Britney's Videography: "Do Somethin'"

Britney Spears "Do Somethin'" # # # # #

Released during those dark years that I stopped following Britney's career, this was my first time watching her "Do Somethin'" video, the final single released from her first greatest hits collection. Expecting the worst, I was pleasantly surprised by this video. It's nothing groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, but it's cute and fun and sometimes that's all you need. What struck me the most about this clip was the fact that this was Britney's tribute to (maybe even a parody of?) the stereotypical hip-hop video from around this time period. There's Britney and her crew in her gas-guzzling (pink, of course) Hummer, showing off her bling and throwing cash around like it's nothing. When she finally steps up into the club, everything around her literally stops as she becomes the focus of all the club-goers. There's even a scene where Britney sits in her throne and her crew pushes her through the club like the Queen that she is! Whatever she is attempting to pay tribute to, the video comes off as genuine Britney, something only she could pull off. It's no classic, nor is it something I'm likely to watch again anytime soon, but it was a pleasant way to spend three and a half minutes.

Britney's Videography: "My Prerogative"

Britney Spears "My Prerogative" # # # # #

Aside from a select few American Idol contestants over the years, there is no commercial pop artist around today who picks and performs covers as cleverly and uniquely as Britney Spears does. Whether you find her versions of "I Love Rock 'N Roll" or "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" good or bad, you at least have to agree that Britney is the only pop star who could have made them. Her cover of Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative," the lead single off her first greatest hits collection, is certainly no exception and, actually, makes sense as a Britney single in 2004, both stylistically and thematically. Can you think of a more appropriate way to start a Britney song of this era (outside of "It's Britney, bitch") than, "They say I'm crazy..."? And the video highlights this key statement in a very big way: showing a (crazy?) Britney in a car jump a massive walled gate into a swimming pool. Cutting out the music at the song at this point was a clever idea, not only adding emphasis to this statement but also proving that you can stop a song in a music video without downplaying the importance of the actual music.

On paper, the rest of the video sounds like the usual as far as Britney video goes: over a series of scandalously sexy outfits, Britney comments on her sexual image. But visually, at least through the first chorus, she generates new ideas out of something that's she had been doing for years. In what could be described as an off-the-wall homage to Sunset Boulevard, Britney wanders through an Old Hollywood mansion, reminiscent of Norma Desmond's home, eerily shot like a moody, color take on film noir. There's something mysterious about this setting that suggests far more than it explicitly shows. And then there's Britney, first lingering seductively over a sexy maid, then, clad in beautiful, surprisingly tasteful lingerie, walking in on a man watching home movies of her rolling around in a bed. Like I said, it doesn't say anything new we haven't seen before in Britney's videography--commenting on Britney's sex symbol status and how the media/public plaster this image of her to the point where she can't escape it, even in her own home--but it's done with such stylistic flair that I remained riveted. The final half of the music video falters, lumping in some big twist at the very end that feels both unnecessary and thematically. But, just as her "Toxic" video did previously, although not as strongly, "My Prerogative" makes a vivid enough first impression that you can almost forgive the video's collaborators for dropping the ball at the very end. All in all, not a bad way to market a cover of a Bobby Brown song.

Britney's Videography: "Everytime"

Britney Spears "Everytime" # # # # #

How appropriate that we get to "Everytime," the scariest and most haunting video in Britney's entire videography, on Halloween. Instead of the typical horror fodder with murders, monsters and mayhem, however, "Everytime" is about the horror of celebrity. The video starts by following Britney on what I'm sure was a typical day for her in 2003: driving in her limo with her manager/lover (played by Stephen Dorff), being ignored while he's on an important "call", and accosted by overzealous fans, paparazzi and the vicious lies of the tabloids. What sets "Everytime" apart from "Lucky," another video about the insanity of Britney's life behind-the-scenes, is the violence and anger that accompanies Britney's encounters. Her fans swarm her and her limo when she gets to her hotel, making it nearly impossible to even open her door, let alone get up to her room. And, this time, the fans very nearly attack her, grabbing and pulling at her so they can have their own piece of her. Her lover is angered by the constant attention, lashing back at the paparazzi and sending a display of tabloid magazines flying. He even lashes out at Britney, as if it's all somehow her fault. The tension and anger sends Britney to the bathtub for a relaxing soak; she begins to bleed from her head and slides under the water. She begins a journey into the great white light, seeing herself carted off to the hospital and failing to be resuscitated by doctors. This is where we see what is perhaps the scariest image in the entire video: as Britney is on the stretcher, unresponsive, being pushed into the ambulance, we see a fan holding up a magazine and a pen, hoping for an autograph. It begs the question, have people become so obsessed with the idea of celebrity that we have lost all traces of humanity? 

