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I'm a Slave 4 U did not change Britney Spears' image.


mzncb

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I observed how deliberate MTV was by waiting so long to upload this performance:

It appears that the media and MTV are trying to rewrite the narrative of Britney's career.  Pretending as if because she hooked up with Black Producers the Neptunes, I'm A Slave 4 U/2001 VMA was when she completely changed/shed her image from 'innocent' to provocative:

"Cyrus’s evolution wasn’t markedly different to that of the female pop icons who came before her, from Madonna embracing the dominatrix within on Erotica, to Britney Spears shedding more and more of her clothes as she pronounced herself a slave to music just a year after Oops! I Did It Again.

And like Cyrus, theirs were transformations assisted by dabbles in hip-hop, be it through a Public Enemy sample, Pharrell Williams on production duties or, in the case of original “good girl gone bad” Christina Aguilera, a Busta Rhymes feature on her strip-club anthem Dirrty. It’s a trajectory that hasn’t been exclusive to female pop stars either, with Justins Timberlake and Bieber both achieving varying levels of adult legitimacy by aligning themselves with black producers and hip-hop aesthetics."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/like-wrecking-ball-near-naked-miley-cyrus-pulled-pops-outrageous/

"We’ve all seen it before, when rising pop stars decide to undergo a major musical transformation as a sign of maturity. They will trade in Disney-approved, family-friendly lyrics for more risqué topics like one-night stands and long party benders. The production of their songs shifts from clean bubblegum-pop synths to rap-inspired grimy 808s. And the hemlines of their skirts rise higher as their newfound love for twerking becomes central to the overall new persona.

This move is nothing new in pop music, as artists like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake utilized the post-New Millennium era to shed their pop-centric skin. "

https://www.vibe.com/2018/02/rappers-bait-for-pop-hits

This is nothing against the talented, great producers, The Neptunes or the Britney classic, I'm a Slave 4 U, but she literally did NOTHING in the Slave 4 U music video or the 2001 VMA 'snake' performance that didn't ALREADY do at the 2000 VMAs.

Yes, Britney's performing career is very influenced by black artists like Janet Jackson and others (and some Madonna), but provocative female 'pop' performing predates both Janet and Madonna if you go back to Cher and Tina Turner, and obviously both black and white provocative performers probably predate Cher and Tina Turner themselves.

It's akin to what Richard Pryor said about "paving the way" for black comedians like Eddie Murphy: "**** Gregory made it possible for me. And somebody made it possible for **** Gregory...Keep passing the torch."

(6:30)

Even this complimentary blurb- "I'm a Slave 4 U," the lead single from 2001's Britney, was Britney Spears' most overt attempt at shaking free of the squeaky clean image of her early career..."I'm a Slave 4 U" was a risk and a minor scandal, but it paid off. Never again would we think of Britney Spears as the high school cheerleader from the "...Baby One More Time" days."

https://www.complex.com/music/2013/03/the-50-best-neptunes-beats/britney-spears-im-a-slave-4-u

Is suspect because she was still considered a virgin during that whole 'slave' era when she was supposed to be "mature":

If anything, I'm a Slave 4 U is important in Britney's discography because it changed her sound (it predates Toxic, for instance) but it couldn't have ever changed her image from "innocent" to provocative because, as indicated earlier, she didn't do anything in the Slave 4 U video or 2001 VMA that she didn't already do at the 2000 VMA, and the media blatantly knows this:

So, the author of that Vibe article got this part right: "...when rising pop stars decide to undergo a major musical transformation as a sign of maturity. They will trade in Disney-approved, family-friendly lyrics for more risqué topics like one-night stands and long party benders. The production of their songs shifts from clean bubblegum-pop synths to rap-inspired grimy 808s."  So in the grand scheme of her career, Slave (song and video) were just a

Anyways. this will be my final post on this topic, but while Toxic is obviously the most accomplished single by Britney Spears, the greatest Britney song has to be her own creation:

Not only because it spawned great tributes by talented musicians:

But because it really is the only "accurate" Britney music video about the true ILLUSION of her career, fame and the music industry; and that 'illusion' part is really at the premise of the whole OP:

normal_bsevrtme_hq-videos_blogspot_com_akplh0l-31brit1.jpg?w=535

If you haven't already seen it, the following short documentary probes a bit further on the aforementioned topic, as well as other details about the (illusion of) the media, music industry and her career (11:46-14:30)

It's also VERY  notable to contrast the above documentary with Good Morning America's, which has a very different presentation of Britney's Everytime video:

(5:03-5:18)

Her two parents are BY FAR the two single individuals most responsible for Britney Spears' problems. (More than the media, the public, Jive, MTV, Larry Rudolph, Justin Timberlake, Kevin Federline, 

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Well Britney was always over sexualize ever since her first single, but it was sexualized in a creepy way. Because she was under age, they did not know how to make her sell sex. So they made her play the sexy innocent school girl that talks about her virginity! 

