Britney Spears and the Market of Celebrity Meltdowns
Britney Spears may not have become more famous in the past few months, but it certainly seems that way. Press coverage of her every wobbly move seems more pervasive than ever. Once again, Britney Spears is major business. This time, however, her music is not the commodity being exchanged in the marketplace; it's her life, or, to be more precise, the unraveling of her life. In other words, she is losing her mind, and other people are profiting from it.
What does it say about us as people when we delightfully feast on the destruction of one person's life? Why is there so little sympathy for someone who is clearly in the midst of a complete nervous breakdown? Granted, none of us asked to have Britney Spears in our lives, but is this fair payback? Does this merit the glee with which her meltdown is being consumed? We're all so busy ogling her downward spiral that we're forgetting to ask what's brought her to this point.
Spears rose to the top of the charts by commodifying her voice and, more convincingly, her body. Her very being was transformed into a product, but this is standard. The female pop artist is a product, and the product must perform in order to maintain market dominance. Call it Glamour Darwinism. The female pop artist must constantly reinvent herself in order to survive. Take Madonna: she has stayed alive by unveiling a new and improved product every few years. There are exceptions, of course, your Meryl Streeps and Norah Joneses, women who have not had to commodify themselves in order to succeed in showbusiness, but these are two names in a sea of objectification, and it is this sea that Ms. Spears is currently drowning in.
Britney Spears has been reinvented as a defective product. She is New Coke. She is the DeLorean and the Corvair, and she is in the middle of a major factory recall, but unlike GM, she will not have a team of lawyers or managers to bail her out. It's a fire sale, and everything that is Spears must go.
But that doesn't mean people can't make a ton of cash while the ship is sinking. Enter the Disaster Capitalists, the carpetbaggers who have shown up to sell marshmallows fresh-roasted on the Britney bonfire. Meltdowns of the Rich and Famous is a fabulous business model, provided that the rich and famous self-destruct slowly and painfully, the slower the better. The worst nightmare in the minds of those "news outlets" covering Britney's long march to the bottom is that she'll die before they're able to wring every last dollar out of her tattered life. They want a prolonged, videotaped custody battle, more inebriated photo shoots, more dazed live performances, more flab (even though she's hardly fat), more bad songs, more pantless public appearances, perhaps a failed suicide attempt or two during the holidays -- anything except death itself, because they want this product to stay on the market forever, or at least until their profits go down.
This is the sad fate that awaits Britney Spears. No one is looking to understand what's happening to her, no one is looking to help her, everyone simply wants to look, to curl up on the couch and watch the train wreck that is her life. And when the flames have been put out and the paramedics have thrown a sheet over her immolated remains, we'll speed up and be on our merry way, her pain and suffering forgotten before we reach the next rest area.
This isn't simply a matter of "pop stars are people too," or some sappy call for sympathy for a poor little rich girl. This is simply a call for honesty. This is nothing to celebrate or get excited about. This is not a comedy. This is a tragedy, and a common one. People have mental breakdowns and traumatic custody battles every day, and no one asks for it. The fact that it's happening to someone famous should not make any difference.
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"No one is looking to understand what's happening to her, no one is looking to help her, everyone simply wants to look, to curl up on the couch and watch the train wreck that is her life."
Sadly, within the demographic of 'no one' are her family, friends, and manager.
I'm not a fan of Britney, but I do think it's sad and WRONG to allow her to continue. It all begins at home. Mother Spears? Where the hell are you??
EXACTLY - she's another Michael Vick, who seems to have an entourage, not friends... Britney must decide to save herself (thru competent assistance)
TAGLINE - why does Huff Post have ads for Britney photos and videos in the sidebar?
It's no fun watching your life spiral out of control, with no light apparently at the end of the tunnel.
However, as a recovering alcoholic myself, who has been there and hit the bottom--no one is going to help you until you take steps to help yourself. Why should anyone rescue you when you have no investment in recovery and change? They're just throwing their time, energy, and money into a black hole.
Addiction is excruciatingly difficult to overcome. You can't do it alone. But you have to be willing and and an active participant in changing and understanding the behavior. What people are seeing Britney do is constantly CONTINUE with those behaviors--going out every night instead of staying with her sons, getting wasted on God knows what, showing her crotch to every free nation with an AP wire,and so on.
Britney knows enough about this business to be aware of the pitfalls and the packaging. She's not dumb. It's nonsense to say she's been manipulated by the business. Come on. We're all manipulated in our businesses. We've all had to develop our own ways of dealing with and adjusting to life and its challenges. It's just that most of it isn't in the tabloids, thank you very much.
