DarthScorpio11 said:
Apparently she received a Tribute from the VMA tonight. Now, im not a hater or anything. As a 21 year old, i have pretty fond memories of hearing Brittney in the late 90s/early 00s. She was a pretty talented teenager/early 20 something, who could dance, and had a pretty nice voice. She couldn't sing as well as Beyonce or Christina, but she was the "it" girl of that time.
However, in more recent time, through a good amount of the last decade (and this one too), she went way downhill, and started making crappy autotuned songs, lip sinking in concerts, and lazy dancing. I know she is older, but i think an artist should mature as they age. I think she has digressed, if anything. But she is only 29, and is still young. She has plenty of days ahead of her. Which begs the question: shouldn't they wait a couple of decades or so to see how she plays out over the course of time?
She released her first single 13 years ago in 1998. 13 years sounds like a long time, but not that long ago actually. The kids who grew up listening to her, are still only teens/young adults. Not enough time has passed to see if she will still be looked up to by other younger generations, or if she is just simply 90s nostalgia for ageing generation y who is starting to grow up.
I also think that this tribute will just go to Brittney ego, and will give her more inspiration to make more crappy music. "I can lipsink, and sing on autotune, and i still get tributes. Might as well keep doing what im doing". Younger people's egos are harder to keep humble, and things go to their head easier, than say, if they waited 2 decades or so, when she is 49. Then she would have been around for a while, and have had her life figured out enough to the point where it wouldn't phase her.
just a thought...
Britney getting an award from the VMA is totally appropriate. Think about what the VMA is. Video Music Awards. Video. Music. Awards. Add this to the fact that they're run by MTV. Now sit there and think about that for a while. No, don't just skip down straight away to the next paragraph (or the next post), actually do it.
Britney is, like it or not, an icon of pop-culture. Now, MTV is a peddler of popular culture. They've been peddling Britney for years. Why shouldn't they throw a tribute or two her way after all she's done for them, making those endless videos? The pop-culture penetration of Britney is so huge that a few years back she was voted #1 sexiest woman alive in a worldwide poll that encompassed every country in the world (sorry can't find the link, maybe someone else can) and which was done
after her supposed "decline". How did that happen? After all, I'm sure everyone reading this probably knows other girls that they think are sexier than Britney. Well, it happened because she's the most
visible western female pop cultural icon out there. In third-world countries, she symbolises not just pop music but the west in general, when people from some banana republic in Africa or wherever think of the USA, they think of Coke, M16s and Britney Spears. They would have voted for her simply because they couldn't think of any
other hot Western women in pop culture off the top of their head. That's the power of Britney - some guy living in a tin hut in Zaire knows who she is. MTV recognises this power because cross-cultural penetration of video-music is the power that drives their market share.
Also, you can't have it both ways and call someone "nostalgia" material in one sentence and say they lack longevity and proof of standing the test of time in the next. Fact: 13 years is a long, long time in the pop music business. Most bands in any realm of music don't last that long. Led Zeppelin lasted about 13 years IIRC, and (like Britney) approximately two of those were pretty much just spent fucking around in a drug-induced haze and attending lots of parties. The Beatles didn't make 13 years. Most musical artists don't have a viable career that long, in
any genre, but in pop music where constant new sounds are always sought, if you're still selling after 13 years you're doing damn good. Most pop artists are commercially dead by album number 3. Any pop artist still going after ten years deserves a medal and an award ceremony just for putting up with all the bollocks that they have to put with to get that far.
(Oh and I don't mean to be pedantic but it's "lip-sync" not "lip-sink". "Sync" is actually short for "synchronisation" which refers to the singer synchronising their voice with a backing track. Not picking on you, think of it as furthering your musical education.)
