And why should we care?
She is the best demonstration for the way our culture exploits young people and then mocks them. I remember when Britney was presented as cutting edge and daring. Now she has become a white trash joke and the process was predictable. Just as it was with Elvis so is it now with Britney only Spears faces the dark night of her career without actual talent on which to fall back. New moms who love Britney know they have been set up for appropriate mockery from their children.
The four stages of a pop culture career contain two key turning points:
I. You are Discovered. (There is nothing much to be done here. The industry always needs new blood to drive money making. Talent is not needed. Looks are not needed. Both can help.)
II. You are a Star.
III. You need a Second Act. (Here is where talent helps. The talented can choose to develop as artists and become of actual interest. This is why a wise young adult listens to groups that have been making music for over a decade before wasting valuable itunes clicks doing what major media says to do. If you are lightly talented you can go the Funicello Route and keep your dignity. People your age will remember you fondly. Or you can stay on time by following the Spears Route of becoming ever more “shocking” until you have consumed all dignity and you become a joke.)
IV. You Become an Institutionalized. (Either you become a joke, insert latter day Elvis here, are mostly, mercifully forgotten by people not in your age group, or keep maturing. U2 is at this crossroads. Bono is now officially too old to be cool. Will he become a thoughtful artist or become ever more a political parody? It is hard, very hard to recover from joke status if you made the wrong choice at III. . . though Elvis was so overwhelmingly talented and influential that he can keep some sensible fans. )
If you consume pop culture, or let your children consume it, remind yourself that you are only setting them up for the shame of the mockery that will come when pop culture moves on. Read and listen to the timeless and you can avoid the whole consumerist, materialist trap that must find a new nice best thing.