The definition of insanity is, paraphrased, "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
Britney has a healthy income that she will receive for the rest of her life, without ever having to work again. Most of us--addicts or not--don't have that comfort zone. We don't have health insurance. Paying the rent and bills are is a monthly challenge. Vacations? Yeah, right.
We don't get freebies, bling, and swag just for being cute. We don't have nannies and housekeepers making sure our children are fed and safe and cared for.
Britney Spears has all the resources available to change and reclaim a healthy life.
When someone has the ability--and not the will--to take charge and choose to be healthy, but doesn't, that's where my empathy ends.
Rowaenthe
Agreed. From what I've heard, she has cut off all voices of reason - mother, manager, ex, etc... Now she has a judge trying to reason with her and she still doesn't want to listen. Its not that the world wants to watch her train wreck, she just refuses the worlds help, and no one can step in to help her recover unless she decides (a) to recover and (b) to let people help her. So far, there is little sign that she is interested.
The definition of insanity is, paraphrased, "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
Rowaenthe
Actually, insanity is a legal term for people who are found to be not responsible for their actions due to some sort of mental defect.
In the 1800s [& before] insanity might have been seen by society as a condition/illness - but back then fever was considered to be a single disease [[we now know it's a symptom of numerous diseases, and sometimes reactions to medications or overwork in extreme heat].
I think there are plenty of times we do the same thing & get a different result - how many people have gotten a speeding ticket the first time they broke the speed limit? How many people who've gotten a speeding ticket one time never break the speed limit again? How many women have sex with someone with whom they've sometimes had orgasms & sometimes faked orgasms? Every time I open mymailbox, the mixture of bills, letters, checks & appeals for charity is different [and I expect that]
I was speaking parenthetically with that definition, not clinically. Sure, we do the same things here and there and get different results. But when we constantly, continuously, and stubbornly stick to behaviors that are clearly unhealthy, and then bellyache at how awful things are, that's insane. Change the behavior. Then the result, quite likely, will follow suit.
For example: You're a celebrity, you go out to clubs and get pissed five nights out of seven, and the paps are always there to take pictures of you falling in a bleeding heap on the sidewalk. You don't want that to keep happening? Stop going to the clubs. Stop getting drunk. You'll likely stop falling down, and the paps won't have a picture to take.
It ain't quantum physics.
As with many bad things in America there is only one person to blame, Walt Disney.
If his show, Mickey Mouse Club, had not recruited a young impressionable Britney who knows what kind of wonderful person she could have become.
Disney could learn a thing or two from the modern day Britney. If their icon, Mickey Mouse, were to pull his pants down on stage maybe we would start talking about him again.
Sorry, I don't think you can blame the train wreck that is Britney Spears on Disney. Years BEFORE Britney worked on the 1990s MMC, momma Lynne sent her to the "tender mercies" of Bela Karolyi in Houston TX to become a world-class gymnast. (For those who might not know, Karolyi was famous for denigrating and literally starving his young female students.) Britney was allowed to come home to LA only after she cried and begged.
Bottom line, Britney Spears is a mess because her childhood was stolen from her by her stage mother. Other similar messes are Michael Jackson (who is probably messed up beyond hope at this point) and Lindsay Lohan (who appears to actually be trying to save herself this THIRD time in rehab).
I don't enjoy watching Britney Spears' demise. I have never been a fan of her music but at this point she reminds me of a diabetic who is nearing a deadly low-blood-sugar coma - she's so stupefied that she's pushing away anyone who could help her. I think she's in real danger of committing suicide most likely by drug overdose. I don't wish that on anyone ... Cindy
I am not enjoying watching the Trainwreck
Many people, family and professionals, have attempted to help this young woman. She refuses to be helped. Her parents need to find a way to have her placed into a locked facility
and WE most definitely do not need to hear another word about her.
she continues to make a choice to play this out for the public and make a spectacle of herself. It is actually quite humilitating to watch her.
Most people who go through this don't have Britney Spears' resources. Most people drag their families down with them before they reach bottom - or die. Such a hellish experience should not be treated as entertainment; that smacks of viewing Christians vs. Lions in the Roman Coliseum. Perhaps most of us have lost all compassion for others. I hope not, but sometimes I wonder if we are not lost as a nation.
Most people I know don't want to hear about Britney Spears and never did. The problem is, she is apparently a role model for young girls. This does not make me sad, but rather very angry. This woman is making, according to a comment above, $800,000 per month, presumably from sales of records, etc. to this young teenage girl fan base. She has a responsibility to at least try to act like some kind of positive role model, with that kind of salary. And now two children of her own in the mix? Don't feel sorry for her. She is self-destructing by choice.
