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Re: [microsound] B.S. (britney spears)



At 18:04 1/11/00 -0800, Kenric McDowell wrote:

I prefer to think about Britney this way. Her success, is the culmination of
several technological and cultural forces (music production, branding, video
production, advertising, the internet, MTV, etc...).

Your language is so passive as to suggest these things are inevitable or even "natural". This bothers me because you can't ascribe motivations to a natural force, nor can you say that a force in its 40s, wearing a fancy suit or sporting a hard-on. I think that misses more than a little from the equation.


These forces are achievements in and of themselves and the fact that they converge in her,

How is that fact?

literally at the point of her physical presence makes her, in most contexts
in which we would encounter her, more than human.

No, not "literally", "figuratively". You're not talking about real things, you're talking about concepts.


What definition of humanity precludes celebrity?

Hyperbolic? Yes, but imagine what happens to her walking down any street anywhere in America.

Bah, the same thing that would happen to any celebrity. If you want to talk about her as some kind of convergence (or signifier, or whatever) then the above doesn't distinguish what she represents from any other "superstar".


This is all without mentioning that she is incredibly vacant and has no
awareness of her position. She is literally a walking shell of all of  late
capitalism greatest hits.

Again, not at all literally. I appreciate you're not writing a paper here, but still...


If all that you attribute to Britney is as you say, then this "convergence of forces" would be pretty stupid to allow her to be represented as knowing and calculated. I can't see how you can say she is all these non-human things, then claim to have an idea of what the person is like.

Sorry all, one post, I promise. Please remember the list's reply-to, one and all, if you want to follow this up off-list.

Michael

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