The Future of Young Girls.. From What I see It's not Pretty

If it weren’t for Janet Jackson’s sultry dance moves we wouldn’t have Britney: The dancer. If it weren’t for Madonna’s controversial stage performances and outrageous music videos we wouldn’t have Britney: One of the most controversial artists of this decade. And without Britney herself, there would not be any young female celebrities trying to sexualize themselves at a very young age. Fortunately since all of these women are here in the entertainment world, they do give us something to talk about, even if it’s about provocative issues that our country normally would not be accustomed to. I’m sure as we enter into the next decade, there will be people writing about the way Miley Cyrus has impacted American Culture and I’m sure that the age of performing sexually will just keep getting lower and lower. Take a look at this video for example. This shows Miley's 9-YEAR-OLD sister acting a little too mature for her age. This is now what America will be looking forward to eventually.

Miley Cyrus: Yet Another Example of how Britney has Affected American Culture

Lindsay Lohan is not the only teen queen to be influenced by Britney Spears. Miley Cyrus herself has stated that Spears is an influence on her. Cyrus became a teen idol in 2006 when the TV series Hannah Montana (where Cyrus plays the title character) hit the Disney channel. Since the series debut, she has also become a pop singing sensation. Along with albums that credit her as her alter ego “Hannah Montana”, she has released other studio albums, without the “Hannah Montana” brand, that have topped the charts and have enabled her to create an image separate from her Disney career. Her singles “See You Again”, “The Climb”, and “Party in the U.S.A.” all have sold more than two millions copies on their own, making her one of the most successful younger artists of the past few years.

Just like Spears, however, Cyrus has dealt with numerous controversies due to some of her actions she has done at her age. When Cyrus was only 15 years old, she appeared in the magazine of Vanity Fair. In the pictures that were part of the photo shoot, one of them in particular struck the entertainment industry with shock and controversy. The picture that got people talking was of one where Cyrus is posing with nothing but what looks like a bed sheet covering her breasts, and exposing only her back. The photo caused outrage mainly because Cyrus was only a 15-year-old teenager at the time. In a poll conducted by People magazine, 77 percent of their readers thought that the photo was inappropriate. From the article where the poll came from, Denise Restauri, the founder of AllyKatzz.com (a social networking site for teens and tweens), said at the time of the published picture “What we’re hearing the most it that young fans are disappointed, but they still love her.” Despite the public’s turmoil over the photo, Cyrus continued to entertain teen audiences of the United States.

However that was not the last controversial stop for Miley. In August of this year, Miley gave a controversial performance at the Teen Choice Awards. It was not what she wore during that performance (which included short shorts, and a pair of black leather boots), but it was due to a prop she had with her to which she performed with. During that performance, she hopped onto an ice-cream pushcart and started to dance aside a pole that was attached on top of the cart. During the whole 40 seconds where she held on to that pole, some people thought she was just using it for balance on the cart, while a good majority of people thought she was pole-dancing. That same majority thought that the performance of her song was too sexual for a kid/teen-oriented event. Cyrus even stated that the performance was to “show more of her sexy side” and that she was “so proud of it,” by also saying that the performance was about her “trying to come out of her shell and how she’s tired of being a Disney princess”. Clearly it worked. She got the public thinking it was a sexy performance, but most would agree she crossed the line for a performance at such a young age. Child psychologist Wendi Fischer told Newsday, “She’s sending this message that this is 'OK' to do, and I don't think it is OK to do. Miley's only 17. Why is she rushing it?” Margie Barron of Entertainment Weekly commented on the topic saying “The 17-year-old sensation is still 17, and... That’s too young to dress and act like a pole-dancing stripper.... as she was making gyrating moves while straddling the pole. It was very obvious that this was choreography better suited for an adult audience.”

It became clear that many people thought Miley was too young to be performing pole dancing at only 17 years old. However the influence of Britney Spears came up in one of the many articles written about her performance. Us Magazine senior editor Ian Drew said that “She already has this risque image, so it really wasn't much of a stretch. That's how Britney took off. She was the good girl gone bad, and it looks to be working for Miley as well." He also added that her adult actions would boost her career as well. As the months go by after her performance, there is no force yet that has been able to take down the Miley Cyrus Empire.

