will.i.am and Britney Spears

will.i.am has been one of the leading producers of the EDM movement and his success on the singles charts has earned him a very prestigious role on Britney Spears’ new project. The Black Eyed Peas frontman has been tapped to executive produce the Pop icon’s upcoming album but is this really the best move for her career?

Spears joined forces with will.i.am on the song “Big Fat Bass” from her Femme Fatale album in 2011. They then reunited for “Scream & Shout” off the latter’s #willpower album in 2012 and the song blossomed into a major hit by peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 with over two million downloads sold in the US alone.

However, despite his accomplishments on the singles charts, will.i.am has yet to prove himself as a bankable executive producer beyond his work with The Black Eyed Peas. In fact, his own #willpower album debut at #9 on the Billboard 200 this week after selling an embarrassing 29K copies. Additionally, the latest Black Eyed Peas album, 2011′s The Beginning, sold under 1 million copies in the US, which represented a third of he 3 million units moved by its The E.N.D. predecessor.

Clearly, will.i.am is far more effective at generating hit singles than he is at crafting top-selling albums, especially as the tide has begun to turn against the waning EDM craze. Still, there is some hope for Spears, who also expressed an interest in working with Diplo (Chris Brown’s “Fine China”, Beyonce’s “End of Time’) and is seeking to reclaim her position as her generation’s leading chart force.

Perhaps if will.i.am focuses on combining Pop with Hip-Hop and R&B as he did on The Black Eyed Peas’ Monkey Business then he will position Spears’ sound in a happy medium between the current shifting trends in music. Also, Spears should consider a reunion with The Neptunes (“Boys”) and The-Dream (“Me Against the Music”) to guarantee that her album doesn’t feature 12 Black Eyed Peas reject songs from The E.N.D.

Watch the video for Spears’ “Boys” below and reminisce about her greatness:

Thoughts?