I believe director Dave LaChapelle would agree. He shoots the video in slow motion, while the ethereal "Everytime", with its own hauntingly beautiful piano melody, plays in the background. Its stark, jarring contrast to the horrific imagery we see only makes you more appalled at the state of celebrity today. And I think the film's final frames does more to drive home this point than anything. We see Britney emerge from the water and we quickly realize it was all a dream. She is laughing and happy, but why? Typically, I think people would assume it is because she's happy to be alive. But I think there is a darker answer: she's happy because she has seen her life without all the pressures and horrors of being a celebrity. She wants that life. People have often cited this as the video that predicted her pre-Blackout downward spiral. "Everytime" makes that part of her life scarier by showing us just how close we were to losing her.

Britney's Videography: "Toxic"

Britney Spears "Toxic" # # # # #

The first half of the music video for "Toxic", far and away the most widely beloved Britney single of the past decade, suggests that we are in for Britney's finest music video since "Oops!". The nude diamond bodysuit was, rightly so, as instantly iconic as the Red Leather Jumpsuit from "Oops!", but I find all these years later to be more fascinated by the opening blue flight attendant outfit. Maybe it's because the sequence is so thrilling and so Britney, spilling a drink a man's lap and then sexily mopping the mess up with a napkin, seducing a passenger in the bathroom. She's clearly having fun, while remaining cognizant of the mysterious, almost dark nature of the video. I love the quick reactions, particularly the one after she puts the blanket over the child and kisses him on the top of the head, which show that Britney both understood what the video was going for and how to convey that within her persona. Even beyond Britney's persona, there's a clear directorial eye guiding this video along. When Britney sings, "I'm dangerous," seventy-five percent of her face is covered by shadows, suggesting the darkness that lurks underneath her sexy demeanor. The airplane sequence is so good you can almost forgive how erratic and misguided the second half is, which sees Britney donning a red wig, riding a motorcycle with Tyson Beckford and acting like a super spy of sorts. My main problem with these scenes is the awful, vomit-inducing special effects. I understand that they were going for a certain look, probably that of an over-the-top Japanese anime, but it simply doesn't work in this video. I don't mean to say that everything in the final half doesn't work--if anything, most of the footage here is fine in and of itself. But its lack of focus is really glaring after so much of the first half works well.

Britney's Videography: "Me Against the Music"

Britney Spears featuring Madonna "Me Against the Music" # # # # #

For the first single from her fourth album, Britney enlisted the help of the most influential female artist not only on her career but for every major female popstar of the past 20 years: Madonna. While its reputation as a mediocre effort from two artists who should have knocked it out of the park isn't wholly undeserved, the video has some smart, interesting ideas that aren't as dismissible. I love the video's overall sense of urgency and tension. It's never quite explained why Madonna is following/stalking Britney or why Britney feels so threatened by Madonna's presence, which is probably for the best, but I love how the frantic editing and the shaky hand-held camera during the maze sequences makes you interested in working toward finding out what's happening. Forgive me if I'm grasping at straws here but I feel like costuming Britney and Madonna in appealing, feminine versions of traditionally masculine suits, combined with the aforementioned stalking, makes an interesting commentary on female artists in the music industry, particularly those who work on their personas as carefully and deliberately as Madonna and Britney do. First of all, it's a commentary on how women, no matter what profession they are in, often must dress and act like men in order to be taken seriously. It's an issue Parks and Recreation also once tackled, humorously (Leslie tries to join the "Boys Club" in order to help herself in the future) but it's still prevalent all these years after feminism. Britney and even, in a way, Madonna at this stage in her career still have to prove they are worthy of being music icons among the male rockers, rappers and even popstars who dominate most people's conception of "musicianship." Secondly, the voyeurism feels like it's talking about how older females, again no matter what profession, feel they must watch out for every bright young thing that comes in and tries to steal their spotlight. Younger females, on the other hand, feel like they are being watched, waiting to get pounced on after making any little mistake. While I have no doubt that Madonna and Britney got along just fine, you can't help but feel like Madonna is always keeping tabs on all of these up and coming popstars and figuring out how she can out-maneuver them. Needless to say, it's worked for her so far as she has obliterated not only 99% of the 80's female popstars but also a good portion of those from the 90's as well. The reason this video doesn't get a full five stars is because, much like the song itself, it is missing that something extra that would have made it absolutely unforgettable. I wish the creepy undertones were played out a little better and that the weird Persona-like vibe the film seems to be giving was pushed further. All in all, though, "Me Against the Music" is a corker of a video, much better than I initially remembered it being back in 2003.

