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.