BRITNEY SPEARS’S GLORIOUS RETURN? Feminism and Pop Music Industry
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1 BRITNEY SPEARS’S GLORIOUS RETURN? Feminism and Pop Music Industry 본 자료는 저작권 법에 의해 보호되는 저작물로, Ringle사에 저작권이 존재합니다. 해당 자료에 대한 무단 복제/배포를 금하며, 해당 자료로 수익을 얻거나 이에 상응하는 혜택을 누릴 시 Ringle과 사전 협의가 없는 경우 고소/고발 조치될 수 있습니다. 2 Intro Yes Britney is back! And guess what, the new album’s title is “Glory.” Does this signal her glorious return? Wait, did you grow up listening to Britney’s music? How did you first discover her? Do you have a favorite song of hers? She sure is an icon but do you think her music has feminist message too? First, watch her new music video for “Make Me” in slide 6 and share your impression with your Ringle tutor. Then read the article in slide 9-11 and learn how she is maintaining relevant. Finally, read one more article in slide 14-17 to think about her relationship with feminism and what feminism means in the pop music industry. Have fun! 3 BRITNEY & YOU Did/do you like Britney Spears? What is your favorite song of hers? 4 Do you have a favorite Britney Spears song? How did you first get to know her and when? 5 Introducing “Make Me” 6 “Make Me” by Britney Spears Watch it on Youtube 7 Food for Thought Exchange your ideas with the tutor. THREE ADJECTIVES If you are to describe this song with three adjectives, which ones would you choose and why? COMPARISON WITH HER OTHER SONGS Aesthetically speaking, how would you compare this song with her other songs? INTERACTION BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN How are women and men interacting in the music video? Does anything stand out to you? THUMBS UP OR DOWN? To sum up, how do you like the song? 8 How Britney Spears Stays Relevant 9 How Britney Spears Stays Relevant There were two kinds of pop stars in the ’80s: Those who scratched out hits as fast as possible until their batteries gave out, and those who moved with surgical precision, working through new looks and sounds, before vanishing for years to restructure. There were stars who shone bright and fast, like freestyle music luminary Lisa Lisa, who logged two platinum albums and a string of memorable singles including “I Wonder If I Take You Home” and “Head to Toe” in the space of three years, then tumbled down the charts for good. On the other end of the spectrum, there were the Janet Jacksons and Madonnas who, every three or four years, checked in with a vibrant, personal, political album armed with enough singles to keep them on the charts and terrestrial radio while they toured, recorded more, or just plain took time off. The most successful acts this century — Rihanna, Beyoncé, etc. — have followed the latter path to sustained renown. But the freedom of a radically changed music industry has afforded new avenues to continued relevance that weren’t available 30 years ago. New releases yesterday from Britney Spears illustrates ways to hold court outside of the pomp and circumstance that pop regency demands. Britney Spears is not spoken of with the hushed respect reserved for pop royalty, but she’s had a No. 1 single in the ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s, giving the lie to the notion of a short shelf life for stars of late ’90s bubblegum pop. Her only peers in that respect are Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, fellow Mickey Mouse Club alumni whose singing careers outlived the death of TRL and the birth of digital piracy. 10 How Britney Spears Stays Relevant Now, Spears lacks both Timberlake’s rep as a capable songwriter and a powerhouse voice like Aguilera’s. What keeps her afloat is tenacity, a network of diehards, and a keen sense of what’s new and hot. Her albums don’t always hit the mark, but they always notch a hit. But even amid the success of 2013’s goofy, charming “Work Bitch,” Spears’s last album, Britney Jean, garnered negative reviews and floundering sales. A two-year Vegas residency following its release gave rise to suspicion that the Louisiana singer was ready to embrace a future as a nostalgia revue. This summer, Spears’s return was hinted at over a tantalizing network of teaser trailers and surprise late- night appearances. In July, she sneakily used an ad for a new Kohl’s exclusive fragrance as a ruse to release the new single “Private Show.” Weeks later, she snuck into Jimmy Kimmel’s bedroom with a troupe of male dancers to wake him up by performing the woozy new G-Eazy duet “Make Me…” for a prank segment on his show. The hijinx helped: The song peaked at No. 17. Her new album, Glory, is out now, and its team of collaborators is savvy: Lady Gaga’s Artpop cohort Nick Monson, Norwegian electronic beatsmith Cashmere Cat, rising Swedish writer-producer duo Mattman & Robin, and T-Pain associate Young Fyre all provide sounds that match the triumph of the album title. “Just Luv Me” is a tropical house bop that’ll crush at radio when it’s ready. Spears tiptoes around her upper register for “Private Show” and comes away with a confident, soulful performance. The reward for the singer’s care in slipping out of her comfort zone while keeping her sights trained on radio is that Glory is one of her best outings in nearly a decade. 