As aforementioned, funk was the essence of this decade, so much so that even the Mickey Mouse Club alumni - Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justine Timberlake - knew how to channel it and draw from it when needed. For example, this record.
One of my surprises when I compiled this list was realizing how vital Britney was to this decade, not just as its biggest star, but also as a driving force. In many things, you can say she was the first. She was the one who blasted the way for the new pop princesses in 1999, turning this decade into a female decade. She was the one who in the 2000 VMAs stripped off her trademark schoolgirl outfit to reveal an almost naked body, opening the way for Christina, Beyonce and Pink to be more daring. And at the end of 2001, not yet twenty, and after the latter three already put out sexy records, she took it one step further, into the domain of S&M. Hiring the services of the Neptunes, the funkiest producers of the decade (hell, the funkiest ever), she took pop into realms which no female star her age ever stepped in before.
With hindsight, the decision to present her as a virgin when she started out was an ingenious move, equal to putting the Beatles in lounge suits. The result was that no one could reject her, and she was shoved deep into America's throat, even in the height of the age of rising conservatism. The duality virgin/whore always worked well, and in Britney's case it was like a virus that ate puritanism from within. While the conservatives hailed her for her chastity and allowed their daughters to buy her records, Britney corrupted them, one little step at a time. When this record came out, it became apparent to everyone that it's been a long time since Britney was a virgin, but the damage was already done.
For me, this record was very important, and not because of the eroticism. Submission does not belong only to S&M, but is an important part of human existence. Knowing how to give yourself up completely to something enjoyable is essential to happiness, and this submission does not hamper your freedom as long as you retain the ability to break away when you want to. I hold this truth to be self-evident, but since the eighties, when freedom was portrayed as standing on your own, it was hard for women to sing about total surrender without being accused of setting women back. One area that was badly hurt was soul music, because the essence of soul singing is spiritual submission, and the records that were labeled soul in the eighties and the nineties sounded to me like they weren't going all the way, and therefore not really soulful. Madonna was the only one who stood her ground and preserved her right to be enslaved, and when this Britney record arrived, I felt like we finally turned the corner. And lo, Christina and Beyonce soon followed suit, the psyche of the decade opened up to these sort of experiences, and soul went back to being soul.
Of course, almost no one would take Britney's records that seriously, or regard her as anything more than a Mickey Mouse performer of light and worthless hits. But try this: close your eyes, and imagine Prince released this record in 2001, with the same music in the background, with lyrics similar in essence, and employing the same kind of horny voice that Britney uses here. Would you call it a worthless Prince record, or would you think it was his best record in ten years, and also better than anything he put out this decade?
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