Britney Spears & Madonna: Me against the music by ocima7

Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky | Stronger | Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know | I'm a Slave 4 U | I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman | Boys | Overprotected | I Love Rock & Roll

Britney's Videography: 'I Love Rock 'N Roll'

Britney Spears 'I Love Rock 'N Roll' # # # # #

The video for 'I Love Rock 'N Roll', much like the video for 'Born To Make You Happy', is a bit of a throw away video. Not surprisingly, like 'Happy', 'I Love Rock 'N Roll' was the final single from Britney, released only in the non-US market. Obviously, the single was used as a gap-filler until the next album and the video shows. Without being completely blasé, it basically amounts to Britney standing in a room and singing the song into a microphone. True, the video is an homage to the spirit of rock 'n roll, where all you need is a hot song, a microphone and a killer attitude, but you would expect Britney, especially at this stage in her career, to have turned it into more than another opportunity for her to flaunt her sexuality. Not that I'm complaining about a 30 second montage which shows Britney straddling a motorcycle in ways that would make biker gang members blush. I just wished there was something more, like Britney's homage to rock's sex goddess Lita Ford when she sexily crawls along the floor. Apart from the opening sequence, shot in a grungy black and white that smartly evokes the rock 'n roll spirit the video is looking for, it's the only true moment of inspiration 'I Love Rock 'N Roll' has in it. The rest is merely a hold-over until The Madonna arrives.



Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky | Stronger | Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know | I'm a Slave 4 U | I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman | Boys | Overprotected

Britney's Videography: The 'Overprotected' Videos

Britney Spears 'Overprotected' # # # # #

Britney Spears 'Overprotected [Darkchild Remix]' # # # # #

For the fourth single from the Britney album, released two different music videos: one for the album version and one for the Darkchild remix, which proved to be the more popular of the two. In fact, the Darkchild remix has become so ingrained in me, I don't even remember seeing the original version's video until starting this project. Apparently I just have a really bad memory, but I think it's quite telling that the first 'Overprotected' video is utterly forgettable. The video begins by establishing the main theme of the song--Britney is grown up and ready to escape constant scrutiny and live her own life--as she leaves for an abandoned warehouse wearing quite possibly the coolest pair of blue sunglasses ever. The outfit is a stunner, but everything that follows becomes a mish-mash of random ideas and visuals that never quite come together. At one point, I thought the video was going to become Britney's 'Pleasure Principle,' an opportunity for her to show her worth as a solo dancer after the highs of 'Stronger'. Unfortunately, she only gets a couple of half-ass moves in before some background dancers invade her abandoned warehouse to perform a half-ass routine. And that's the major problem with the original video: everything is done half-ass, banking on Britney's star appeal to do all of the heavy lifting. Any positives that video has can be attributed to either her or the wardrobe, but she can't save a nothing video from being anything more than that.

The Darkchild remix of 'Overprotected' doesn't offer much more in terms of narrative than the original--it's Britney off having fun with her girlfriends--but its execution only highlights everything the first video did so poorly. The video starts with a parody newscast chastising Britney for what she was infamous for doing back in 2002: dressing provocatively. Britney, watching it with her girls, shrugs off the criticisms and prepares for her night on the town, wearing whatever the hell she wants. By framing the video in this way, the silly dancing and partying Britney and her girls partake in makes total sense. They don't want to be so damn protected so they are going out and celebrating their freedom, haters be damned. It is not a revolutionary idea, but it makes perfect sense for the video. Plus, the video looks about a hundred times better than the original. Since this is the "Darkchild" remix, I like that this video takes place at night and has a darker, more interesting look than the bland, tan-ness of the original. And I absolutely adore the limo set piece that transforms into a lighted disco dancefloor. It is because of sparks of imagination like this that the Darkchild video of 'Overprotected' stands heads above the original video.





