Britney Spears
by Daniel Beadle - Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The following article was written by Jake Alberts on Saturday, January 14, 2006."Britney Spears burst onto the pop scene in 1998 with her debut LP '…Baby One More Time,' and first hit single of the same name. Her initial commercial success was due in no small part to a lascivious music video that featured her as the fetishized 'school girl.' As a result, most people casually dismissed her as an under-age sex symbol, catering to teenage girls and pedophiles. The suggestive lyrics embodied in '…Baby One More Time' typified not only her initial image, but characterize the whole of her career. Her entire appeal, or at least, the largest aspect of it, is that she is a sexual being who denies it. This song, as with the whole of the album, is light-hearted and coy, rife with the plausible deniability of sexual innuendo that Spears embodies so perfectly.
"Even though this album is artistically paralyzed by the commercialism that produced it, it is enjoyable nonetheless. Spears’s vocals are nothing spectacular, but her meekness and eagerness to please her lover echo throughout the album and instill one with the sense that this young girl is exactly what every good boy needs, or what any bad boy could corrupt. 'Born to Make You Happy,' and 'I Will be There' are the most obvious instances of this steadfast devotion that makes it difficult not to appreciate Spears, or at least what she represents. Submissiveness never really goes out of style, and just as much as women seem to love being cared for, men love to be depended upon.
"Perhaps the most appealing aspect to this album is that it is lighthearted, and in a world that turns people into black-hearted cynics, upbeat music is crucial for the pessimists with a gun to their temple. How can the first bars of 'Soda Pop' not buck someone up? Even 'Thinkin’ About You' has just the right mix of up-tempo beats and affirmative lyrics that not only force a subtle adoration for the type of girl Spears presents herself as, but the song roots out any latent anger that a spurned lover could and probably feels in the wake of devastation, and lessens feelings of misogyny quite efficiently.
"Though the album ends with the awkward 'The Beat Goes On,' this does not detract from the overall pleasantry that preceded it. Indeed, '…Baby One More Time' reeks with an innocence and simplicity that is lost in her later albums, and the act of listening to the original is an act of nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, remembering simpler incarnations of romance, and a simpler Spears, less concerned with being taken seriously, and more concerned with pleasing the audience and consumers."Spears’s second album represented maturity in her image, and in her overall sound. The difference from the first album was relatively mild, when compared with later efforts, but the divergence from simplicity was palpable. 'Oops!… I Did it Again' perfectly captures the sense that Spears was able to repeat her initial success, while at the same time acknowledging her sex symbol status and denying it all at once. She was a tease, but she did it well, and audiences loved her for it. Mothers became increasingly nervous as the formerly subdued sexuality slowly made its way to the fore, but this unrest only served to fuel Spears’s success. After all, as she matured, so did her teenage audience. And teenagers love upsetting their parents.
"In terms of lyrically craftsmanship, and sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. 'Oops!… I Did it Again' captures Spears at her prime, and in my opinion, is her greatest work to date. The songs were more powerful, rife with a creative energy and artistic talent that balanced perfectly with its artificial 'pop music' construction. By selling over 1.3 million copies in its first week in the US, it became the fastest-selling album by a female in history."The feminine devotion that typified '…Baby One More Time' disappeared in the new album, replaced by a sense of inner-strength and autonomy. 'Don’t Go Knocking At My Door' exemplifies this, wherein she clearly points out that she is 'better off without you.' These songs were the work of a female who let go of her fairytale ideals and accepted that while the world is harsh, it doesn’t have to be bleak.
"One of her more perplexing songs is the single 'Lucky,' wherein Spears tells a thinly-veiled story of her own fame, confiding in the listener that although she has all the fame she could have hoped for, she is inherently lonely and isolated. The song reeks of self-expression, which would definitely take center stage in her later career, despite the fact that the song was written by producers Max Martin and Rami.
