NRO
Weekend, July 8-9, 2000
The
Y of Britney
Pop
music, Britney, and the end of innocence.
By Ben Domenech, NRO contributing editor-------------btdome@wm.edu
he advertisements
for the weekend's big concert event featured a Hawaiian beach background,
palm trees swaying in front of a sunset. The voiceover spoke of the star
of the show in glowing descriptives: "pop star;" "teen idol;" "voice of
a generation."
Of course, you knew exactly who they were talking about: Britney Spears.
Fulfilling her larger-than-life role as current reigning princess of the pop airways, the 18-year-old Spears' Hawaii concert (broadcast on Fox) marked the launch of her "Oops…I Did It Again" tour, which is crisscrossing the nation this summer. Already, innumerable hordes of teenybopper girls (Spears' fan base primarily spans the ages of 11-14) have snarfed up tickets to the concerts, as well as millions of copies of the artist's sophomore release, which shares the tour's title.
The Britney that's touring this summer, though, inhabits a very different persona than the one who put on concerts last year. Spears has significantly changed her image since early 1999, going from teen to adult in the space of a few months, leaving many fans confused or disenfranchised (as much as an 11-year-old can be disenfranchised).
So, why care? It's easy to dismiss Spears' career in the spotlight thus far as typifying the transformation of a pop superstar. But on closer examination, her public evolution symbolizes something much deeper — the inherent identity crisis plaguing Generation Y. While Spears' music is ingratiatingly shallow, energetic, and sexy, supplied with a healthy dose of none-to-subtle come-ons and double entendres, her brief career and changing image sheds light on the contradictions that the children of the late '80s and '90s are already battling.
Spears first hit the music scene just last year, with her single "Baby One More Time" — but it wasn't her music, vocals, or lyrics that drew in the hordes of teenage fans. It was her music video. Decked out in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform — complete with pigtails, pink Lip Smackers, and white shirt tied in a knot over an exposed midriff — she teased at disobedience, and dangerously tempted the voyeur. While she had just celebrated her 17th birthday, her debut album was already well on the way to selling over 9 million copies, turning Spears into one of the top-selling teen stars of all time.
Unlike other female pop singers, Spears avoided using sex appeal as an explicit marketing tool — according to parents and friends, she was just a good Baptist girl from Louisiana who wanted to be a star. The music press talked about Britney's "Bible Book," a diary in which she recorded her daily prayers while traveling in a lavender-tinged bedroom on her tour bus. Her music and videos — the other singles, "Crazy" and "Sometimes" were also big hits — were cute, catchy, and lighthearted, with just a little bit of tease thrown in for fun.
But then came the award shows, the MTV interviews, and the Rolling Stone covers — the first of which looked like a satiny lingerie ad (albeit a cutesy one, Victoria Secret with Teletubby props), inspiring countless rumors of breast implants and plastic surgery. Spears started dressing like a woman, not a teenager, in low-cut gowns pulled from the Jennifer Lopez wardrobe. Her songs still bespoke a youthful naivete ("Oops, I did it again/played with your heart/got lost in this game/Ooh baby," etc.), but now Britney was delivering her lyrics in skin-tight leather catsuits and scarlet lipstick, not Abercrombie & Fitch.
Her first album included a smiling fold-out poster of the soon-to-be pop phenomenon, dressed in casual everyday clothes and sporting a Crest-white smile. Now Spears croons a throaty cover of the Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," set to a sensual drum mix, and with some coyly re-written lyrics ("how white my shirts can be" becomes "how tight my skirts can be").
At some point, Spears left her perky, fun-loving teen image behind and became a genuine American sex symbol.
Her fans, of course, are following suit. As they sing along with Britney's chorus ("You think I'm in love/I'm sent from above/But I'm not that innocent"), the twelve-year-olds that were knotting their shirts "like Britney!" last summer are now showing off tight leather skirts and platform boots. No, this is nothing new in the realm of pop singer idolatry. The Madonna-philes of the 1980s segued nicely from the "Like A Virgin" stage to the "Material Girl" stage, with a few Boy-Toy sidetrips in between. What's changed is that Madonna — and Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper, and a handful of others — in large part influenced high-school girls. Britney Spears is radically changing the habits of sixth graders.
The old adage rings true — children are getting older faster every day. Spears has become a poster child for an America that increasingly forces adulthood on the prepubescent, and as the teen pop star transforms herself into an adult sex object, she brings legions of younger fans right along with her.
In a study of teen girls' attitudes last year, young women characterized Spears as someone whom they probably would only want in their social group because she'd attract the guys. The idea was that she was dirty and it might rub off, a view that even seemed to be supported in reality. When Sabrina the Teenage Witch star Melissa Joan Hart began a much-publicized friendship with Spears, within a month or two Hart shed her goody-goody image and had shown up barely clothed on the cover of the men's magazine Maxim.
Of course, it could be that these teenage girls realize what's really going on here. It could be that they see the Pandora's box of overt sexuality and adulthood that Britney has handed to them, all wrapped up in a pretty pink bow. And for better or for worse, they're taking it — because all their friends are, because being grown up seems so attractive when you're young, or maybe just because it's fun.
For its pop idols, Generation X had Michael Stipe, alt-rock, and a fleet of Seattle-born grunge bands, symbols of generational malaise and disillusionment. So far, Generation Y just has a girl who grew up too fast.
 |
Think a friend would want to read this? Send it along.