I can’t keep up with pop culture. Who is the current big pop star? Let’s see, there was Miley Cyrus, who tried to outdo all the other bad girls and succeeded, and bad boy, Justin Bieber. Taylor Swift is considered a pop singer now. Compared to others, she is a saint and her primary vice, as far as I know, is trashing ex-boyfriends by writing songs about them.

I’m so out of step with reality that I’m still trying to figure out the success of Britney Spears. I sort of ignored her, figuring what’s one more pop star. I lived through Farah Fawcett-Majors. What could be worse that that? Ms. Spears was one of the youngest ever to achieve her level of musical success, which created somewhat of a sensation in the music world.

Britney was pretty enough, a stringy headed blond. But her main attraction, aside from her musical talent, was her controversial belly button. Her belly was displayed on most of her promotional pictures where she favored low-rise pants and crop tops. There is nothing much that can be done with a belly button except to add a belly ring – which she did, in case you care.

Whether or not she has breast implants was another major topic for discussion and speculation on social media for a while. Indeed, Ms. Spears is well endowed and was unusually fond of displaying her attributes. She was a typical adolescent discovering the power of sexuality, you say. But in her case the entire world was watching.

Like other pop stars, she had numerous fan websites created by fans who discuss her with intelligent and articulate statements, such as, “She’s so cool.” or conversely, “She sucks.”  I checked out the browser-crashing official website to see if I could discover any relevant information. Britney’s bio started with her career as a super gymnastic athlete, a career abruptly ended when she lost interest at the ripe old age of 9, just prior to reaching for Olympic stardom – great loss, I’m sure.

She then focused on her singing and dancing talent. She tried out for Mickey Mouse Club, but was “too young.” Someone at Disney slipped a bug in her mama’s ear to go to New York and get an agent, which her mama immediately did. Does the word “stage mother” enter your mind, or is it just me? Anyhow, after being polished and hardened for a few years, she was ready for the big time and got a job as a Disney Mouse for two years until the show folded. After a whole year of (Can you believe this?) “ordinary life,” she struck it big with a record album and the rest is – as they say – history.

As a packaged teen queen, she was exploited and marketed to the hilt. She was worshiped by teens that spend their allowances and lunch money on music downloads. All sorts of products, posters, T-shirts, dolls, records, anything a teenager might want to buy to show their love for Britney was available. The amazing thing was that teen girls loved her pretty face and music while teenage boys thought she would marry them some day — all of them, I guess.

So that’s the story on Britney Spears. With every album, she tried to sound more sexy to titillate teen hormones and get fans to spend more money so she could get even richer. She and mama even wrote a book. After several marriages, several children, and some highly publicized mental health problems, Ms. Spears is trying to prove herself as a mature singer and still performs concerts in Las Vegas and goes on tours.

If she were my kid, I would have told her to wash her face, put some clothes on, and to go to college and wise up. But, I guess when your face is on magazines, your records are at the top of the charts, and you are rolling in the dough, you can do whatever you want. That’s a side benefit of wealth and popularity and the privilege of a princess of pop.

Copyright 2001-2017 Sheila Moss
Revised and Updated