Oh Baby, Baby

Britney. Freaking. Spears.

“But dude…. you went from punk with ‘The Descendents’ to classic rock with the ‘J. Geils Band’ to soul with Stevie Wonder and Motown. How are you supposed to justify going from that stuff to Britney Spears? She’s one of the cringiest people ever. I can’t believe//////

STOP RIGHT THERE YOU BASTARD

Britney Spears was a pioneer into a culture that we very much live in today in 2017. I guess you could say that she SPEAR(s)headed this diva culture. HA. I know, I’m funny. You think I’m just being stupid to get your attention at this point and I’m gonna switch over to hosting a roast fest about Ms. Spears. But no, I’m being legit here. Britney Spears created a large part of this music culture, because of not only her musical choice, but also her personal ones.

Get ready for a trip.

Britney Spears was born on December 2, 1981, in McComb, Mississippi. At eight, Britney tried out for “The All New Mickey Mouse Club”, but was turned down due to her young age. This directed her to an off-Broadway show, "Ruthless", for a 2-year run as the title character. At age 11, she again tried for “The All New Mickey Mouse Club” again and, this time, made it as a mouseketeer alongside many stars of today like Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gossling, and Christina Aguilera.

Sound familiar? A Disney star gone off the tracks? *cough* Miley *cough*

Britney Spears was used to success. Early success. After the show's cancellation in 1995, Spears focused on developing her musical career. She eventually landed a contract with Jive Records. In September 1998, Spears released her first single, "...Baby One More Time." AT AGE 15. At 15 I was trying to get first place in my online match of Halo: Reach on my Xbox 360. She was making a single that reached the top of the Billboard 200 Charts and won her 4 awards at the 1999 Billboard Music Awards.

Sound familiar? A young pop phenomenon? *cough* Bieber *cough*

Her music talent wasn’t the only thing that propelled her into fame. Some would say her music wasn’t even the main reason she got to be famous. Britney learned very quickly that sex sells. In her award-winning single “… Baby One More Time”, Spears danced in a skimpy version of a Catholic schoolgirl uniform. Although the racy outfit drew sharp criticism from the parents of her young fans, Spears claimed to be a sweet, innocent Southern girl at heart. Yeah. Okay, Brit. Sure. Spears released “Oops!... I Did It Again” in 2000, when she was 18. The recording was an instant No. 1 hit on the album charts, selling more than 1 million copies in its first week. At this point, not only was her music career under a microscope, but also her personal choices, especially her music video choices. See. Britney was in a pickle. Her audience was younger, and obviously when you have a young audience you can’t just cater to the young people, you also need to take into account the thoughts and preferences of parents. Which Spears seemed to do, but only in word, not in deed. So, on one hand, she said she was pure, and a virgin until marriage, but on the other hand, you have all these music videos coming out of lil’ miss thang going kinda slutty to a degree.

Sound familiar? A star become sexualized and everyone judging them for it? *cough* every star under the age of forty *cough*

Britney Spears changed. She changed a lot. The exact moment where this change occurred is up for debate. But let’s start at 2004.  She married her childhood friend, Jason Alexander. Yay! The girl followed her heart and married a sweetheart she’s known since almost birth! No. The marriage lasted 48 hours. The she moved to backup dancer Kevin Ferderline. Kevin was a player himself. He had a pregnant girlfriend at the time. But alas, a mere eight months after she married Jason… she married Kevin. As if Britney needed yet another way to say a big “screw it”’ to her critics, she covered Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative” shortly after the wedding. The cover wasn’t a failure, selling millions of copies, but it wasn’t as popular as her earlier music. Her music wasn’t as popular as before, her sales were declining. The shocking part was, she didn’t care. She seemed content. She even got a reality show for icing on the cake.

Sound familiar? Musicians having reality shows? *cough* Ice T, Jessica Simpson, the queen herself Paula Abdul *cough*

After this. Shit got cray. She became pregnant and a mother in 2005. Got caught in a national debate on parents endangering their children after she was caught on film driving with her child in her lap. Welcomed a second child. Two months later, shockingly filed for divorce. Went clubbing regularly with Paris Hilton and other famous friends. Then the all-too-famous 2007 hair-shaving incident.

Sound familiar? Shaving your head in front of paparazzi? *cough*…

Wait that’s just a Britney thing. Sorry.

But yeah. She got in a custody battle for her kids. She had a fallout with her mom. She tried to do musical things. Her sister got pregnant. She failed at lip synching. The media was foaming at the mouth every time she walked outside because they wanted more dirt. Britney tried to do more musical stuff. But no one cared about that anymore.

AND THAT’S THE POINT OF THIS POST.

Britney Spears was a leader in changing the pop culture and in part the entire music culture to become, well, less musical. Look back at this post. Like actually scroll up and look. What do you see more of, her music career or her personal life? Yeah. That’s the point. I’ve talked more about her struggles and her fame than her music, and it was intentional.

As a culture, we like dirt. We like to live vicariously through others. In in the case of the media’s perception of Britney Spears, we all made it very clear that music isn’t the only thing we look for in musicians anymore. You need to look the part and more than ever, you need to be dramatic and catch our attention.

We are oversaturated with magazines and TV shows whose prime objective is to talk about celebrities’ lives. I don’t know what’s more saddening: the reality that what a musician does off stage is more important than what they do on it, or the fact that we encourage that.

I don’t know Kanye’s albums. I don’t know most of his songs. But I know he’s called out Taylor Swift.

I don’t know about Miley Cyrus’ newest music. But I know about her weird VMA performance where she twerked and groped a foam finger. I know about her nude photoshoots.

I could go on and on. We live in a celebrity culture. Not a music culture. You don’t have to pump out hit album after hit album and win award after award to stay in the spotlight. You have to go a little nuts and catch people’s eye.

Pull a Britney. Marry and divorce. Shave your head. Do something stupid. It worked for her and it continues to work today.