Britney's all flash, no substance

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Saturday, March 13, 2004 - Page updated at 12:57 P.M.

Concert Review
Britney's all flash, no substance

By Pamela Sitt
Seattle Times staff reporter

It's official: Britney is the new Madonna.
Only Madonna did it better the first time around.

The Material Girl spent much of the past two decades shocking audiences by simulating various sex acts onstage. We miss her Blonde Ambition and cone-shaped brassieres.

Spears, 22, did her best to follow in her mentor's footsteps last night at KeyArena, at one point writhing nearly nude in a clear bathtub while crooning her self-fulfillment song, "Touch of My Hand."

That was the highlight — if you can call it that — of Spears' 90-minute show, part of her Onyx Hotel Tour: a cheap voyeuristic thrill with some lip-synching thrown in for good measure. Smart shoppers could have saved $76 — Spears' highest ticket price yet — and watched the music video for "Toxic" on cable. (You get to see her in a sheer body stocking either way.)

Concert review


Britney Spears, with Kelis and Skye Sweetman, last night, KeyArena, Seattle.


Last night's show was high on spectacle and low on substance, veering crazily from burlesque to fairy tale to peep show. Perhaps it would have been better suited to fellow pop star JC Chasez's new album, "Schizophrenic."

Spears opened the show by welcoming the audience to the Onyx Hotel, saying "Once you check in, you can't check out." Sounds more like the Bates Motel.

(There was even a shower scene involving a peephole in one of the video interludes between acts.)

Wearing a skintight black catsuit — cleavage up to here, hair out to there — Spears rolled onstage on top of what looked like a cross between a mini-Hummer and an industrial refrigerator. It had Louisiana plates.

Later, four male dancers dressed as bellhops — only bare-chested — wheeled brass luggage carts around the stage for no apparent reason other than to advance the hotel theme, which quickly disintegrated with subsequent acts.

Past hits including "... Baby, One More Time" and "Oops! ... I Did It Again" were nearly unrecognizable as jazzy, cabaret-style numbers performed in a corset and ruffly boy-short panties. The one-armed sock look from Super Bowls past was resurrected in this act as a pink lace stocking worn on her left arm.

Songs from Spears' current effort, "In The Zone," included "Outrageous" and "(I Got That) Boom Boom"; she opened with the album's arguably strongest single, "Toxic."

For the ballad "Everytime," Spears sat at a piano — barefoot, in what appeared to be a wood-nymph outfit — and told the audience "there's a young generation out there that's wanting to believe in someone, and they need someone to look up to." Presumably, this person is not Spears, who moments later cavorted on a bed in a pink bra, panties and fishnet stockings.

Fortunately, last night's near-capacity crowd appeared older than Spears' previous teenage fan base, and as she dropped her white terry-cloth robe, they only screamed for more. And for those who missed the show, you can still catch "Britney Spears: Live from Miami," March 28 on Showtime.

Pamela Sitt: 206-464-2376 or psitt@seattletimes.com

Well that's a shocker!

From imdb.com

"Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel tour has kicked off to a bad start, she has been accused of making "desperate attempts to shock". Spears began her North American tour in San Diego, California, on March 2, and when it hit Los Angeles on Monday, it failed to impress Los Angeles Daily News critic Fred Shuster. He writes, "Spears was wheeled on stage in a tall chariot, looking for all the world like a statue of Lenin, if the Russian dictator had been a beefy bottle-blond aerobics instructor. The robotic pelvic thrusts began almost immediately. Much has been made of the show's allegedly racy content. But as a second male dancer's head was being pulled into Spears's crotch Monday, the night's sole irony became enticingly clear - the tour is promoted by Clear Channel, the radio broadcasting giant that recently dropped Howard Stern from six of its stations and has taken a self-congratulatory stand against what it called public decency. More troubling is Spears' continued inability to realize how dull she is when she's not acting as glorified ringmaster. As she sat down at the piano to simulate a ballad 'that's close to my heart' she announced that after all she'd suffered at the hands of the press, 'At the end of the day, it's made me what I am today.' A frat boy in the back row had a rejoinder: 'Whatever.' Toxic might be the best way to describe Spears' Onyx Hotel roadshow"."