Sorry, Mike, but I’m finding it difficult to feel for young Miss Spears’ situation with the same sense of sympathy that you obviously feel. I take no pleasure in hearing of her meltdown but when I think of how much of this is self-inflicted, particularly when she had such a chance to shine at the VMAs, it’s a little difficult to feel any sympathy at all.
Let’s face facts, at best this is a mediocre singer who would have difficulty passing the auditions at American Idol let alone hanging in there week after week surviving on pure talent singing live. I’m not even sure I know what her voice actually sounds like.
She’s a product, sure, and she was packaged and marketed with great success, but you can’t con an audience with pap and what looks like barely legal sexual teasing indefinitely. I’m sure if ever a time capsule representing the best in entertainment for the new millennium is ever created, the collected works of Britney Spears may well be absent. The packaging has fallen apart and is no longer deliverable.
I understand she still earns about $80,000 a month. Time’s up. How about retiring, putting her clothes back on, getting her life together in private and getting an education?
That's $800,000 per month
Thank you for your post. Our culture has become so cynical and cruel -- it takes my breath away at times.
Diane - You obviously have lived in a bubble previously - our society has always been real - flaws and all - especially if you're famous and spend your life screaming, "Look at me, look at me!"
"You obviously have lived in a bubble previously" Really....
The music biz is brutal. Almost no one stays around for long. I would not lump Madonna into the mix with Spears. Madonna is talented. Many a music critic will back this up. One only has to google the reviews for most of her CD's to understand Madonna is a serious songwriter, singer, musician and performer. She hasn't survived by just "reinventing" herself. That is such myth. I don't know anybody who has bought a Madonna CD because she changed her hairstyle or color. She has great music at attested to the fact that it seems most people don't like Madonna the persona but they like her music. Spears is devoid of any real talent. Her expiration date has come up. She, being the new Hollywood, cannot accept herself out of the spotlight for 5 seconds.
Madonna has always only been as good as her producer. The one time she tried to take the reins of her work with American Life it was a dismal failure. Madonna herself tried to make Britney her heir apparent with that infamous kiss on the VMAs. Britney is merely following in Madonna's footsteps of style over substance. The only difference is that Madonna is more overtly ambitious than Britney.
In fact, it's questionable if this so-called music career of Britney's was ever really her idea at all. It seems that with Britney, as with Paris and Lindsay, that they are the daughters of mothers who try to live vicariously through their children's achievements. Stage mothers who have used their children to get the notoriety they themselves were unable to get for their aging selves. If Britney (and many other pop artists) actually found comfort in their own art they would use their music to try to cope with their all-to-human hardships instead of partying the pain away without a care.
And there lies the difference between a Britney Spears and Norah Jones (and thousands of other equally deserving female vocalists who go un-noticed because the Britneys of the world are stealing the limelight from those far more deserving of attention). Norah Jones and Lucinda Williams and Cat Power, etc. could care less about their sales or appearances on the VMAs to prove that their still relevent. They have their music to escape to and each use it try to understand the complexities of life. Music first, image (if at all) takes a back seat. Britney, taking her cue from Madonna, believes in image above all else. Problem is is that she's not nearly as creative (when it comes to manifesting an image) as Madonna.
I'm glad Britney's self-destructing. She is an adult and it is all a result of her own choices. Maybe when we get fluff like her out of the way, then young girls can have real female artists to look up to.
You have to be kidding me. Britney has sold over 30 million records world wide. She may not appeal to you but she has certainly has appealed to others which I believe that takes talent of kind???
You are glad she is self destructing???? what kind of animal are you to wish that on any human being unless you wish you had her problems?? This is not an issue of Britney Spears, but an issue with the hate mongers of all kind. You also sound like a person who denounced Barney since he was so popular too.
I feel sorry for anyone who self destructs and loses their path. Is it different from your next door neighbor who you may feel superior to or is that she is just rich.
A very sad statement.
LOLOLOL What unadulterated crap. Madonna has ALWAYS produced her own stuff. Always. I mean, do you people like make crap up because this is the internet? Madonna has been style AND substance. You can type that she isn't all day long, the critics disagree wholeheartedly. Madonna is a well-known and well-regarded songwriter, composer and producer. Why, there is a new biography about her dealing with HER WORK. All the producers AND musicians she has ever worked with go on and on about how remarkable she is in the studio. Funny how people Madonna works with never have much in the way of hits without her. She is known for writing killer melodies. So, really, spare us the thoroughly debunked nonsense.
As for Britney following in Madonna's footsteps: Madonna has never been a drug user nor drinker. She stayed clean. Perhaps Brit followed in Whitney Houston's footsteps but not Madonna's. Brit's voice is as thin as Janet Jackson's though.
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