boykrazee_201
Oct 25th, 2003, 10:19 AM
By Phil Kloer
Cox News Service
ATLANTA -- No less an authority than Kelly Osbourne can see it. "Britney Spears has no musical culture," she told a morning radio show in Atlanta on Wednesday.
Exactly what Osbourne was dissing about Spears -- taste, talent, historical perspective -- may not be clear. But the sentiment nails it: The empress has no clothes, unless you count underpants, the only thing she wears in a photo spread in the current Esquire magazine and on the cover of a recent Rolling Stone.
Spears has a new single on the radio, "Me Against the Music," a sultry video of the same just out on MTV featuring Madonna, and her fourth CD, "In the Zone," due out next month. She's doing everything she can to promote it, which means kissing Madonna at last month's MTV Video Music Awards and posing provocatively.
But as she has pranced and preened through her short, five-year career, Spears has gone from being a singer with a sexy image to being a sexy image who sings. And not all that well -- just try finding her real voice buried in the filters and overdubs on "Me Against the Music."
Much has been made of the ongoing Madonna-Britney pairing, as if it were some generational passing of the torch (or the tongues, as the case may be). But Madonna in her heyday showed a whip-smart devilment in her manipulation of the public and the media. She's also a decent songwriter and has done a number of songs that stand up over time.
Spears hasn't taken a page from Madonna, she's taken half a page -- the half that says "Strike a pose, there's nothing to it." She's so perfectly suface-y that glossy magazine covers are her natural home; no need to make any more music, just keep the photo shoots coming, and hardly anyone will notice.
One bright spot, at least, is that young girls no longer seem to be mimicking Spears' (un)dress style as much as they used to. The tweens have moved on to 16-year-old pop singer-actress Hilary Duff, who at least dresses and acts more age-appropriate for young fans.
Spears, meanwhile, has gone from bubble gum to jittery dance club beats. She's an adult music star now, sort of in the same way use the term "adult film star."
At least fellow princess Jessica Simpson seems to understand her role. Simpson, who's promoting her music and her hilarious hit MTV reality show "Newlyweds," slyly plays on her dim-bulb image in her latest video.
Spears, however, misperceives herself as the artiste.
"The record label wanted me to do certain kinds of songs and I was like, 'Look, if you want me be some kind of sex thing, that's not me.' I will never do that," Spears says in Esquire, even as she's pulling her underwear waistband low enough to prove she has no tan lines, as well as no musical culture.
Cox News Service
ATLANTA -- No less an authority than Kelly Osbourne can see it. "Britney Spears has no musical culture," she told a morning radio show in Atlanta on Wednesday.
Exactly what Osbourne was dissing about Spears -- taste, talent, historical perspective -- may not be clear. But the sentiment nails it: The empress has no clothes, unless you count underpants, the only thing she wears in a photo spread in the current Esquire magazine and on the cover of a recent Rolling Stone.
Spears has a new single on the radio, "Me Against the Music," a sultry video of the same just out on MTV featuring Madonna, and her fourth CD, "In the Zone," due out next month. She's doing everything she can to promote it, which means kissing Madonna at last month's MTV Video Music Awards and posing provocatively.
But as she has pranced and preened through her short, five-year career, Spears has gone from being a singer with a sexy image to being a sexy image who sings. And not all that well -- just try finding her real voice buried in the filters and overdubs on "Me Against the Music."
Much has been made of the ongoing Madonna-Britney pairing, as if it were some generational passing of the torch (or the tongues, as the case may be). But Madonna in her heyday showed a whip-smart devilment in her manipulation of the public and the media. She's also a decent songwriter and has done a number of songs that stand up over time.
Spears hasn't taken a page from Madonna, she's taken half a page -- the half that says "Strike a pose, there's nothing to it." She's so perfectly suface-y that glossy magazine covers are her natural home; no need to make any more music, just keep the photo shoots coming, and hardly anyone will notice.
One bright spot, at least, is that young girls no longer seem to be mimicking Spears' (un)dress style as much as they used to. The tweens have moved on to 16-year-old pop singer-actress Hilary Duff, who at least dresses and acts more age-appropriate for young fans.
Spears, meanwhile, has gone from bubble gum to jittery dance club beats. She's an adult music star now, sort of in the same way use the term "adult film star."
At least fellow princess Jessica Simpson seems to understand her role. Simpson, who's promoting her music and her hilarious hit MTV reality show "Newlyweds," slyly plays on her dim-bulb image in her latest video.
Spears, however, misperceives herself as the artiste.
"The record label wanted me to do certain kinds of songs and I was like, 'Look, if you want me be some kind of sex thing, that's not me.' I will never do that," Spears says in Esquire, even as she's pulling her underwear waistband low enough to prove she has no tan lines, as well as no musical culture.