Tuesday, February 27, 2007

It took shaving her head and getting photographed whacking at a car with an umbrella in the middle of the night, but Britney Spears finally gave me a reason to care about her: she has a problem.

(A story, in my book, is generally: (a) a person with (b) an opportunity, problem or goal (c) who faces obstacles and/or an antagonist, and (d) has something to lose (jeopardy) and (e) something to gain (stakes). And I do love a story.)

This WaPo article claims

If the 25-year-old pop star were to try to come back, he said, she would have to apologize, show some introspection, beg forgiveness for crumbling in front of us all, even if it is the fault of the culture that makes child stars grow up too fast.

But no. She doesn't have to apologize. (Except to the owner of the car, obviously.) She never had a responsibility to her fans to be a regular joe. Or even a good Mom.

(She has a responsibility to her kids to be a good Mom. But that's between her and them.)

What she has to do to come back, and to save herself, is focus on the work. Somewhere she seems to have forgotten that she is a pop star because she's a singer. Being a pop star will not save you. But music can save you.

Just go back to the studio, work long hard days making songs perfect, play small unannounced dates once in a while, and remember that only the music will survive. The music will start to fill the hole in your soul.

For me, it's my family, but before I had the family, it was the writing that kept me relatively sane.

Okay, that's enough caring about Britney.

Labels: character

12:24 PM

2 Comments:

Yeah, she does have a problem. She got rich enough that she doesn't have to hear the word no anymore. That's a lot like Bush's situation, he just got there by other means (though you could argue the money angle too, I wouldn't.)

I'd venture to guess that if someone took all of her money away and made her survival (food) dependent on a normal job, she'd straighten things out in a year, probably less.

Same thing with Lohan.

Sadly, she was so obscenely popular for that short time that she'll probably never be in that situation, even if she snorts and drinks her fortune away until she's 90.

Anna Nicole 2.0, maybe.

By  Paul William Tenny, at 1:24 PM  

She isn't much of a singer. This basic fact has been glossed over by the pop culture hype machine. Christine Aguilera, should she crash and burn, can go back in the studio and concentrate on making perfect songs. Whitney Houston could (still can?).

Britney never really had it, so she can't get it back.

By  odocoileus, at 7:45 PM  

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