Britney on Madonna

An excerpt from the new issue of W magazine:
Britney Spears‘s new record, which debuts in late October, will either carry her closer to that pop Valhalla whose only current spirit is Madonna, or prove with a decisive stroke that the bubble of bubblegum pop has finally burst.
Spears prefers not to overponder her place in the pop pantheon. “It’s not that deep,” she says, laughing, as she extends her fingernails to a manicurist who has suddenly appeared on the terrace. She is not quite the apple pie she seemed nearly five years ago, and yet there’s no specific career gambit—no obscure force other than the force of adolescent development—working to make Spears into a more complex and sophisticated act. Still, the turning point in her career seems all the more noteworthy at a moment when some critics are beginning to wonder whether Madonna has finally lost her edge.
“Madonna, over?” Spears shrieks, incredulous. (Heightened emotion tightens the twang in her Louisiana accent.) Then she reflects for a moment. “Honestly, that’s why I work so hard—because that’s a fear I have for me,” she says. She pauses and swills her Red Bull. “There are always gonna be people that don’t love you, and actually, I kind of like the people like Madonna, who makes such a statement that people either love her or hate her. I don’t want to be in between. I think that’s boring.”