Even though it leaked early, the "official" video for Britney Spears' latest single, "Gimme More," debuted today on MTV's TRL. First of all, unlike what so many fans predicted/hoped/prayed, the official version is the same (read: just as bad) as the leaked version. Second, who the hell debuts their videos on TRL anymore? What is this, 1999?
In case you haven't heard, the video primarily consists of Britney in a long brunette wig and ripped fishnets circling around a stripper pole in a club for about 3 minutes. Her body, after having 2 kids? Amazing. She's not exactly the impossibly taut, ripped 19-year-old she used to be, and you know what? That's just fine. If one of our most-watched sex-symbols, just by adding a few pounds, expands our notion of what's physically acceptable for young women (even if she's one of the many female celebrities who perpetuated the unattainable female body to begin with), I'll take it. And that's the only "amazing" I'll use in a positive sense in this whole post.
Look, Britney is 25 years old. She's an adult. If she wants to fantasize about being a stripper, that's her choice. And this time, unlike her previous music video costumes, I have no doubt that this was her choice, not her record company's (whether or not they agreed to it is beside the point). Critics have always been saying that Britney needs to grow up with her audience. I'm not sure this is what they had in mind, but it seems inevitable after her carefully calculated Lolita routine eventually added pseudo-bondage lyrics ("I'm a Slave 4 U"), performances with phallic snakes wrapped around her (the 2001 MTV Music Video Awards) and songs about masturbation (2003's "Touch of My Hand").
So if she wants to be a stripper, that's her right. My only request is that she be a good stripper. Britney was always a dancer/performer instead of a singer, and other pop stars have made that work for much longer careers than Britney's so far (Madonna, Janet, etc.). So, if she can't belt it out, at least she can put her back into it. All she does in this video for three minutes is walk around the pole over and over, flipping her natty hair and occasionally dropping her butt to her heels and bouncing back up.
There's nothing wrong with going through a Bad Girl phase. Hey, Madonna had her Sex book/"Body of Evidence" movie/Erotica album phase. And kicking off her latest single with "It's Britney, bitch" was inspired. What's inexcusable is being a boring Bad Girl. If she wants to distract the public from her personal life, if even for 3 minutes at a time, then she should give us something else to look at/talk about, and crappy lip-syncing does not count. She should remind us that she at least used to know how to put on a show, from flashy music videos to pristinely executed awards show performances.
I know, I know. She's distracted, probably depressed, hitting the clubs and hyped up on coffee. But music and performing is what she supposedly loves, right? That's why she used to sing to no one in malls across the country just to get a record deal, right? So if she wants to be angry, sad, irritated, depressed, or rebellious? Fine! Then she should be like every other artist, including shiny pop idols like Madonna and Janet, and exploit her feelings for artistic expression! Then commit to that exploitation by creating a dizzily-edited music video which only peripherally relates to the song but distracts us with dazzling choreography. See? Easy.
It's too bad, really, because "Gimme More" is a surprisingly solid song (the remix with Lil' Mama, while fun, is not even necessary), and is well on its way to becoming her most successful since 1998's "...Baby One More Time." Like any pop star, she's at the mercy of her producers and her voice is often used as one easily-manipulated layer in well-crafted sonic nuggets. "Gimme More" is no exception, with wide swaths of synths overlapping plink-plunk bubbles in the background. Britney commits herself merely competently, but the song doesn't really soar until the bridge where a possessed-sounding male singer trills over minimal beats.
Unfortunately, 11 other new songs leaked today (and then were taken down after 24 hours!) and they don't come anywhere close to "Gimme More." Listening to the sloppy, uninspired productions makes 2003's "In the Zone" sound downright classic. Her voice is so weak and breathy, the producers have to layer it and manipulate it to the point of losing it all together. She might as well as not have shown up at all. She actually raps on "When You Gon' Pull It?", a song where she compliments her lover "getting pretty good with that thing." Is she singing to her Starbucks barista about the milk steamer? Probably not. The only song even close to a "highlight" is a simple, almost torchy piano ballad that caters to Britney's lower, stronger register. Just to add a curious element, there's something almost like a whirring fan throughout the whole song, as if they rolled a piano and mic into a Dairy Queen to record Britney's vocals between Blizzards. But, while nothing special in any other context, the stripped-down ballad actually works among the 10 other messes.
The title? "Let Go."
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