I almost feel bad for her. She knows she can't rely on her singing, so she has all these people in her circle telling her to sex/skank it up to get people to notice. When Madonna did it, it was fresh and cool, when Britney does it, it's embarassing and bland. Why?

jillybean said:

locoarts said:

VoicesCarry said:

Britney's all flash, no substance?

Talk about a newsflash.

I bet Britney "really feels she's growing as an artist."


Why could Madonna do it back then? When I watch the Blonde Ambition tour now, it's kinda cheesy, so maybe it was the time. I think Madonna had a vision, no one was telling her what to do to sell records. She never said stupid shit in interviews like "being a superstar requires you to travel overseas, like to Canada." Madonna also co-wrote a lot of her songs since day one, right?

i think we are kind of forgetting that by the time madonna hit the scene, she was an adult. not only an adult, but an adult who struggled as a broke ass performer in nyc. madonna had a lot of street smarts by the time her self titled record came out and even more smarts for like a virgin. britney was, what, 15 or 16 when she hit? she has grown up in front of us. madonna got to make most of her mistakes before the camera was on her. britney was a kid and, for the most part, is still growing up. look at yourself at 21 years old. what were you doing and how would you have acted if you were a millionaire by 18? she gave up a real school education in order to do the tutor thing while touring and making videos and albums. i think we'll all be surprised at britney by the time she's 30. she's gonna go through a lot of changes.
[This message was edited Sun Mar 14 21:28:11 2004 by SassierBritches]

locoarts said:

I have vegemite and you don't!

Why would she even bother to sit @ a piano??

CalhounSq said:

Why would she even bother to sit @ a piano??

SassierBritches said:

Brit's parents must b so proud...

The problem with Britney is,she's just a second-rate Madonna clone.But apparently she didn't "study" Madonna as much as she should have.When Madonna was doing her "sexual shock thing",she was making a statement.As Maddy herself acknowkedged on the song "Human Nature",she was "breaking all the rules I didn't make".She was breaking down taboos and stereotypes,making fun of people's conservative views about sex,and questioning people's beliefs.

Britney,on the other hand,is simply being sleazy for the sake of being sleazy.There's no underlying irony or hidden message she's trying to make.She's simply playing a role,the-horny sex-kitten-with-a-smile.Janet has been playing this role since 1993.But when that's all you have to offer,it all becomes boring,tired and one-dimensional.


"I think we'll all be surprised by Britney by the time she's 30.She's gonna through alot of changes"

You're assuming that she'll still be AROUND by the time she's 30

But seriously,it's possible that she will survive.But the one thing she's gonna have to do is evolve as an artist.You can only do the "slut" thing for so long.

You can never do the slut thing for too long!

SassierBritches said:

VoicesCarry said:[quote]

SassierBritches said:

Britney sells her image. She sells sex. She also has some good songwriters working with her sometimes.

But she's a package. Which is fine (real fine ).

DavidEye said:

The problem with Britney is,she's just a second-rate Madonna clone.But apparently she didn't "study" Madonna as much as she should have.When Madonna was doing her "sexual shock thing",she was making a statement.As Maddy herself acknowkedged on the song "Human Nature",she was "breaking all the rules I didn't make".She was breaking down taboos and stereotypes,making fun of people's conservative views about sex,and questioning people's beliefs.

Britney,on the other hand,is simply being sleazy for the sake of being sleazy.There's no underlying irony,no humor or hidden message she's trying to make.She's simply playing a role,the-horny sex-kitten-with-a-smile.Janet has been playing this role since 1993.But when that's all you have to offer,it all becomes boring,tired and one-dimensional.


"I think we'll all be surprised by Britney by the time she's 30.She's gonna through alot of changes"

You're assuming that she'll still be AROUND by the time she's 30

But seriously,it's possible that she will survive.But the one thing she's gonna have to do is evolve as an artist.You can only do the "slut" thing for so long.

