The saga that unfolds in her two album epic is the key to unlocking the door into the mind of Britney Spears. Each song is masterfully designed to appear meaningless and trivial to the uneducated masses, but the subtle clews of her deepest motivations are suspended right below the surface and are readily apparent with the proper amount of ratiocination.
From her early days when the other kids laughed and called her B.J. Spears, Britney has struggled with identifying, accepting, and ultimately earning respect from others for her sexual identity. In my analysis of Baby One More Time, one the important themes is the lack of control Britney feels, and her inability to take control of her sexuality: "Show me how you want it to be, tell me baby 'cause I need to know now." These words imply a lack of importance to how Britney wants it to be: she naturally assumes a submissive role, with absolutely no desire or ability to be assertive. In fact, her desire to please overrides all over concerns: "Oh pretty baby, there's nothing I wouldn't do."
Though this helplessness leads to physical abuse, which she perversely enjoys, a more traumatic experience is evident in "You Drive Me Crazy," which threatens her very sanity. Her infatuation with this subject causes such a jumble of emotions and contradictions that she is driven crazy, literally. (She also experiences problems with insomnia ["Baby thinking of you keeps me up all night," "crazy, I just can't sleep."])
But perhaps one of the most inportant songs one can analyse is "Sometimes" (playing now). In this song, Britney really tries to let loose and share her deepest emotions with her fans. We can see her humanity so clearly. Just read: "Sometimes I run, Sometimes I hide, Sometimes I'm scared of you, But all I really want to do is hold you tight, Treat you right." Britney's confusion of emotions is palpable. In this song, Britney also tells of her childhood traumatic experience: "there's things about me you just have to know." What are you hiding, Britney? This is one of the most emotionally impacting moments of the song. She hides behind a shroud of mystery. Obviously something terrible happened in her life that put her in this state of helpless agony and insomnia. The fact that whatever this was is too scary for her to even tell to someone she "trusts" so much indicates the extent and depth of the emotional scar left on her soul.
So from 3 of her hit songs off BOMT, we can see her sad situation. She really has nowhere to go but up, but it will be a long, hard journey. Britney must learn to overcome her fears of inadequacy, and though she has her successes in the next album, OIDIA, the same themes pop up in songs like "Lucky."
But in her song "Stronger" we see the new Britney. Compare: from "Baby One More Time," she sings, "My loneliness Is killing me;" in "Stronger," she sings, "My lonliness ain't killing me no more." The progress she makes is evident.
Now, I said the journey would be long and hard, and it is, but at least Britney is trying: "I try, and I try, and I try, and I try." That was from Britney's cover of the Rolling Stones "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)." Now even though Britney didn't write this song, the fact that she chose to sing it reveals her inner motivation as well. What does she mean when she says she can't get no (air quotes) "satisfaction"? Viewed in the context of this analysis, it is clear that this means Britney's experimentation with sexual independence is having trouble. But the important thing is that she is trying, even though her efforts may not come to fruition.
Ultimately, "Oops I Did it Again" is a failure for Britney Spears, but failure is to be expected when coming of age, and that is what Britney's career has reflected so far. She enters the big world as a frightnened young girl in BOMT and struggles with the various emotions, and is now trying to cope in OIDIA. As I said before in my analysis of BOMT, Britney is looking for God, but this quest for spirituality has been wrapped up in and confused with her blossoming sexuality, and both end up being a search for a master, one to control every aspect of her life. Thankfully, Britney recognizes the err of her desires as she grows up a little in her sophomore album. What does Britney have in store for us next? I predict that she breaks free and her third album will revolutionize the way modern scholars view her. Britney, the woman, will take control of her life and be her own master.
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