Britney Spears: Classic or Dud?

These days I just shrug. Couple of good songs, though (I will go to my grave insisting "Baby One More Time" is NOT one of them and that the allegedly similar "Oops I Did It Again" is thousands of times better thanks to the bassline).

everything i've heard from the new one is INCREDIBLE ("i got that boom boom" - the only one i've heard on the radio (ALOT), "toxic", "me against the music"), enough to make me think i really should ignore the cw naysay and hear the album.

(That remix of "Me Against the Music" which Siegbran put on his end-of-year mix was fabboo grand cool. The original...*coughs*)

THAT SAID and maybe this is the nostalgist/reactionary/discoclone in me but 'toxic' (or other sublimated diva traxx) still don't own me the way an old deborah cox or kelly price remix can, still, now, six years later. but then i think i might be the only ilxor who's fave donna summer isn't 'i feel love' too so...

For all I knew it was "Macarthur Park" or "On the Radio," ya ungrateful punk!

wtf is with the Madonna comparisons? If you can get past the somewhat difficult voice, I'd argue xtina has far more right to that title.

Although, I'm sure the nebulous defence of this Disney World entertainment will never end on ILM.

oh you silly rockists masquerading as non-rockists. do you judge motorhead by their "own personal talent" and by lemmy's remarkable operatic voice, or do you just go right to the "product"? do you judge the grateful dead by their inability to swing a beat and bob weir's inability to sing, or do you just go to the shows and have a good time? how again is britney any different?

August 2000 - November 2004.

I'm sure the nebulous defence of this Disney World entertainment will never end on ILM.

hee hee.

Maybe "offensive" is a strong word -- but I'm more bothered by the way Madonna wraps her mediocrity in pomp and pretense (from supposed sexual radicalism to hokey religious experimentation)

She's also, at least ostensibly, a product for twelve-year-old girls. Wanna trade hello kitty stickers later?

Come on, that's a pointless question. You know how the little cillia in your ears dance a certain way when you like something? Well that doesn't happen when I hear Madonna, or Britney Spears.

I don't see how pointing out the weaknesses of other artists is supposed to convert me. And with the exception of about two of her tracks, I don't see any originality in her songwriter's work. The difference between her and Motorhead is overexposure. No one has ever shoved Motorhead down my throad. The Grateful Dead is a different story, but I digress.

She's also, at least ostensibly, a product for twelve-year-old girls.

Shurely shome mishtake?

It's pointless trying to change people's opinions.

Pointing out the ridiculousness/fallacy/logical inconsistency of the assumptions that underlie their opinions is fair game though.

products for forty year old men: suv's, viagra, "real music", george w. bush

Well, isn't that what it all comes down to? I could come up with specifics -- I find her voice (Britney's) thin and irritating. I find the beats (EVEN TOXIC) repetitive and annoying. But I just don't like it because I don't like it It's not an argument, it's an opinion. I'm not trying to argue you into disliking Britney.

By making it culturally inescapable. And the fact that we put this woman on a huge fucking pedistal for completely superficial reasons (ie: she looks like a porn star) is painful if you have anything called a soul. I know this is nothing new in society, but still...

I believe there's these things called 'turning off the radio' and 'iPods' and the like which can help you in this regard.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Britney Spears is quite deliberately targeted, or at least was until recently, at pre-teen and teen girls (though there is the likely deliberate secondary target of horny 20-50 year old men). The post I was referring to tried to point out that Britney is *supposed to be* a product. I agree that this has nothing to do one way or another with her being any good, but if you're going to talk about things in those terms, let's really follow their implications.

If Britney is just a *product* then all I should have to say is "I don't like it". That's it. I don't like Pepsi, I prefer Wendy's to McDonalds. If you're trying to make some sort of well-reasoned "argument" for her, then you're abandoning the idea that she's just a product to be liked or disliked.

I think ... yeah, she's complicated. I think she still faces a number of challenges.

it feels like part of the problem in the cultural reckoning, if there is a problem and maybe it's just a point of relevance, is that there seems to be a need for the assignment of blame. feels like maybe it's not all everybody's fault, nor is it all her fault in terms of credibility etc, but there is a gray area in between. and regardless, I think the hope is maybe she can unpack some more art in the second half of her life.