To evolve as an artist, isn't there a requirement that you BE an artist?

VoicesCarry said:

DavidEye said:

VoicesCarry said:

To evolve as an artist, isn't there a requirement that you BE an artist?

DavidEye said:

SassierBritches said:[quote]

DavidEye said:

DavidEye said:

SassierBritches said:

DavidEye said:

The problem with Britney is,she's just a second-rate Madonna clone.But apparently she didn't "study" Madonna as much as she should have.When Madonna was doing her "sexual shock thing",she was making a statement.As Maddy herself acknowkedged on the song "Human Nature",she was "breaking all the rules I didn't make".She was breaking down taboos and stereotypes,making fun of people's conservative views about sex,and questioning people's beliefs.

Britney,on the other hand,is simply being sleazy for the sake of being sleazy.There's no underlying irony or hidden message she's trying to make.She's simply playing a role,the-horny sex-kitten-with-a-smile.Janet has been playing this role since 1993.But when that's all you have to offer,it all becomes boring,tired and one-dimensional.

well, let's face it, after madonna throwing sex in our faces for a few years, there's not much that is taboo or shocking anymore. that makes it kind of hard for britney to push "sex as liberation" on us. but, let's be honest, madonna was around at the right time. sex hadn't been explored (by a woman) the way she did. she used sex to sell and then, when she got tired of that or realized she needed to change her image (whichever it was) she put the 'breaking rules i didn't make' thing into effect. madonna IS brilliant. there is absolutely no denying that. and no matter how hard anyone, including britney, tries...well, madonna is madonna...for several reasons. if madonna came out today, though, and someone else already pushed the envelope, i don't know if madonna would have been as successful. the world was much more naive back then. i don't like to get into 'what if' scenarios because they are pointless. just keep in mind that madonna is a marketing master and business genius. that doesn't necesarrily make her an artist. she is very good at media manipulation and THAT is what has made her career. notice how when she's not manipulating the media into some kind of frenzy...or causing some kind of commotion or controversy...the woman can't even get a hit single, let alone a hit record.

i'm not knocking madonna...you know i love her too. but i do think that you give her more artistic credit than she deserves. she does have a heavy reliance on outside producers and writers. yes, i know she works on her material but it is definitely questionable as to what degree she is involved. i get the feeling madonna has a 'vision' of what she wants and then hires people to get that for her. now, i can do the same thing. if i want a painting of a certain thing, while i can't do it myself, i can hire someone to do it for me. madonna's career is the same thing (to me) only she has the business senses to push her further.

use the spacebar edit

I agree,it's pretty difficult for any female artist to be "shocking" after the whole Erotica/Sex era.Madonna pretty much took it to the extreme,didn't she? My sister jokingly says that the only thing Maddy could do that would shock people is to have a sex change operation onstage


But here's where we disagree.You say that Madonna is a "marketing master and business genuis" but not really an "artist".I think that Madonna proved that she is serious,committed ARTIST years ago.She writes her lyrics,composes melodies,and is singing better than ever before.She EVOLVES as an artist,with each new album.The same cannot be said of Britney.




"notice how when she's not manipulating the media into some kind of frenzy or causing some kind of controversy or commotion,the woman can't even get a hit record"



I seem to remember that this time last year,the "American Life" video was causing alot of commotion,and the song STILL wasn't a hit.And then there was the "Britney-kiss" at the VMAs.Surely that could be seen as a "media frenzy",yet it didn't really make "Hollywood" a hit,did it? Nice try,but your logic is flawed
[This message was edited Mon Mar 15 6:52:34 2004 by DavidEye]

To prepare for the role in 'Evita',Madonna had to take extensive voice lessons.And since then,she is singing SO much better than before.Listen to the Evita soundtrack and the 'Ray Of Light' album.....she's hitting notes like never before!! That's what I mean when I say "evolve".As an artist,you must grow,improve and get BETTER with each new release.