Music Vidz: Its a Britney World: The Britney Meme

Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Saturday, 19 October 2013

Its a Britney World: The Britney Meme

I put this collection together some time ago, as part of the preparation for Music Video Day, when we remade an inconic video in just one day. Its a good example of a meme - but also of the difficulty of pinning down a singular text in our postmodern hypertextual age.

This track has become a cultural meme...

I've gathered some examples of the many treatments of this track below. Yours will shortly become the latest addition to this postmodern phenomenon!

If you come across any others please pass on details (with a link) as a comment!

Be warned: some of the YouTube user comments are rather crude at times...

The original vid in glorious HD...

Until the YouTube block was lifted in June 2012 we were forced to work off a low-res GoogleVid copy.

Hit Me Baby One More Time With Lyrics

Here's how some students from Latymer School tackled part of it:

Odd live version by Ms Spears in Las Vegas

A more conventional live version, in London

There are many, many more on there, eg her 1999 World Music Awards performance
She does a jazz version for ABC - compare this, and the unambiguous sexuality of the performance with the live performance below from 1988.
This is her way back in 1998, doing what looks like a small local show.

Then there are the many surprising cover versions, ironic UGC vids etc...

Here's two lads having a go (Lari and Gafa):

Here's Spongebob synched to it!

Travis have a bash

Travis studio version

Punk version by Anna Lohr

Redubbed with a death metal version! [Children of Bodrom]
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nypusXmF5BI&feature=fvw
A similar 'punk' version from August Burns Red