Death Becomes Her

Aside from the disastrous VMA’s performance that was somewhat out of her control, all attempts at a comeback for former pop princess, Britney Spears, have been rather… nonchalant? Yes Britney is stalked by paparazzi and yes she’s under a microscope, but why has she done nothing to shake the waning public image of her as a white trash mother of two? I really don’t get it, honestly.

The VMA’s fiasco was so much more than just “oh, she sucked.” I really feel that the general public was (once again) willing to put aside EVERYTHING bad, negative, and disconcerting about Britney and start anew. I really believe that. Even the first 10 seconds of her on stage with “It’s Britney, BITCH!” people were ready to make fresh. After that, well, the rest is history. Literally.

The problem from then on seems to be this half-assed attempt at a comeback. Combined with the prospect that Britney Spears has done virtually no promotion for her album, Blackout, that fact that it's certified GOLD is actually an accomplishment. *GASP* A flop is so “in.” Countless artists have flopped in recent years like its another notch on their belt. With Britney’s album, I was so surprised to hear the label didn’t even HAVE a promotional plan or marketing strategy for Blackout. This comes partly from her being on Jive Records which was absorbed by Zomba in 2002 and then Sony in 2004. For those who still don’t see the connection, tired-ass Clive Davis sits as Chairman of BMG Sony and still thinks that an artist can just throw a record out and have it sell. Clive Davis deserves a betchslap banana *POW* for thinking it’s the 90’s.

So Britney was basically fucked from the beginning. She’s battling Fed-X and Jive in addition to WHATEVER she’s going through; a bad spell of motherhood perhaps? Oh, you self-medicating southern woman! I feel bad for her because Blackout is by far her best effort, and during a most tumultuous time in her life. That’s why the songs have such an edge to them. It’s oblivious pop star with a twist of tweaked-out whore, the best of both Britneys! Even with the success of the lead single, “Gimme More,” peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, there has been little interest in anything associated with Brit’s music, only her image. And that’s a sad thing really: America created a star only to inevitably destroy it.

Super Deluxe Remastered Ulta Special Limited Platinum Definitive Collector's Gold Version Edition Re-release

Today, Justin Timberlake readies the release of his "Deluxe Edition" of FutureSex/LoveSounds, the Grammy-nominated album that took the pop world by storm this past year. Strategically arriving right on schedule for the holiday season, this re-release follows an ever-growing number of albums that have been re-packaged in recent years. The re-release is marketing brilliance from three standpoints:

1. it's money in the bank for the record execs; throw a few remixes on the same CD and re-sell it to the same people


2. it offers the eager and zealous fans a chance to buy another piece of... er... art from their favourite artist.


3. for the artist, (remember them?) it regenerates interest in the album and can potentially allow the record to garner additional GRAMMY nods.

So the re-release truly hits the nail on the head because it pleases the 3 fundamental parts of the music industry. The outcome, however, of a re-release ends in only four ways:

1. It saves a failing album: Shakira's Oral Fixation Vol. 2


2. The re-release fails to add any interest in the album: Beyonce's B'Day


3. It capitalizes on the success of an already-hit album: Usher's Confessions


4. Attempts to save an album flop too, and are usually scrapped: Janet Jackson's 20 Y.O.

Beyonce has got to be the most guilty of abusing the re-release. B'Day saw three seperate releases and is currently available in TEN versions. Desperate much? A lawsuit from one-hit-wonder Des'ree (1994's "You Gotta Be") caused the second version of B'Day to be pulled from shelves within 2 weeks of release... *doh* RE-release. Another case of Ms. Knowles illegally making money off of other people's work. So yet another B'Day was issued. A re-re-release.

It's funny because there were days when 10-12 track records could stay popular for years at a time, garner several singles, and allow a band to tour all through it. It really shows a decline in quality I suppose, or maybe just a complete change in the industry. Would Thriller have benefited from a re-release? Surely not as it produced Seven Top 10 hits!

The realization is that a consumer can get music in 10 seconds now; there's no longer a wait and rush to the record store to buy a new album. People get bored, that's where the re-release comes in. It's shady, but --hey!-- it's worth a shot... or 10.