Britney's Impact on Culture.. Example: Lindsay Lohan

Now that we know of the women that have influenced Britney into doing the things she does, we can look at how Spears has impacted American Culture, through the way new female singers & actresses act when they are in the public eye. One example of a Britney protégé would be Lindsay Lohan. Before all of the negative press that she’s been recently hit with, Lohan used to be a promising new actress with an image that was built around her sex appeal. She shot in to the public eye when she starred in the hit movie, Mean Girls, and since then she has appeared in and out of American Culture. Taking cues from Spears, Lohan started posing provocatively on magazine covers at a very young age. At only 18 years old she appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, wearing nothing but pantyhose. Even though she was a role model for young teens across the country, the cover did not ensue much controversy only because society has seen other young women, like Spears, already pose provocatively. Since then she has appeared nude, or partially nude in numerous magazines, like the ones shown below.

Along with racy magazine shoots, Lohan took on even racier movie roles. In 2007 she starred in both Georgia Rule and I Know Who Killed Me. The magazine Entertainment Weekly described the movie as exploitation to Lohan being a girl who just can’t help it, meaning all she wants is sex. In the movie, she is at an age where she just barely graduated high school, giving younger girls the “ok” to have sex at a young age, and giving it the “ok” for girls to be publicized for having sex at a young age. In I Know Who Killed Me she played a stripper in what the film was considered “torture porn”. Having only been 20 at the time the movie was filmed, Lohan, thanks to Britney Spears, is allowing younger girls to take on riskier & racier roles, whether the public thinks it’s age appropriate or not.

Janet and Madonna: Inspirations for the Controversial Teen Queen

Before we can get to how Britney Spears has influenced the younger female artists in the United States, we must look at who has influenced her to be the way she is. According to Spears herself she says she knew looked up to people “like you know, Janet Jackson and Madonna. And they were major influences for me.” Let’s first look at Janet Jackson. She, just like Spears, is one of the top-selling artists in the United States, and around the entire globe. She has kept herself in the public eye for not necessarily the amount of albums she sells/doesn’t sell, but by the way her music videos, lyrics, clothing, and dancing all revolve around being sexual and racy. Before she was most known for having her breast exposed at the super-bowl, Jackson made a name her herself as a sex symbol. On the cover of a 1993 Rolling Stone magazine, she posed in nothing but jeans and a man holding her breasts as she just stood and posed like nothing was wrong. Along with her racy pictures, her performances were also sexually charged as shown in this video from her Velvet Rope Tour.

Also in her music videos there has never been someone who has raised the bar for performing in a sexual nature. In this music video for her song "If", shown here, Jackson is seen dancing provocatively by touching her crotch multiple times, and shoving a male dancers head in that area as well. Her dancing clearly has influenced the way Spears dances as well.

Besides Jackson, the “Queen of Pop” herself, Madonna, has probably influenced Spears the most as music video and performing artist. Without Madonna, you probably would never see female artists like Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, or even Britney Spears herself. Ever since Madonna became a pop culture and American icon, she has brought out numerous music videos that have pushed the boundaries, and her performances on stage also have left many jaws drop as they watch her sing and dance. In one of her earliest performances, Madonna performed at the first MTV Video Music Awards and sung her hit song “Like a Virgin”. Her highly sexualized performance, including grinding and rolling all over the stage floor, catapulted her into success that has still gone on until this day.

Along with that performance her concert stage productions have also pushed buttons on what the public thinks of her. In her “Blonde Ambition” tour, along with her questionable outfits, her on stage persona was sexualized to the maximum. Her performances in concert were so racy that the Pope called for a boycott when she came to Rome. If it wasn’t known before that Madonna was racy, then that boycott should’ve definitely let people know she wasn’t just a normal everyday pop star.

Along with her stage performances, her music videos have also raised questions of whether they were suitable for the public to watch or not. Her music video for her song “Justify My Love” was banned from MTV when it was released towards the end of 1990. Scenes from the video included suggestions of bisexuality, group sex and voyeurism, things that were definitely not seen in the mainstream music video industry. Many people, and groups, though the video clip was a type of pornography, while Madonna stated that it was anything but pornography itself. A few years later, she released yet another controversial music video for her song “Erotica”. You can only guess what kind of video would come out of a song title like that. The video, with it’s highly charged sexual content was played only three times on MTV (and during those three airings, the video was played only during it’s “safe hours” between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.) before it was officially banned. If it weren’t for Madonna pushing the buttons on what can be put in music videos, or what could be performed on stage, most of the pop stars we see today would probably be doing nothing the way they do now, and there certainly would be no 17-year old pop star posing provocatively on the cover of a magazine.

