Critics, fans, and Jive Records have called Britney Spears a role model, a protégé, a rock star, an ingénue, a corporation, a concept, a puppet, a mime, a write off, a hypocrite, a country bumpkin, a train wreck, a punk rebel, a mother, a tragedy, a pawn, a recluse, and, quite symbolically, an Obama era comeback queen. Her label, enemies, and own rebellion fuel these roles, ensuing public debate and the biggest question of all: why does Britney, an artist who comes across as unaware and controlled in interviews, lip synchs and strips at concerts, and has nothing thematically relevant to sing about, capture and symbolize America at every moment. Twelve years into her career, it seems, whether lip synching at Madison Square Garden or grabbing a mocha at the bowl, she’s possessed by a pop spirit, that, even when auto tune disguises her voice, brings her to an other worldly level we know as “Britney,” capable of selling hit records and pissing someone, even country has beens, off.
Ironically, we come to a moment where Britney Spear’s public image matches her artistic and commercial role as an icon, because during her iconic meltdown (get ready to hear the word iconic in this blog post), she shattered the corporate images that imprisoned her from critical success. Sure, In The Zone sold more copies than Blackout, but hearing the Britney, who dated Justin and asked if the old lady dropped it in the ocean at the end, sing about massaging her clit is cringe educing. Yes, “Baby One More Time” was provocative, but still only provocative enough that Britney could sing a line reminding us that she’s “not that innocent.” The label made her strip in public but claim she never got it in. But after she shaved her head, dropped her babies, lost her babies, regained her babies, declared that “she’s country,” stripped at a strip club, and told a fan that she’s not “that bitch,” she finally overcame her public puberty. She was finally Britney, bitch. Britney the icon, not the person, was made or possessed by an artistic demon, to sing tongue and cheek songs about sex. Now that she had a whole mental break down, she could also sing “Piece of Me” and “If You Seek Amy,” unsubtle stabs at the public’s perception of her. Her differentiating public image and previous success gave producers enough material to make her their muse, an actual icon, and her mental break down and recovery proved that she belonged with MJ and Madonna, because the public would only forgive and sympathize with an icon after she abandoned her fans and children.
When her management, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Jive Records created the cover for her new album, Femme Fatal, a work a press released called “non conceptual,” they wanted to remind consumers of Britney’s history and that they need no concept, because Britney’s a concept, herself. Even though Britney Spears now hides from the public, she still has that “crazy quality.” She wears smoky eyeliner and BRITNEY SPEARS, as the cover prints in huge letters, is a FEMME FATAL. She’s dangerous but no longer unstable, because she made it to ALBUM 7. Yes, they even print the number in huge letters, because yes, against everyone’s wildest predictions, the girl who stripped to a song called “Oops I Did It Again” is STILL more relevant that Radiohead, because the crazy- that deranged spirit that even made her pop in her “innocent” “virginal” days- is within. It’s so present they don’t even need a scandalous video to remind you. They just need the name Britney.
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