Britney Spears - Overprotected (Darkchild Remix) by Schutzengerl1205

Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky | Stronger | Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know | I'm a Slave 4 U | I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman | Boys

Britney's Videography: 'Boys'

Britney Spears 'Boys' # # # # #

Last time, I admitted that Britney's previous single, 'I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,' was the first single of hers that I fell out of love with after the initial glow wore off. 'Boys' was the first single of hers I outwardly didn't like from the first time I heard it and onwards. Even today, I'm still turned off by this draggy, monotonous, uninspired dreck to the point that I consider it easily Britney's worst single. The video doesn't add much to the song, but at least it's a tad more interesting to look at than Britney wandering around a canyon, contemplating her future. 'Boys' is Britney back in ho mode, ready to take on fourteen boys at the same time, have her fun with them and then toss them aside. And the 'Boys' video could have been a lot of fun--think 'I'm a Slave 4 U' but even skankier--except for the fact that the director forgot one important element: the boys. Besides Pharrell, who features on this song, and a cameo from Mike Myers as Austin Powers (the song was on the soundtrack for Austin Powers in Goldmember), there's only one other guy in the video and he's totally the kind of skanky, unattractive guy Britney put in all of her videos around this time. What is the use of having a video for a song about fucking boys and then not putting any boys in the video? It really baffles me sometimes how these music video directors come up with these lame concepts that completely fail to capture the spirit of the song. Did anyone listen to the song beforehand?

Britney and Pharrell interact for a few seconds, although you'd be forgiven if you forget it mere seconds later since Britney couldn't give two shits about him. During the interaction, he's a mere prop, a stripper pole of sorts, for Britney to dance around. Pharrell tries his best to make it look they are connecting but Britney is just looking away from him, never once looking like a believable duo. What saves this video from damnation is the final 15 seconds or so when Britney does her obligatory routine with Mike Myers/Austin Powers. It's nothing special, but Britney looks so happy and full of life being silly with Austin Powers that it makes the preceding 3.5 minutes worth it. Believe it or not, silly Britney is not a side of her we get all that often so we must relish it every chance we get.



Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky | Stronger | Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know | I'm a Slave 4 U | I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman

Britney's Videography: 'I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman'

Britney Spears 'I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman' # # # # #

Confession time: I've never seen the film Crossroads, Britney's acting debut and the inspiration for this second single from the Britney album. This appears to be sacrilegious for a Britney fan like myself, yet I have no real explanation for why it has never happened. I didn't go to the movies that often back then--if it had come out in 2007, I would have been at the midnight screening--and I'm guessing that by the time it came out on VHS (this was before DVDs!), I had already entered my dark years where Britney didn't matter anymore. Another possible explanation was that even to my untrained, nearly 14 year old eye, Crossroads looked like a shitty movie. Yes, I loved Britney but, my God, who could get excited over that movie? And when the song used to promote the movie is this soppy ballad, my interest has gone down considerably. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure I loved this song when it came out, just as I had all of Brit's previous singles. But it was obviously a quick fade, as Brit's moping about her journey into womanhood is one of her few singles that I rarely think about these days. It's not as if the video offers a reason to remember 'I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.' I seriously thought there were at least clips of Crossroads intertwined with the images of Britney, not a girl, not a woman, staring across the horizon, figuring out what lies ahead of her in the future but, alas, nothing. Not even an image of Britney approaching a fork in the road, debating which path to take. Come on, people! With a song as clichéd as 'I'm Not a Girl,' you need to throw in every music video cliché in the book. Instead, Britney stands on the edge of a canyon, wearing an outfit that is decidedly more woman than girl, and walks around the inside of a canyon that looks eerily similar to the canyon James Franco is climbing in the trailer for 127 Hours. Hm, maybe Britney cutting off her own arm would have made this video watchable and would have gotten me to a theatre to see Britney do her thing on-screen.



Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky | Stronger | Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know | I'm a Slave 4 U

Britney's Videography: 'I'm a Slave 4 U'

Britney Spears 'I'm a Slave 4 U' # # # # #

New album, new Britney. If there's one thing I've noticed while reevaluating Britney's videos these past months, it's that she was the master at minor reinvention. Madonna has always been cited as a major influence on Britney's career, and it's easy to see how both of their careers parallel each others. Whereas Madonna gets (much deserved) credit for drastically molding herself into something new with each album, Britney hasn't received any credit for how she has changed her image album to album, video to video. The Britney you see in '...Baby One More Time,' is not the Britney you see in 'I'm a Slave 4 U,' the first single from her third album. In this video, Britney has all but abandoned the innocent, schoolgirl charm of just a few years ago. She's not yet a woman, but she's clearly graduated from parochial school. The idea behind the 'I'm a Slave 4 U' video--Britney, in an unnamed exotic, extremely humid city, parties with a group of friends who plan on beating the heat by bumping and grinding and having an orgy--is far better than the execution. Not that the video reaches 'Born to Make You Happy' levels of awfulness, mind you, but you know a lot more naughtiness could have come about from Britney romping around with shirtless boys, panting in time to the beat. Britney, though, tries her best to make the video work, and any positives can be solely attributed to her. She's sultry, slinking around the maze of a hallway or leaning against a mirror, checking out her hot reflection. Britney looks great as well, making perspiration sexy and not like someone has dumped a bucket of stinky water all over her body, as perspiration tends to do to us mere mortals. She can't save the video, however, and with such a middling video, it makes you wonder why no one thought to bring in the infamous yellow boa constrictor.



Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky | Stronger | Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know

Britney’s Videography: ‘Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know’

Britney Spears 'Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know'
# # # # #

Britney continued to grow up right before our very eyes with this video for 'Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know,' the fourth and final single from her Oops!...I Did It Again album. The video, a chronicle of two young lovers shacked up in a tiny hut adjacent to a gorgeous tropical beach, sounds like the perfect opportunity to exploit the barely legal Brit and her bangin' bikini body. But, rather surprisingly, the director went in a different direction, offering a genuinely beautiful look at young love. Brit and her beau spend the entirety of the video clad in next to no clothing—Brit in a bikini top and cutoffs, the dude in the lowest riding bathing suit I've ever seen—and helplessly intertwined in various romantic poses, but 'Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know' never once feels exploitative. Instead, the video is sweet, tender and sensual—many things Brit, at this point, hadn't tried to be yet. So, the best way to look at 'Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know' is from the perspective of Britney, once again, subtly, pushing the boundaries of her persona into unchartered territory. Late 90's pop music's very own Lolita trying her hand at softness and sensuality? This sounds like something to scoff at, but Brit pulls it off surprisingly well. The only major downside of 'Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know' is the fact that since the video is so sensual, Brit is required to act sensual. She gets the body language down but her facial expressions, for the most part, are lacking a bit. She's not an actress, so you can hardly blame her, but her face looks completely vacant rather than like the emotionless mask I'm sure the director asked of her. But that's a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things with Britney trying something new on the way to her third album.

Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky | Stronger

Britney's Videography: 'Stronger'

Britney Spears 'Stronger' # # # # #
Before "It's Britney, bitch" became her most famous song opener, the opening lyric to 'Stronger,' "HUSH, JUST STOP," was perhaps Brit's biggest and baddest battle cry yet. In fact, as this recent picture proves, 'Stronger' is, in a way, a response to her debut single. In the two years since '...Baby One More Time' was released she had become an independent woman who didn't need a man to be happy. 'Stronger' is Britney's one true Girl Power anthem, a reminder to her fans that no matter what life throws their way, whether it is family drama, relationship issues or monetary problems, you can always count on yourself to persevere and triumph over and adversities. The fact that Britney stays true to herself by making this potentially banal ballad a non-stop club banger is perhaps one of the smartest moves of her career. Another smart move is the video for 'Stronger,' which has gone from respected to fan favorite in the years since its original release. The video's premise--jilted lover Britney gets revenge on the guy (and his new skank girlfriend) who did her wrong--is fine, if nothing extraordinary. What makes 'Stronger' so memorable, however, is the video's centerpiece, an epic dance involving only Britney and a chair. In much the same manner Fred Astaire was able to accomplish with a hat rack in Royal Wedding, Britney works so well with the inanimate object it almost becomes a legitimate dancing partner. The rest of the video hardly matters with this astounding dance; in fact, the chair dance overshadows everything else so much I wish someone had taken a chance and revolved the whole video around it instead of adding the unnecessary "plot" scenes. Can you imagine how amazing a full three minutes of the chair dance with the final moments of Britney strutting down the bridge in the rain would have been? Unlike the Red Leather Jumpsuit in 'Oops!,' the makers of the 'Stronger' video didn't necessarily realize what a moment they had with the chair dance. If they had, I would feel more comfortable giving 'Stronger' the full five stars.



Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again | Lucky

Britney's Videography: 'Lucky'

Britney Spears 'Lucky' # # # # #
When Britney released Blackout amid two years of non-stop coverage of her life slowly slipping out of control, critics and fans alike were surprised at just how personal and self-aware she had suddenly become. It was, indeed, a revelation, but if we had been paying attention much earlier, we would have noticed that Britney was beginning to get personal with her video for 'Lucky.' Coming between the twin masterpieces that are 'Oops!...I Did It Again' and 'Stronger,' 'Lucky' isn't exactly highly regarded among her numerous singles and probably for good reason. Subtlety has never particularly been Britney's strong suit, but 'Lucky' is so on-the-nose and obvious that the whole thing becomes laughable. The video doesn't start off much better as we are introduced to Britney in a dual role as both Lucky, the star, and the narrator who eventually enters the world of Lucky to provide further commentary on her existence that the song doesn't cover. With the curtains that contain the drama/comedy masks and a billboard for Lucky's latest movie called Top of the World, the 'Lucky' video is blatantly obvious about what this song is about. But as Britney the Narrator enters Lucky's world, we start to wonder whether or not 'Lucky' is a commentary on Britney's own chaotic life at the time. In a span of 18 months, she had gone from former Mickey Mouse Club star to International Popstar and we all know that she's not exactly the greatest at coping with drastic amounts of scrutiny. So who's to say that 'Lucky' isn't about Britney herself? By entering Lucky's world in the video and, in one moment, reaching out to try and comfort her, Britney's attempting to find the solace and comfort that those around her are failing to give her. It's a quiet moment of self-actualization for Britney, but it does wonders to make this video actually mean something. The video isn't high art but it's a decent enough placeholder between Brit's two most memorable videos of her career.



Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy | Oops!...I Did It Again

Britney's Videography: 'Oops!...I Did It Again'

Britney Spears 'Oops!...I Did It Again' # # # # #
After two lackluster videos in a row, Britney roared back full force with 'Oops!...I Did It Again,' the first single off her second album of the same name and the first video to launch the brand new Britney. The story that sets up the video--an (inexplicably hot) astronaut lands on Mars and runs into Britney--may seem a bit silly and gratuitous, but it actually makes an interesting statement about Britney's new persona. By discovering her on Mars, the video presents Britney as this out-of-this-world alien lifeform too puzzling and different from anything you would find on Earth. Now, 'Oops!' doesn't imply that she's out-of-this-world in the sense that David Bowie, Grace Jones and Roisin Murphy are; rather, the video merely comments on the fact that Britney isn't like other female popstars, especially the multitudes that had emerged after her initial popularity. Female popstars will come and go but Britney is in a completely different league from them, both musically and image-wise. And before we go any further, we must discuss the real star of 'Oops!...I Did It Again.' It's not Britney, the song nor is it the irresistible, iconic choreography. As I'm sure you're well aware, the real star of the video is the Red Leather Jumpsuit (so infamous it is now a proper noun). After Julia Roberts received massive critical love (and an Oscar) for Erin Brockovich, every romcom queen hoped that someday they would have their own Erin Brockovich Moment, a chance to prove that there was talent behind their star persona. After 'Oops!', every female popstar waits, often times in vain, for their Red Leather Jumpsuit Moment, an outfit so iconic it becomes a part of the popstar's persona. B has achieved it with her 'Single Ladies' Black Leotard and GaGa is consistently trying to find hers, although one universal piece of iconography has failed to emerge. The Red Leather Jumpsuit was obviously no accident. From the way the video reveals it, first in a pan upwards, stopping before we even see Britney's face and then in a second shot as Britney descends from the ceiling like the megadiva she is, we are immediately clued into the fact that someone understood that the Red Leather Jumpsuit was going to be huge. And was it ever. Over time, the Red Leather Jumpsuit has become the single most iconic thing from Britney's videography. Ask any self-respecting gay man between the ages of 17 and 28 and they will be able to tell you how much they love the Red Leather Jumpsuit. Very few artists find something as everlasting as this image yet Britney had managed, after the Catholic schoolgirl uniform in '...Baby One More Time', to find two in just over a year.



