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SOUND
AFFECTS
At least Britney Spears understands that she's a slave ROSS RAIHALA Originally published Nov. 16, 2001
There I was, standing in line at a local discount store at 8:30 on Saturday night.
In addition to the usual, mundane supplies I needed to pick up in order to keep the Ross Machine in motion -- shampoo, mouthwash, toilet paper, that sort of thing -- I was there to buy something I had been putting off all week. It was a purchase that filled me with more dread than, say, Preparation H or Hustler magazine.
'Twas the new Britney Spears CD.
I figured it was my duty as a music writer to address this new record, titled simply "Britney." It's sure to be one of the top-selling releases of the year. And, unlike most of her teen-pop contemporaries, Britney looks like she may well weather the storm that has swept away the LFOs and Mandy Moores from our collective view.
But thanks to Britney's swift ascent from mere tramp to super tramp, there's something inherently unseemly about a grown man owning a CD that features lyrics such as "I really wanna do what you want me to" worked into a song that consists of little more than an electronic beat and audible moaning as its musical bed. (Besides, as far as teen pop eye candy goes, Robbie Williams is much more up my alley.)
Anyway, I managed to escape from the store with "Britney" in my clutches, only after the perky sales clerk incorrectly informed me: "You know, Britney wrote all the songs on this."
Of all the recent pop-culture phenomena, Britney Spears is one of the most creepy. This is a girl -- and despite the fact she's almost 20, she is still very much a girl -- who has transcended her status as a simple pop- music maven to a multimedia, money-minting force of nature.
And while her music certainly has something to do with her rapid rise, most of her reputation has come thanks to the area of her body located between her collarbone and navel. To make that point abundantly clear, she accentuates her endowment on the cover of "Britney" by squeezing it between her biceps while gazing lustily into the camera.
Oh my.
The music inside is a nearly scientific collection of throbbing, slightly innovative pop (the first single "I'm a Slave 4 U"), pseudo autobiographical pondering ("Overprotected," "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman") and safer-than-milk radio fodder ("Anticipating," "That's Where You Take Me").
But those tunes are only a minor part of a much-larger campaign designed to extract the most possible cash from Britney's audience. Stick the CD into your computer and you can:
- Watch outtakes from her impending film debut, due in February!
- Link to several different Britney Spears Web sites where you can buy more Britney merchandise!
- Try 1,000 hours of America Online for free!
- Sell your soul to the devil! Possibly!
One might long for a return to the Britney Spears of old, way back in the salad days of 1999 when she released a debut album graced with such nicey nice songs as "Soda Pop" and "E-Mail My Heart."
But, then again, her very first video suggested that an inner sex kitten was waiting to emerge. Teen-age girls as well as their middle-aged fathers certainly remember the visuals of "... Baby One More Time," in which the then still-jailbait temptress stomps through the halls of a high school, a sexed-up schoolgirl ready to party.
Of course, it's tempting to compare Britney Spears to Madonna, a woman who has long claimed her forward-thrusting sexuality was simply her way of expressing feminist thought.
The difference -- and it's a vital one -- is that Britney Spears presents a confusing and clearly manipulated public front. Madonna said she was like a virgin, after all. Britney attempts to maintain a wholly innocent, church-going persona in interviews and poses like a Barely Legal model for the accompanying photos. She wants to have her cake and smear it all over her nearly naked body, too.
Britney spent her earlier days on the "Mickey Mouse Club," while Madonna scratched her way to the top by living hand-to-mouth in New York City. Before landing a record deal, Madonna posed nude and appeared in a mildly soft-core porn because she needed to eat. And once Madonna was established, it was clear that she called the shots, or at the very least she hired the best people to do so for her.
Britney Spears, meanwhile, seems like nothing more than a flesh puppet who follows orders from higher powers eager to turn an easily manipulated youngster into an incredibly lucrative revenue-amassing machine.
The only honest moment on "Britney" comes when you selectively listen to the chorus of its first song:
"I'm a slave."
In Seattle
Seattle boasts a handful of potentially great rock shows in the coming days:
A special show to tie in with Sub Pop's new Kinks tribute album "Give the People What We Want" will take place at 9 p.m. tonight at the Crocodile Cafe. Many of the 19 bands represented on the new CD will perform, including the Murder City Devils, Mudhoney, the Minus Five, Young Fresh Fellows, Fastbacks, the Model Rockets, the Makers and the Pinkos. Tickets are $10 from Ticketweb. com.
The always-excellent Built to Spill return to town for a three-night stand at The Showbox. The shows tonight and Sunday are I.D. only and start at 8 p.m., while the 6 p.m. Saturday concert is all-ages. Tickets are $15 from Fastixx.com.
Modest Mouse vocalist/ guitarist Isaac Brock will play a pair of shows at Graceland under his Ugly Cassanova moniker: 8 p.m. Saturday and an all-ages set at 6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $10 from Ticketweb. com. He'll be joined by Les Savy Fav and Defacto (which features Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez Lopez from At the Drive-In).
Sub Pop's wonderful Beachwood Sparks play Graceland at 8 p.m. Wednesday with support from Love as Laughter (featuring former Olympia resident Sam Jayne). Tickets are a steal at $8 from Ticketweb.com.
Ross Raihala covers music for The Olympian. Send news and Top 10 lists to OlyRoss@aol.com. The Olympian Copyright 2001 back to main SOUND AFFECTS index
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