I will be analysing Britney Spears changing image. Britney Spears is an American artist; she is very successful and known worldwide. She has had 6 different albums, starting in 1999 until 2000. She is a major pop icon, having sold over 32 million albums by 2007, and being ranked the 13th most powerful celebrity, earning over $35 million in one year. She has worked on pop, and has been known as the ‘pop princess’. Her image over the years has drastically changed, with the media covering it all.
Britney’s career started off with the Disney channel, on a show called ‘The new Mickey mouse club’ from 1993 to 1994. She then signed a record contract which was the start of her career.
Her first single was ‘Hit me baby one more time’. This was released in 1999 when she was just 17 years old; it became the 25th most successful British song. Her target audience were teens, and so everything about Britney was very traditional pop to appeal to them. She had snappy dance routines and a very catchy upbeat pop song. She was presented as very innocent, angelic teenager. Her first music video was ‘Hit me baby one more time’, and the whole video was set in a school with Britney in a school girls outfit. The video shows her a student, she is shown as sweet and innocent, with her hair in bunches and fluffy hair bands. However, her image wasn’t all just really sweet, she was being shown as a teenager, within her video she has her school uniform tied up and adjusted, so as well she is ‘trendy’ and ‘in’. It was said that her image after a photo shoot in this year was 'disturbing mix of childhood innocence and adult sexuality'.
Britney’s image has gradually changed since then. For years her image remained the same, of this young, sweet teenager. With video’s such as ‘born to make you happy’ and ‘crazy’, all showing her as a nice, talented happy young girl. Most of her video’s are per formative which has stayed the same through the years. They always include her dancing, which links strongly with the genre of pop. She plays herself in all her videos, from early to late; this seems to be something that has stayed the same. With all focus always on her and her performative skills.
When she released her second album, ‘oops I did it again’, her image was still that of a sweet nice girl, which is exactly how the music label wanted to sell her, to attract her younger fans. Her music style stayed the same, with the same ‘dance pop’ and ‘sentimental ballads’ that made up her first album. Even though she had always been presented as sweet and lovely, there were elements when she showed to be more grown up. For example, on her tour she wore a nude outfit which took everyone by surprise and caused controversy. They didn’t expect such a innocent role model to do this.
Britney helped to write her 3rd album, and even though it was not as successful as the rest, it was said that ‘pivotal moments on Britney Spears's third album, the record where she strives to deepen her persona, making it more adult while still recognizably Britney’. During this album, the songs moved a little away from the cheesy pop that everyone was used to, however there was still major links to the younger Britney. For example, one of her top hits from this album was ‘slave for you’. This song wasn’t as ‘cheesy’ as the others, and showed her growing up. Also, the video very different to her others, as it was more grown up with Britney wearing much more adult costumes and the idea of the video a lot more edgy than her previous. After this album, Britney took a 6 month break. During this time, Britney’s private life was under the scope. She broke up with boyfriend Justin Timberlake and the media became very interested in her.
In 2002 when she returned, her image was much more grown up. She did a performance live with alive caged animals, dancing with snakes around her. In another live performance she kissed with Madonna public, which was covered by the media highly. This was when a new side of Britney was seen, moving far away from the childlike teen, into a much more grown up. Her next album showed this change, it wasn’t the cheesy fun loving pop music that people knew from her; it was more R&B typed music.
She continued releasing this type of music, with her doing cover songs such as ‘my prerogative’ and having a much more grown up image. She became very much a figure of looking, and her image was more edgy and rough than the previous years.
2006 was the changing year for her. By this time she had been married, divorced and had 2 children. A custody battle started for the two children between her and her husband. She didn’t release any music, and she became a target for the media. Her behavior started to become erratic, starting with driving with her son on her lap. The media were highly critical of her, and she had nothing in private. Her image down spiraled; with the once always glamorous and spotless Britney becoming much more casual and laid back. Her image of perfect spotless Britney had changed to messy and causal. This changed her image completely. She smoked, drunk, her appearance drastically changed. She died her hair, put on weight and generally wasn’t looking after herself like she used to. Her behavior was the main factor that changed her image and proved that the shy innocent girl was far away. She was found smashing journalist’s cars with umbrellas swearing at journalists; she shaved her hair off completely in public. This was covered by the media and was in the middle of her breakdown. This action has become her motif, and all these actions are all what people remember with her. She was charged with a hit & run and accused of drinking and taking drugs. She also lost the custody battle, and her husband was in charge of the kids. She spend a few times in re-hab, however her behavior not changing. In 2008 she was sectioned involuntary. This was reported all over the world. All these events affected her image drastically, and showed that Britney was very different now than a few years ago. It was almost the opposite of how she started off. One reason why I think she was so successful in her early career was that she was a good role model for young teens. She was also the only female pop soloist and brought pop music in again. She was a pop princess, bringing music for younger generations. Her music was upbeat, fun and very successful. However, she started from a young age and became very famous and well known, her growing up was in the eyes of the public. This had an effect on her, by making her breakdown.
Since she was sectioned, her actions have calmed down. There was one very bad performance of her miming her number one live on MTV, which people were very critical of; however since this, Britney’s image seems to have settled more. Now, she is seen working hard and producing good pop music again. She is now being shown as having some attitude, however nothing like the dirtiness and edge with her previous album. She is being represented as being calm and back on track, with the songs improving and containing the ‘Britney spark’ that her original songs had. Her image now is much more positive and looking forward, which she is defiantly being shown as.
The image of Britney spears has gone up and down in the public’s eyes, however now it seems to be back on track again. She recently, 2008, released two new successful albums. Her image is far away from the original days; her music is a positive, upbeat style. Even though her career started to get back on tracks, and her image was improving again, people are still very interested in her personal life. She has had a number of unsuccessful relationships, but is in the middle of a successful sold out world tour. She seems to be back on track again, through the ups and downs of her well documented life. She has grown up and developed fully in the eyes of the public, who have judged her since she was young. The pressures of being such a famous young star may be the explanation to why she has such a changing image. However, she is definitely back on track with her career and life, with a much more positive image than previously.
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