Britney Spears is coming out of the closet.
At least her CDs are. Lately, it seems okay for college-age girls to admit their infatuation with the pop princess who is currently working on her transition to becoming a pop queen.
Britney has always been unavoidable, but lately I’ve found her where I would have never expected – in the CD players of friends, and even of myself. Over the break, I was amazed by the sheer number of people who freely admitted Britney addictions. I felt like I had been duped, and suddenly everyone was going to admit B2K addictions as well.
Apparently in the time Britney saved not making wedding plans she solidified her metamorphosis into the modern Madonna.
Spears released her first CD in early ’99 – five years ago. Five years into Madonna’s career, before releasing “Like a Prayer” she was still riding the waves of hits like “Holiday” and “Into the Groove.” She had already married and divorced Sean Penn. This Madonna was still cheesy and still regarded as a mall rat. But, she was on the verge of shedding her mall rat image with the controversy of the “Like a Prayer” Pepsi scandal.
Now picture our modern day hero, working overdrive to shed her cheesy mall rat image by stirring controversy with an album of songs about masturbation and sex – not to mention a shot-gun wedding and an annulment to boot.
There are arguments that Britney is not as smart or as talented as Madonna, etc. But honestly did anyone believe Madonna was a brain or a protegee when she was singing “Into the Groove?”
Madonna is a well educated woman who attended two years of college at the University of Michigan. Moreover, she is a smart entertainer who learned how to market herself through years in the business. No one heralded her as the patron saint of entertainment when she first came out, but instead she earned regard through years of controversial and thought-provoking behavior and music.
Britney may not have attended college, but undeniably she has an uncanny ability to harvest media attention and increasing public adoration through controversial and, dare I say, thought-provoking behavior and music.
People are quick to quip that Britney will never be Madonna, but it seems she already is.
According to Britney’s Web site ,the “Me Against the Music” video was “ripe with symbolic gestures of Madonna passing the baton [of] pop power to Britney.”
Spears goes on to say, “There is only one Madonna – and there will always be only one. My goal is to have a career that is equally as special, but one that is completely unique to who I am.”
Even detractors cannot deny this is the career Britney has forged. And if Britney is following Madonna’s career plan of success, at the five-year mark she is still allowed to be just cranking out raunchy catchy hits, which she is doing just fine.
So until Britney has been around over 20 years, which I suspect she will, there is no need to harass her for not being as innovative as Madonna.
As for now, I’ll join the rest of the former Spears haters who now admit their growing addiction for the pop princess.