Previous installments: ...Baby One More Time | Sometimes | (You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!) | From the Bottom of My Broken Heart | Born To Make You Happy

Britney's Videography: 'Born to Make You Happy'

Britney Spears 'Born to Make You Happy' # # # # #
While America was stuck with 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart' as the fourth single from ...Baby One More Time, the rest of the world got 'Born to Make You Happy,' a much better song and more consistent with Britney's talents as an artist. However, as the video for 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart' bridged the gap between Britney the innocent and the new Britney soon to emerge, 'Born to Make You Happy''s video is a bit of a dud. The video is simply a bunch of interconnected scenes with no real association to each other or an overall plot/purpose. Scene one involves Britney, lying in her bed, mournfully remembering the good times she had with her now ex-boyfriend. In scene two, we see Britney, wearing an ice blue outfit, posing in a modern-looking ice blue room. And, of course, there is also a choreographed number on this huge platform where Britney, in a nice homage to her persona at this point, wears a particularly chaste floor length skirt slit all the way up to her waist on the sides. The dance sequence is the best part of the video, nicely matching the midtempo feel of the song, an extraordinarily difficult feat to pull off, but it will hardly go down as a memorable sequence in the career of Miss Spears. And that's precisely the problem with 'Born to Make You Happy': nothing in it (besides, possibly, the sexy torso of the hottie ex-boyfriend) is likely to stick with you a couple of hours after watching it. There's no advancement of Britney, no memorable moments, no striking images, just a bunch of bland, mediocre sets filled with Britney moping about. A bit of a stalling point in the course of Britney's videography, but, thankfully, her next video more than made up for it.

Britney's Videography: 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart'

Britney Spears 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart' # # # # #
It seems fitting that the video for Britney's final single (in America, at least) from her debut album is, in essence, a video that details a young woman packing up her juvenile troubles in a tiny suitcase and leaving her small town for the Real World of adulthood. This metaphor is simple and surprisingly underplayed in the video yet is one of the most intriguing things in Britney's videography up to this point. In a way, the packing up of her youth in 'From the Bottom of My Broken Heart' lets us know that, even a couple years before she declared it in song form, Brit's not a girl anymore. She's 18 now and ready to move on from this stage of her career. Unfortunately, this about all this video has to offer as its ode to Young Love Lost is neither original nor interesting in any particular way. The whole video feels like a lesser subplot on some Christian-friendly teen soap on ABC Family or The CW (back in the days when 7th Heaven was their big show, obviously). Britney looks gorgeous, and it's nice to see her acting goofy in those brief moments when everything is good in the relationship, but it's obvious this weak, faux-serious melodrama isn't her forte. You know she's just treading water until she can offend someone once again. And boy does she have plenty more of those moments coming up in her career.

Britney's Videography: '(You Drive Me) Crazy' (The Stop Remix!)

Britney Spears '(You Drive Me) Crazy' (The Stop Remix) # # # # #
And here is where my main dilemma with Britney's videography comes into play. Having seen most of these videos literally hundreds of times, especially during my formative years, they have become so ingrained in my head, I have a hard time discerning whether they are "good" or "bad." The prime example of this conundrum happens to be '(You Drive Me) Crazy,' the third single off her first album and the one that probably solidified her fame in my (and probably many others') mind. The video's premise--a bunch of people dancing in a stand-alone soundstage--is one I not only despise now but considered lazy even at the tender age of 11 (Backstreet Boys' 'All I Have to Give,' I'm looking at you). Nothing particularly happens in the video nor does it really work to advance or expound her star persona in any meaningful way. So what about this video has me fondly reminiscing about it many years later, often recalling minute details with the precision of an autistic child? Beats the hell out of me. I suspect the fact that I consider '(You Drive Me) Crazy,' on a good day, my favorite Britney recording of all time (on a bad day, top three easily) plays a large roll in it. Other than that, I can only guess. Looking back on this in 2010, what strikes me the most about the video is the ease with which Britney carries the video past its simplistic set-up. Here's a 17-year-old girl, three singles into a music career which has already made her a mega-star and the most talked about teen vixen since Lolita. Already, armed with nothing more than an emerald green top, a silly "boys vs. girls" dance-off and the word "CRAZY" spelled out in bright red neon lights, she knows how to captivate her audience and keep them entertained for 3.5 minutes. Britney is even starting to slowly work the diva side of her, as in the moment where she yells "Stop!" in the middle of the song and everything and everyone around suddenly shuts up. This is something she would learn to nurture as she progressed in her career, but, at that moment in time, it was our first glimpse into what this "down home" girl had to offer besides a complicated sexuality.