What is Britney Representing?

Along with the Rolling Stone cover, Spears has done a lot of other things to get people asking whether a girl of her age should be doing some of the things she does. For example, while still only 18 years old, she performed at the MTV Video Music Awards to her then recent hit, “Oops I Did It Again”. What started off of what could have been a low-key performance, a suit-clad Spears descended from a staircase and kept moving along with her performance. All of the sudden, as the beat of the song began to pick up; she ripped off her suit and revealed a flesh-colored outfit baring her signature midriff. After her highly energized performance, controversy ensued over the outfit she was wearing on whether it was was see-through, or not. What do you think? Was it too much? Watch this video and see.

After all the madness that ensued over her performance, Britney Spears has held on to her sex appeal to help out with selling albums and selling out her tours. It was only a year later in 2001, when Spears went back to the MTV Video Music Awards to perform her new single "I'm a Slave 4 U" in only a pair of short-shorts, a bikini top, and a real-live snake to keep her stage presence as sexy as ever. That same year she released the music video for the same song, which featured Spears wearing only a little bit of clothing and dancing around an underground bath house/sauna. All of this happened before she even hit the age of 20. Even when she was not in her teens, Spears continues today to bring out risqué’ music videos for songs like “Toxic”, where in some scenes she is wearing nothing and is only covered in diamonds all over her body, “Womanizer” where she appears completely nude in scenes where she is in a sauna, and for “3”, her current single about having a ménage à trios, or in simpler words, a threesome.

Even while not performing, Britney Spears has worn very revealing clothing when she is not working. At the 2000 American Music Awards, she showed up wearing a sparkling jumpsuit which revealed too much of her cleavage according to newspapers across the States. Before her provocative performance at the 2001 Video Music Awards, she appeared in a very short, see-through, black dress that exposed her bra and underwear for the entire world to see. Even when its not appearing at award shows, or any kind of public event, the paparazzi have caught Spears wearing skimpy outfits and forgetting to even wear underwear at times when she does not want to be seen. This however influences other young females to think that wearing close to nothing is good, and not wearing underwear in public is just another normal thing in life. From what we can see in young Hollywood today, Spears has influenced a huge part of it.

Britney Spears

Actors, artists, musicians, sports players, and every other kind of celebrity have all come and gone throughout the years of American pop culture. Some of them have stayed put making careers that have been successful for years and years, while others have a quick career high and eventually burn out as quickly as they rose. However one person who was thought of being a “one-hit wonder” or just another wannabe pop tart, has stayed in the public eye, whether for professional or personal reasons, for more than a decade now. That person is Britney Spears.

You either love her or hate her, just like her controversial song “If U Seek Amy” states, but Britney Spears has never left the public eye ever since she came out as a schoolgirl in her video for “Baby One More Time.” Since her breakthrough, she has sold as much as 83 million albums worldwide making her one of the fastest selling artists of all-time. In the United States alone she has sold 32 millions albums, making her the 8^th best selling female artist in the country, and the youngest female artist to have 5 albums reach number one on the Billboard chart (she achieved this at 27 years old with her latest album, Circus, which was released last year). Despite the ups and downs she has had, it is clear that she is a force that you cannot get in the way of.

When Britney first burst into the music scene, she quickly became a cultural phenomenon with the way she could sing and dance, bring out innovative music videos and put on phenomenal performances on stage or at award shows. But the way she has presented herself has raised a lot of questions for the then 17-year old pop star. Before she was of legal age she posed on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing nothing but a pair of short panties and an unbuttoned shirt showing an exposed bra. The cover caused a great deal of controversy surrounding Spears over whether it was too much for a girl her age. The American Family Association stated that the pictures in the magazine created a “disturbing mix of childhood innocence and adult sexuality” and asked that all “God-loving Americans’ boycott stores carrying her albums”. Fortunately for Spears, the public just wanted more of the new singing sensation.

Since Spears burst to the music scene, there have been a number of new young female artists that have taken influence from her music to their own. However, not just the music has influenced them, but the way she dresses on magazine covers, and the way she performs have all seemed to encourage these artists to start doing things provocatively as a teenager or as a young adult. Spears has influenced American Culture in a way that younger women are starting to do more “mature” things at a very young age.