It scaled the charts, hitting number one in at least 18 countries, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time. It also paved the way for Britney’s debut album of the same name, which came out in early 1999 and became the star attraction of every slumber party thrown that year.

The rest of Spears’s ascent to superstardom (Britney as a Martian in red pleather in the video for “Oops!…I Did It Again;” her star turn the seminal 2002 film Crossroads; the iconic “Slave 4 U” MTV VMAs performance) is history. This writer, for one, is thrilled that Spears has been famous for two entire decades and seems to be doing just swell. (She paints! She has a sexy boyfriend! She’s doing another show in Vegas!)

Spears took to Twitter on Tuesday to commemorate the moment and thank fans for sticking with her through it all:

It’s hard to put into words what today means to me… 20 years ago, the world heard my music for the very first time! So much has happened since then… but what I really want to say is thank you to my amazing fans who have been there for me since day 1… pic.twitter.com/oeMipXCSl9

— Britney Spears 🌹🚀 (@britneyspears) October 23, 2018

She also released archival footage from filming the video for “…Baby One More Time” on YouTube:

Since #BabyOneMoreTime20 is such a momentous historical event, here’s a roundup of some of Britney’s other seminal video works of art:

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Follow Kara Weisenstein on Twitter.