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River

Britney never liked to be sexual, it's her team that pretty much forced her, she hates the Work Bitch video because it's too sexual and she doesn't want her kids and their friends to watch it, she hinted that she didn't have a choice.

Je ne parle pas français but I can padam if you like
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Gimme More

I think with Slave Britney wanted to show she was becoming a woman, she was no longer a teenager. She was learning more about herself and embraced her sexuality. In that era she was fed up of being seen as a little girl and that she was an adult now.

#JusticeForBritney ♡
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HausOfAntonio
38 minutes ago, Faysalaaa said:

Well Britney was always over sexualize ever since her first single, but she played the sexy virginal school girl look. Her team also wanted her to talk about her virginity while sexualizing her. There was so much controversy and manipulation from Britney's team specially that she was so young. When she performed Slave, it felt different as she was a woman and was more about embrasing her sexuality.

Agreed. She was never seen as a little girl, or innocent or virginal. She was always sex first and foremost. 

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12 minutes ago, HausOfAntonio said:

Agreed. She was never seen as a little girl, or innocent or virginal. She was always sex first and foremost. 

Well they wanted Britney to have the sexy under age school girl look, but at the same time say shes a sweet innocent virgin. This is a fetish for alot of older men and it was really creepy. After 2002 her sexual expression was normal as she was older and expressed her sexuality in a healthy way.

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5 hours ago, Gimme More said:

I think with Slave Britney wanted to show she was becoming a woman, she was no longer a teenager. She was learning more about herself and embraced her sexuality. In that era she was fed up of being seen as a little girl and that she was an adult now.

4 hours ago, Faysalaaa said:

Well they wanted Britney to have the sexy under age school girl look, but at the same time say shes a sweet innocent virgin. This is a fetish for alot of older men and it was really creepy. After 2002 her sexual expression was normal as she was older and expressed her sexuality in a healthy way.

But didn't she already demonstrate all of this already at the 2000 VMAs?

At best, I'm a Slave 4 U was just continuation of what she 'started' here.

4 hours ago, HausOfAntonio said:

Agreed. She was never seen as a little girl, or innocent or virginal. She was always sex first and foremost. 

On the other hand, you're right: the 2000 VMA, Slave and Toxic etc... are just continuation of the first third of her debut music video.

5 hours ago, Runway said:

If i see that stale, dusty everytime video one more time :bear:

5 hours ago, Brecht said:

Not that video of her playing four notes on the piano again :ladyhaha: a joke.

Is better?

(1:50)

Some of her more acclaimed peers have still not produced evidence of composing music... 

Thoughts???

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ImTired

Omg. Her vocals were so bad in that VMAs satisfaction performance. Omg. :saladga: We really did give her too much credit back then.  Not gunna lie. 

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33 minutes ago, mzncb said:

But didn't she already demonstrate all of this already at the 2000 VMAs?

At best, I'm a Slave 4 U was just continuation of what she 'started' here.

On the other hand, you're right: the 2000 VMA, Slave and Toxic etc... are just continuation of the first third of her debut music video.

Is the following a better melody?

(1:50)

Some of her more acclaimed peers have still not produced evidence of composing music... 

Thoughts???

My thought is all of her peers also sing their own songs

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gypsy101

eh i was 9 when Britney was released, it did seem like there was a shift in her narrative around that time. sure she wasn't sexless before that but it did ramp up that part of her image.

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4 minutes ago, Brecht said:

My thought is all of her peers also sing their own songs

And My thought is that some of her most acclaimed peers demolished the livelihood earning potential of many hard-working songwriters.

A much bigger offense (crime) don't ya think?

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45 minutes ago, mzncb said:

And My thought is that some of her most acclaimed peers demolished the livelihood earning potential of many hard-working songwriters.

A much bigger offense (crime) don't ya think?

Britney id that herself, and not only to songwriters but singers too

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40 minutes ago, Brecht said:

Britney id that herself, and not only to songwriters but singers too

That's an impossibility because all the writers who wrote their songs for her to record are enjoying their rightful royalty streams.

The major hit Britney wrote is rightfully credited to her:

 As for Britney Jean, that was wholly commercial failure and would have been a commercial failure with pretty much anyone, unlike the songwriters for hit albums Dangerously in Love, B'Day, I Am...Sasha Fierce,4, Beyonce and Lemonade who's royalties are all ruined and wrecked and whose livelihoods are undoubtedly impaired

So you tell me, which is the greater "crime."?

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