Well, everybody knows that for the MTV article but...
I think there is empirical evidence that there is a great deal of interest in new music from Britney. Last week MTV mentioned that Britney had a snippet of a new song, "Rebellion", on her website (although in fact it had been there for a few months). This report was then picked up by other media outlets. MTV's "news" about Britney's new song, which is probably not going to be on the next album, can be shown empircally to have generate a great deal of interest.
Hits on Britney's website soared as can be seen in this graphic showing the traffic details. The spike generate by the hint of new music from Britney is almost as great as from the birth of Sutton Pierce and greater than other spikes this year generated by baby stumbles or other gossip. The news about "Rebellion" also generated a more general spike in Britney interest online as can be seen in the big increase in her Yahoo Buzz Index from her normal high level.
Since their has been no big Britney gossip event over thelast few days one can only conclude that the surge in interest has to do with people being interested in what Britney might do next musically.
The Britney Hype Engine is primed and all it needs is a good song next year and she will be off on her merry way up the music charts around the world.
