Following the Spice Girls' lead, Billie Piper's first steps as a performer were deliberately bratty and provocative. She was the insubordinate teenage girl running wild through the charts, singing funked-up music in a deep voice and challenging boring grown-ups to get out of the way. She soon matured, broadening her sound with slow-burning gospel-tinged ballads, sumptuously arranged songs with sunshine in their heels, and the kind of dynamic, pneumatic pop pioneered by Britney Spears, before rebelling once more and peeling off for a successful career as an actress.