Britney's Videography: 'Sometimes'

Britney Spears 'Sometimes' # # # # #
Coming on the heels of her controversy-igniting '...Baby One More Time' video, her clip for the second single, 'Sometimes,' almost appears to be a step backwards for her. Whereas '...Baby One More Time' was in-your-face and persistent in its mission to catapult Britney into the limelight, 'Sometimes' is quieter, more subdued and less willing to make any of the bold statements '...Baby One More Time' does. This isn't a direct criticism of the video--in fact, this treatment works better for both the song and as a response to the criticism she received from '...Baby One More Time.' 'Sometimes' is a sweet, simple pop song about the rocky road known as young love, and the video's modest nature matches. She pines from afar, mopes with her girls (whose heads are curiously cut off in the scene where she hangs with them), recalls fond memories with the hot boy who can't quite figure her out and performs a dance of love and devotion on a pier. There's nothing flashy here, no attempt to add unnecessary plot, which, judging by today's GaGa complicated standards, is a complete relief. Even in the video's simplicity, Britney is able to make a sly commentary on her sexuality. Many of her outfits in 'Sometimes' are white, obviously referring to the color's connection with virginity. Again, she's flaunting her innocence in our faces, laughing at our misconceptions about her before winking to (maybe) affirm after all what we've always thought (possibly). Britney, for all her innocence and instant fame, almost remains an enigma who is impossible to truly decipher. And instead of answering those questions, 'Sometimes' merely raises more while maintaining a poker face.

Britney's Videography: '...Baby One More Time'

As a child of the TRL Generation, Britney Spears has become a very important figure in my life. Her meteoric rise to fame happened concurrently with my initial immersion in pop culture and the two have become inexplicably intertwined ever since. When, during a particularly strange time in my life, I swore off pop music, Britney also took a break from recording to get married and start a family. After I started college and began openly loving pop music again, she came back in a big way, although not necessarily in a positive way. Ever since the week where her vagina was photographed on three separate occasions, I knew there was no leaving her again. Thankfully, she followed through on my commitment with Blackout and Circus, two of her strongest albums. A couple of months ago, I decided to re-listen to her old albums, some for the first time in many, many years. And, unsurprisingly, I have become obsessed once again with Ms. Spears So now the time has come to pay tribute to our original Pop Princess, but how do I go about this? I tossed a couple of ideas around in my head, but I ultimately decided to go through her music videos one by one and discuss her evolution as a pop star. I figured this was an appropriate way to honor her since she is as much of a visual artist as she is a musical one. She's given us many timeless music video moments that will live on in infamy for many years to come. Britney is a true one-of-a-kind artist, and I'm honored to do my part in honoring her importance in pop culture.

Britney Spears '...Baby One More Time' # # # # #
The video that started it all. From the moment that infamous three-note riff blasts over the soundtrack and Britney appears in that Catholic schoolgirl uniform, in all of her Lolita glory, this woman had us under her spell indefinitely. In terms of concept, the '...Baby One More Time' is not exactly groundbreaking in any discernible way: she does some (admittedly fantastic) dancing on three different set pieces inside a high school. Where the genius lies is in the way the video immediately cues us into the complicated persona Britney is trying to establish. The Catholic schoolgirl fantasy has been widely known as a popular sex fantasy, particularly for older men. So when 17 year old Britney Spears comes sauntering down the hallway with her shirt rolled up and tied in front to reveal her stomach while sporting infantile pigtails with fuzzy pink hair ties, she is blatantly selling this schoolgirl as a sexual image. She almost seems to taunt us with her sexuality, presenting this untouchable young woman who knows she drives the (older) boys crazy but also realizes they can't do anything about it. But it's not as if Britney is exactly blatant about her sexuality either. This is not the same Britney who would later on where nothing but a suit of well-placed diamonds in the 'Toxic' video. There is nothing outright inappropriate about her clothing in the video. Besides her Catholic schoolgirl uniform, she wears what amounts to a sports bra and workout pants; not exactly school appropriate but nothing exactly "slutty" either. Where her sexuality lies is in the juxtaposition between her doe-eyed innocence and her jailbaitiness, and that's what most people had a problem with. '...Baby One More Time' simultaneously introduced a brand new pop star, flaunted her unique brand of sexuality upon the world and started a controversy over Britney's identity that lasts to this day. How many music videos can admit to doing all that in a short 3.5 minute span?