"The third single of 'Oops!' was 'Stronger,' which really pushed the notion of self-subsistence, and its accompanying video re-shaped the Britney Spears image from lonely, lost high school sweetheart to a powerful woman who knew exactly what she wanted. Interestingly, the lyrics 'my loneliness ain’t killing me no more' echoes her first hit, wherein 'my loneliness is killing me.' Although the album begins as a powerhouse, with the title track and 'Stronger' back-to-back, it ends with a sweetness that harkens back to the original Spears, culminating with the subtle 'Dear Diary.' The song is simple and straightforward, and definitely captures the sense of feminine fragility that made '…Baby One More Time' so appealing to begin with. No fans were alienated in this album. Unfortunately, its staggering success, both commercially and artistically spelled doom for any subsequent releases, regardless of their quality.
"In 2001, Spears released her third album, simply titled 'Britney,' and the lack of focus and imagination that went into the title unfortunately bled its way into the tracks of her album. Her first single 'I’m a Slave 4 U' threw off all the subtlety that made her so attractive to begin with, and the video’s obvious reference to orgy sex cements this perspective. The lyrics contradict everything that characterized the preceding album, and transformed what was once a wholesome though sexual girl, and later a stronger woman who would hint at sex, she was now a whore who was contented with being a sex slave and being fucked from multiple angles from multiple partners. Her attempts to advance her image self-destructed, as she lost touch with what made her so attractive in the first place."The remaining songs on the album are largely forgettable, and are too ingrained with techno-beats to have any kind of melodic distinction. This album only succeeded to make its predecessors more attractive by comparison. Spears’s increasingly complex personal and professional life did not compliment her musical development, and you can hear it.
"The 2003 release of 'In the Zone' delved further into the realms of techno and hip-hop, with producers RedZone, Moby, and R. Kelly, among others. The LP’s commercial success was due in no small part to her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards three months prior to the album’s release, in which she and Madonna shared a kiss on stage. Though the album was wildly different from anything she had done before, it had more of a focus and a hardedge than 'Britney,' and translated well into video form, both in 'Me Against the Music,' and 'Toxic.' The former, a duet with Madonna, cemented the notion that this album was most certainly a dance mix that would fit right in to the play lists of nightclubs and strip clubs. The song itself is shite, and has no hook. The beat alone is what defines this, and most of the tracks on the album. In fact, some songs, such as '(I Got That) Boom Boom' are so far divorced from Spears’s initial style, and so thoroughly diluted with additional vocals, that Spears’s contribution seems like an afterthought."Spears’s musical persona becomes difficult to pinpoint in this album, a notion that can be extended to her career as whole. She certainly changed with every album, but what did she change into? While 'Toxic' presents Spears as a girl in love with danger, it leaves some ambiguity as to who is toxic, she or her love interests.
"The raw truth of Britney Spears is that her fame rests not on her music, but upon her image. From a good-natured virgin to a promiscuous cock-tease, she succeeds in sparking controversy for the furtherance of her career. Though her music is not spectacular, it exemplifies the development of a teenage mind to adulthood, and even more so, the development of commercialization that permeates consumer culture from the ground up.
"Britney Spears is a sweetheart, the type of girl that every man wishes he knew in high school for varying reasons of psychological and sexual gratification. The manner in which she evolved, or more appropriately, devolved from subtle teasing to blatant sexuality represents the developing female, that we long for what we can’t have, and that we criticize what we do have. Spears is the slut that we wish we could’ve fucked when she was a little girl, old enough to be sexy, but young enough to be forbidden. We love to fuck what we can’t have and my mind is disintegrating to the point at which love blossoms aren’t even real anymore. I hate you for what you’ve made me inside, and I wish I could reclaim that sense that everything will work out for me, but I know damn well it won’t. Spears’s attractiveness is based on lies. She isn’t attractive in any real way; she’s an illusion that only recently has been revealed for what it is. She’s white trash, a Southern girl who would fuck her brother if it suited her like that you son of a bitch when I kill everyone you love, you’ll see what a farce the whole damn thing is. I hate my reflection and I vow to kill myself when my time has come. I am everything you hate, all rolled into one and for some damn reason I put some disproportionate amount of importance on the impact and image of Britney Spears."