For the Record
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Artist:
Exhibit A: Britney Spears. For years I insulted her, scorned her and scoffed at her because I didn't like her music (or at least acted like I didn't in order to avoid the shame) I didn't like her style, I didn't like the people that liked her. The sheer enormity of her fame, wealth, ubiquity of her music (and you know, that whole thing where she went CRAZY) made her an easy target for music snobs like me who pride themselves on the sheer vastness of their musical library and prefer bands that most people haven't even heard of to mainstream pop icons like Miss Spears.
Exhibit B: This evening I happened to catch the last half of Britney's documentary "For The Record" (I'll do practically anything to avoid studying, I even scrubbed the shower for a good 45 minutes this morning) and I had a sudden revelation. Britney is human. With normal, human problems. Okay, so she's not living in a cardboard shack in a third world country, earning a dollar a day and struggling just to get a bite to eat, but the girl's got problems. I felt an unfamiliar pang of empathy towards her, which made me feel like throwing up, crying, and laughing all at the same time. Just imagine for a moment that you are as famous as Britney Spears and you can't even walk around the corner to get a cup of coffee by yourself without seven bodyguards and fifty people with cameras falling all over themselves to get a picture of you. The pressure of trying to maintain your composure at all times would drive anyone off the deep end. This documentary sheds a new light on Britney, because at her most vulnerable (and sober), unscripted and totally honest with herself, she is actually a rather likable person. I'm not saying I going to start hanging posters of her up in my room, or going to her shows, or even buying her CD's... but I am going to stop hating her so much.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you may find me guilty of a musical crime. Put me away if you must, but I'm not ashamed to say it: Britney's OK. And I fucking love WOMANIZER.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (11)
I saw some of that doc the other day as well. Got distracted by work(hate it when that happens, heh), but it was interesting nonetheless. Yes, Brittney is human, all pop stars are in essence. But you'd think with all that money she has she could afford to get a decent shrink to help her with the problems.
I've enjoyed some of her songs in the past & I don't hate her. Her music isn't my style for the most part but some of it is just downright danceable. Thanks for your 'shocking' confession, lol!
I'm sure she has a shrink or two but it just goes to show that money can't buy happiness...
Money CAN buy happiness, some people just don't know where to shop.
Chanel on 57th?
Haha yeah... maybe all she really needs is a personal shopper!
I feel no empathy for Britney at all. She is a mistress of the media circus. She "can't walk around the corner to get a cup of coffee by herself without seven bodyguards and fifty people with cameras falling all over themselves to get a picture of her" because she agrees to it...
That said, she amazes me by her ability to reinvent herself as a brand. There was the schoolgirl Lolita, then the raunchy lassie and now a sort of Madonna-like single mother. Quite frankly, how she manages to stay in the public's ears is beyond me. Just like how people can adhere to the X Factor and other talent shows.
For the record, I'd like to say I've been seen shaking a bonbon on the following:
You make an excellent point, B. I just feel sorry for her on some level because she has inevitably become a prisoner of her own fame... she doesn't have the freedom to move around like an anonymous person. She doesn't try very hard though, admittedly... and we all have to put up with the bad bits if we want the good bits... and it is rather obnoxious when people have everything they could possibly want and still aren't satisfied with life!
"Toxic" is my other favorite! Undeniably irresistible...
P.S. Thanks for posting the "Womanizer" vid too!
i had a complete turn around too. i used to hate her so much (partially fueled by sharing a name with her) but am so obsessed w/ womanizer and am happy to see she's made a great comeback!
I feel sorry for her, which is not something I ever imagined saying when her career started. I think it's fair to say that Britney brought some of the insanity on herself. Clearly she wanted to be famous and was willing to sacrifice things (like privacy) to achieve that goal. And she was an active participant in reinventing herself to stay relevant. She was clever about it too, allowing others to infer without ever really confirming or denying anything (Chuck Klosterman has a really interesting article about Britney that's worth looking up). However, I think it's hard to imagine the downside of fame until it's inescapable.
It's also too easy to blame everything on her. Part of the responsibility rests on our shoulders. When things started getting bad, it was always "what crazy thing is Britney doing this week?" People couldn't get enough of her breakdown. The media covered it so heavily because people demanded more juicy gossip when really, we should have turned off the TV or stopped buying the magazines, etc. We should have given her room to work things out when things were clearly very wrong-but we didn't.
Just my two cents. I'm glad she's getting better but I think I'm going to focus my attention elsewhere for awhile.
Her humanity and vulnerability make her a lot more attractive in my book than career robots like Madonna and Aquilera. THEM I hate!