Framing Blackout, Framing Circus
A Sketch of Britney’s Music in 2007-09
By Abigail J. Villarroel
The release of the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears, has commenced a collective reckoning among members of the public and media alike. The documentary illustrates the rise to fame and media coverage Britney Spears enjoyed through the 00s, but it sheds light to the blatant misogyny she suffered at the hands of the press, and how years of mistreatment ended in a conservatorship; a legal state where financial dependence is delegated to her father. In this reckoning, as a long-term Britney fan, I've been reflecting on the music that came out of those turbulent years between 2007-09.
In revisiting her work, I found some of her most compelling work in 2008’s Blackout. Revered as a crowning achievement in her career, the LP is an ode to electronic pop, a non-stop party tinted with irreverence, and manic soundscapes expertly-produced to become earworms. The opening, Gimme More, is a very blatant manifesto of how the media was devouring her image, invading her privacy, and at several points taking hold of her narrative. Similarly, Piece of Me chronicles that very chase by 'The Culture' to tear her down, piece by piece, weaponizing her youth, gender, and success (once revered qualities) to villainize her. It’s impossible to come away from the music without feeling the undercurrent of darkness that surrounded her life at this time, closing in at every turn, and raiding itself into the subject matter of these songs.
We also have the adrenaline-fueled love songs, like Break The Ice, Ooh Ooh Baby, Perfect Lover, songs that break from reality, where she becomes a femme fatale of sorts (a theme further explored in 2011’s Femme Fatale LP). Placing herself in scenarios where her own desire is at the forefront, and her passions can run wild with a suitor of her fancying. The pace of these is brisk, bursting verses, think of the bridge on Ooh Ooh Baby (“Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby”) beleaguering the point but making it like a hypnotizing fever high, for herself and the audience alike.
My favourite offering however, Get Naked (I Got A Plan), features producer Danja’s voice quite heavily, and I remember listening to this song for the first time, imagining a dispassionate Britney, delivering the verses with limp energy, saying the words “get naked” and a couple of feminized yeahs and aahs, and having to leave the studio early with a trail of paparazzi promptly following behind her. Leaving Danja to fill the empty spaces of this unfinished canvas with his own vision, and at times literally his own voice. Of course, this view lends itself to the narrative that Blackout’s success was a result of producers, which I would caution against. Yes, Britney does at times feel sparce, her presence can be brief (Freakshow) or even robotic in the delivery (Toy Soldier), but when push comes to shove, she in the room, taking us to the unnerving world of Blackout, elusive as ever
Circus is in my opinion a softer descendant of Blackout, her presence feels centered, consistently delivering to various degrees of success. Commercially the album was a bigger success than Blackout too, the singles Womanizer, Circus, and If U Seek Amy are now Britney staples in the public consciousness. They are measured pop songs, keeping the digital tuning and some signature Blackout sounds, whilst also shedding the constant pulsating beats with a bit more theater and control. The cohesiveness of Blackout felt like the choice of producers in Britney’s absence, Circus variation felt more like the conscious decision of an artist back on the steering wheel.
The warped sound of Britney’s voice on the Kill The Lights chorus, a song addressing her relationship with the paparazzi in a deeply ironic, venomous way, feels so exciting. Her unashamed playfulness in Phonography and Mm Papi are joyful glimpses to what we now understand to be a very controlled existence, driven by greed and exploitation. The song Mannequin comes to mind, and under her conservatorship it takes on a whole new meaning, or perhaps an old meaning we’ve just caught up on. These undeniable bops have become bittersweet vignettes of her unsettling legal state, but as a fan I can only applaud the labors of a young woman with a world firmly against her. Rising above a witchhunt and creating some of the most memorable pop music of the 00s.
