Britney Spears: Was It Ever About The Music? 38510

Every week a bunch of cultural stuff happens. Here are some thoughts related to that.-raronauer

Britney Spears’s new album, Blackout, will debut at number one on the Billboard music charts this week.

From the VMA disaster to the every public appearance she has made, the fact this album is doing well is shocking. And that it’s actually good???and not just to 17 year-old girls???is the biggest surprise of all.

Kelefa Sanneh of the Times writes:

If that sounds depressing, then you should hear ???Piece of Me??? … Over and over comes a refrain ??? ???You want a piece of me??? ??? that could be an accusation or an invitation or a threat. And the producers set upon her like ravenous fans, building her up (by dropping out the bass line) and then knocking her around (by shifting her pitch). Together they evoke the horror, the exhilaration and (finally) the boredom of the overexamined life. It???s brilliant. … Some of the other songs are nearly as good.

But amongst the praise for Britney Spears and her producers, Sanneh can’t ignore the fact that Britney Spears is a national train wreck. As he puts it, “It???s starting to seem as if America???s appetite for titillating news about Ms. Spears can be matched only by her ability to supply it.”

Sanneh is not alone in juxtaposing Britney Spears’s life with her actual musical talent. But is it fair to consider Britney’s many, many failures when reviewing her album?

Yes. Britney Spears was never so much as a musician as she was an entertainer. Her persona has always been an integral part of her music. Without her claims of virginity and Catholic school girl dance routine, would her first album have sold 14 million copies?

As Britney has moved publicly into a less happy stage of her life, her image now, as a woman who spends $16,000 a month on clothes, but not a drop on cover up, is part of her work as an artist. Any review that ignores her custody battle and predilection for all things fried would be incomplete.