New Britneyology

It’s already streaming. Mindless, generic reviews are already rolling in. But we, the elite fans, are not jumping the gun – are we? We are not going into meltdown. We are waiting to get our hands on the album and play it lots of times. And we will get plenty out of it, no matter what happens. Won’t we? Because we are fans of Britney, not of a load of songwriters and producers.

We are now fans of a “veteran pop star”, not some kid with a couple of years under her belt. And, as such, we should – at this stage in our lives – be enjoying a more mature kind of fan relationship with our heroine.

This is to be her most personal album ever; the one many fans have been demanding for years, demanding with the hammering persistence of a woodpecker on a tree. Yes, yes, I know there are also fans who don’t want anything deep and meaningful from Britney. They see her as fun and great to dance to in clubs. Bubblegum pop is what they want from her – nothing more and definitely nothing less.

You know what? I’m not going to try and change their minds. What I want to do is ask ALL of her fans to take a good hard look at themselves. Britney Jean could be great. We hope and expect that it will be. But, even if this new music doesn’t turn out to be as zippy and hooky as some of her past work, even if it doesn’t get great reviews, is it OK to approach it with an attitude that goes “I love Britney but…” – and then concentrate on the “but” and forget about the “love”? The familiar declarations of mature objectivity “I’m a fan but I don’t have to kiss her ass” and “I’m a fan but I don’t have to like everything she does” make me want to eat my shoes.

I don’t think these people understand what a “fan” is. It is not a disinterested stance. You’re not a critic. You’re not objective. You’re definitely not skeptical or cynical. You’re biased in favour of your hero or heroine, and rightly so. Maybe you DO see him/her through rose-tinted glasses, but that’s OK. You’re enthusiastic, you’re a cheerleader, you’re predisposed to love.

There IS a reason to be so. And here’s the part where you have to pay attention. There are repertoire-driven artists, and artistry-driven artists. With the former, you love the songs first and foremost – you hear them on the radio and download them individually. But you don’t spend time analysing exactly how these artists deliver their songs. It’s a given. It’s a default. It’s predictable. You would know what their version of a song would sound like even if you never heard it. Every interpretation sounds roughly the same, and that “is” the artist you’re talking about.

With Britney that is never the case. You may think her songs are great, catchy and memorable, or you may wish she could swap her repertoire for Rihanna’s or Katy Perry’s, but haven’t we now reached a point where her material matters less to us than how she interprets and delivers it? With Britney, every act of singing is an act of creative choice and decision making. Her vocal approaches are now so wide-ranging and diverse that the “I love her BUT…” faction among her supposed fans are no longer able to get their narrow little heads around it. They find it easier to doubt that it’s really her who’s singing on her own album.

Fans should not be doing that. You look on the positive side unless you have a damn good reason not to, and you shouldn’t be doubting an interpretative genius like Britney Spears unless you have evidence. And there is none. Sia complimented Britney’s great singing on Perfume and the producer of Passenger stated that she sang the whole of that. The legendary Myah Marie (who gets the credit from some fans for any good work on Britney’s albums, even on tracks where she isn’t listed) denied hotly that her vocals were dubbed on to Britney’s tracks, and disassociated herself from any such insult against Britney’s artistry. The evidence is all pointing one way.

What we, as mature fans of Britney Spears, should be thinking when we hear Britney Jean is not “these songs are amazing/aren’t as good as I was expecting” but “I’m fascinated by how she approaches this very different material”. Yes, we should be in a frame of mind to understand what she’s doing with these songs and why she does it, what synergies are formed, and what it is that creates such distinctiveness and originality in everything she records. You don’t HAVE to like everything – either song OR interpretation. You just have to try to get beneath the surface and understand it. As mature fans we should be moving our appreciation on to a similar level as that deployed by classical music fans as they listen carefully to THEIR favourite artists. They may not love the material. They may hate it with a passion. But they still want to hear what a certain major artist makes of it. That’s the fascination.

We shouldn’t be asking ourselves “am I having fun?” The moment you ask that question, you’re stepping out of the moment and becoming an observer, not a fan. We want our experience, above all, to be interesting, involving and mentally stimulating. We want it to be worth our while. The question of “am I enjoying myself?” should not even be in our minds.