11 How Britney Spears Stays Relevant Britney Spears’s gravity-defying hit parade is anomaly unique to the current state of the music industry. Glory made clever use of viral marketing to rekindle excitement in and outside of Spears’s fan base in the wake of worries she’d run out of steam. Very little of this was possible even ten years ago, when festivals like Coachella were just finding their footing, and YouTube was in its infancy. In 2016, with artists maneuvering through a music industry that spills out out over TV, film, the internet, and (perhaps too many) festival stages worldwide, we shouldn’t speak of pop stardom as a game of queens, kings, and peasants, but also of lords and ladies, and dukes and duchesses. Source: Vulture 12 Food for Thought Exchange your ideas with the tutor. TWO CATEGORIES OF POP STARS The author of the article categorizes pop stars into two groups. How are their career trajectory different? COMPARISON WITH HER PEERS How is Britney Spears compared with other bubble gum pop stars or the alumni of Mickey Mouse Club (Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera? HER STRATEGY What is Britney Spears’ strategy to remain relevant in the pop music industry? K-POP STARS? Are there K-pop stars who have been maintaining their career for nearly two decades or more? What can other pop stars learn from her career? 13 Britney Spears is Absolutely a Feminist Issue 14 Britney Spears Is Absolutely a Feminist Issue Now that we’ve heard the leaked version of Britney Spears’s new album, Glory— officially out on Friday — fans know it lives up to its name: Britney’s back, b*tches. But being a pop star, particularly a female one, has changed dramatically since Spears' last true glory days, the early aughts. Namely, the job description has somehow added one major bullet point: Be a feminist leader. With Beyoncé leading the charge, Taylor Swift, Lorde, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez, among others, have fallen into formation to pick up some of Gloria Steinem’s slack. Spears has neither discussed nor demonstrated any feminist tendencies, beyond a few girl-power lyrics that were as controversial as being pro-puppy. (“Stronger than yesterday, now it’s nothing but my way!”) Her first video from Glory, for the single “Make Me,” takes a cutesy, weak stab at something vaguely feminist by, as we’d say in the women’s studies department, pandering to the female gaze — i.e. parading a lot of shirtless men around in addition to, as usual, objectifying Britney’s sick-as-ever bod. So how does she fit into the 2016 pop landscape full of aspiring Friedans and de Beauvoirs? By reminding us that sometimes pop music can be a simple respite from complicated lives — three minutes of ear candy extolling the pleasures of good sex or mourning mundane heartbreak. That said, Spears as a cultural phenomenon has plenty of feminist food for thought. 15 Britney Spears Is Absolutely a Feminist Issue In the early 2010s, it became the thing for interviewers to ask female pop stars: “Are you a feminist?” Whatever the answer, it made headlines; feminist sites railed against stars who didn’t embrace the label, and anti-feminists rolled their eyes at those who did. (Meanwhile, no one asked Justins Bieber and Timberlake where they stood on gender equality.) Spears was giving few interviews at the time, and media seemed to have decided to go easy on her after her 2007 breakdown — more on that in a bit — so she never faced this particular question. Then Beyoncé’s self titled 2013 album delivered the Big Bang of pop star feminism. First Bey extensively sampled Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk defining feminism in the song “***Flawless,” then she performed at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards with the word "FEMINIST" in lights behind her, and thus it was ordained: All female pop stars must now be feminist. As a feminist, I still get choked up thinking about those moments. It continues to cheer me when I find myself in my Beyoncé dance class with a room full of women as Adichie urges each of us to be “a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.” But I don’t need every pop star to serve as my go-to feminist theorist.