In the summer of 1997, Lynne Spears brought her then-15-year-old daughter Britney to New York City in order to audition for three record labels in hopes of becoming "the next big thing."
"She came in, warbled 'I Will Always Love You,' and I couldn't wait for it to end," said Michael Caplan, Epic Records vice president of A&R, according to author John Seabrook's "The Song Machine," which explains the process that has created some of the biggest hit songs.
"Her complexion wasn't great, her voice wasn't great ... so we passed," Caplan said.
A team at Mercury Records also passed on Spears, which just left Jive Records, where only a handful of execs liked her demo tape.
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Spears was immediately relocated to New York City, housed in a Jive penthouse, and groomed to become the American version of Robyn (the Swedish teen-pop queen, who has since redefined herself as a more adult pop singer).
In order to give Spears some direction, Lunt showed her Robyn's music videos, to which Spears responded, "The record is really good, but the video is all wrong. It's in boring black-and-white and no one is dancing.
"If it were me I'd be wearing a miniskirt and I'd be dancing," Spears continued.
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As it turns out, Robyn would turn down the opportunity to sing Swedish music producer and songwriter Max Martin's "Hit Me Baby," which was later tweaked to "...Baby One More Time," Spears' debut single that made her an instant superstar.
