1998: POP'S FAVOURITE VIRGIN

BRITNEY Spears, who first tasted fame at the age of 12 in Disney's TV show The Mickey Mouse Club, exploded on to the music scene in 1998. Fresh of face and toned of abs, she camped it up as a naughty schoolgirl in the video for her first single, the No 1 hit Baby One More Time. The controversial video, which spawned a million hen-party costumes and hypnotised a generation of teenage boys (as well as their dads), featured the then 15-year-old Spears in school uniform, with short skirt and knee socks, blouse knotted over a black push-up bra to expose her midriff, and her hair tied in babyish pigtails.

The track was an international hit and the album, also titled Baby One More Time, went 14-times platinum. Britney was the first, and arguably the best, of a wave of blonde teenage pop stars emerging at the turn of the millennium and it was clear from the off that she was destined to dominate the charts.

No-one fully anticipated, however, the extent to which this fresh slice of American apple pie would become famous.

1999-2000: PROVOCATIVE PRINCESS

IF EVER there was a girl who could embody virgin and whore simultaneously, it was the teenage Britney. She had publicly vowed to remain a virgin until marriage and played the girl next door in interviews. But when performing, her outfits were tiny and tight, her dance moves sexualised and her eyes distinctly "come-hither".

She stirred controversy by posing on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1999, shot by edgy photographer David LaChapelle, wearing a bra and tiny shorts, cuddling a Teletubby and talking on the phone. She said of the shoot: "It was so much fun… I loved the idea of me holding Tinky Winky and talking on the phone."

However, the American Family Association took a different view, saying that the images presented a "disturbing mix of childhood innocence and adult sexuality" and suggesting that people boycott her albums. this new image was marketing magic and Spears's popularity rocketed to unimaginable heights.

2001-02: NOT A GIRL, NOT YET A WOMAN

AS SHE left her teens behind, Britney had matured from the sugary-sweet teenybopper who took the music world by storm, but wasn't yet a full-blown diva.

She began to assert a little creative control, co-writing five of the tracks on her 2000 album Britney. The album included tracks such as Overprotected" and I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, in which Spears voiced her frustration at being sheltered and treated like a child. I'm a Slave 4 U, on the other hand, was provocative Britney at her best, with orgasmic gasping on the track and sweaty writhing in the video.

Her live performances, too, became even more sexualised: on stage at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, she ripped off a black suit to reveal a nude bodystocking decorated with strategically placed crystals.

2003: NOT-SO-VIRGINAL POP SENSATION

DID anyone really think that Britney Spears was still a virgin? Her four-year relationship with fellow pop star and Mickey Mouse Club alumnus Justin Timberlake (who had grown up to front the boyband 'N Sync) came to an end in 2003, amid media speculation that Britney had already broken her vow to remain a virgin until marriage. Soon afterwards she gave an interview to W magazine, in which she admitted that the pair had indeed slept together.

Her performance at the opening of the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards helped her to put the pure-minded popstrel incarnation firmly behind her. For a tongue-in-cheek duet with Madonna, singing Like a Virgin, Britney dressed as a bride while Madonna was her groom. Six minutes of writhing, shaking and garter removal culminated in the now-notorious kiss between the two superstars. Madonna had openly passed on her crown, and Britney was (as we all knew) "not that innocent".

2004-05: WHITE TRASH WITH CASH

FOR a woman who spoke of marriage with such reverence, Britney's romantic life has been anything but wedded bliss. Her breakdown could be charted from the moment she first said "I do". She married her childhood friend Jason Alexander in January 2004 at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, a union annulled 55 hours later. A few months later she met backing dancer Kevin Federline, whose girlfriend was then eight months pregnant.

The relationship between Spears and Federline – widely decried in the press as "unsuitable" husband material – escalated quickly and they married in September 2005. Before the ceremony, family members wore his'n'hers tracksuits, and guests were treated to chicken wings, barbecued ribs and hamburgers. Spears's appearance became increasingly sloppy and the couple seemed not to mind being labelled the "king and queen of white trash", even sending themselves up in a trailer-park photo shoot for the hip LA-based magazine Interview.

Britney seemed less and less concerned about maintaining her American sweetheart image, grabbing her husband's crotch and smoking in front of paparazzi. The sugary-sweet teenager was a distant memory.

2006-07: ON THE EDGE

BEAUTIFUL, talented, rich, charismatic… Britney had it all, but as with so many former child stars, things went badly awry. Many predicted her downfall, though none thought it would be quite as spectacular as it turned out to be. Her marriage to Federline ended in divorce in November 2006, by which point the couple had had two sons together, Sean Preston, born in September 2005, and Jayden James, born in September 2006. Following the divorce, Britney's behaviour became increasingly erratic, and concern grew for the welfare of her two sons. She was pictured driving with one son on her lap without a seatbelt, an incident that didn't work in her favour in the custody battle with Federline. Things went from shaky to dire as she was admitted to a drug rehabilitation facility in Antigua for less than 24 hours in February 2007 and, the following night, her breakdown appeared complete when she walked into a hair salon and shaved her own head. As a result, around 100 paparazzi began regularly following her every move. Overwhelmed and irrational, she was filmed attacking one photographer's car with an umbrella. So spectacular was her breakdown that about 20 per cent of the LA paparazzi's income at that time came from pictures of Spears. Fans watched in agony as she began a relationship with a paparazzo, lost custody of her sons (she currently has visitation rights), then was hospitalised after refusing to give them up and was eventually placed under temporary co-conservatorship of her father and her attorney, giving them control of her assets.

2008: COMEBACK QUEEN

COULD Britney claw her way back to the top? With her career in tatters and her personal life a mess, it has at times seemed an unlikely outcome. But at this year's MTV Video Music Awards she won three gongs for her critically acclaimed 2007 album Blackout, just a year after she opened the same awards show with a terrible performance of her single Gimme More, slurring her lyrics, looking out of shape and apparently forgetting her dance moves.

The latter months of 2008 have been all change, however. This month she appears on Rolling Stone's cover once again, evoking her early girl-next-door image in jeans and a grey T-shirt, flashing a Hollywood smile along with the cover line "Yes she can!" Her sixth studio album is released on Tuesday, her 27th birthday, and tomorrow she will make her first UK performance for four years on the X Factor. Britney, by all accounts, is back.