| Wednesday 21 February 2007 |
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There's nothing that a new Brit hit can't fix
July 2001: Mariah Carey, in the messy aftermath of the disastrous movie "Glitter", goes on MTV's "TRL" to say, "I just want one day when I can go swimming and eat ice cream and check out rainbows." She does a striptease on the show, leaves several bizarre postings on her Web site and is reportedly seen by the side of the road waving to passing cars. Soon thereafter, she checks into a facility to deal with "exhaustion". She stays two months. EMI cancels her recording contract. One sweet day, indeed.
July 2005: Carey watches her new CD, "The Emancipation of Mimi," rise to No. 1 on the charts. It will be certified six times platinum, sell more copies than any other CD in 2005 and win her eight Grammy nominations. The moral of this story: The pop music business can be very, very forgiving.
The point of this story: If Britney Spears can make a catchy pop record, no one will care that she has been dancing around with a figurative lampshade on her head the last few weeks. Folks in the music business acknowledge that the high life Spears now seems to favor has probably killed her shot at remaining a parentally approved choice for preteen girls, which is how she sold tens of millions of records in the first place.
But that deal was over anyhow. She's 25, with two marriages and two kids. "Oops ... I Did It Again" at this point is at best ironic, which isn't what sells to kids. Meltdown or not, the CD Britney says she wants to release this year has to reach people over 16 - and in that pursuit, she could actually use her bad hair day to her advantage.
One of the ways Carey climbed back to the top of the charts was sprinkling quasi-confessional teases all over her next two CDs, "Charmbracelet" and "Mimi". Carey also has more singing talent than Spears. But recording technology and packaging have dealt with that problem before, and Spears has the advantage of a gal-next-door personality that's warmer than Carey's diva image.
That could help Britney pile up a stack of sympathy over what the media has done to her, even if she was wielding the scissors and fully aware cameras were clicking away. Maybe fans just like music more than they care about personal stumbles, which actually is an encouraging thought.
Frank Sinatra was portrayed as a washed-up basket case in the early '50s after Ava Gardner dumped him. Five years later, he was a deity. Same thing with James Brown, who went to jail twice and had drug troubles. There wasn't a more reviled man in music than Ike Turner after Tina told her tales. Earlier this month, he won a Grammy.
From Sinead O'Connor ripping up a picture of the Pope on national TV to the Dixie Chicks roasting President Bush, back to John Lennon saying the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, and Chuck Berry doing time for driving an underage girl over state lines, artists have survived public actions that at first seemed guaranteed to kill or at least cripple their careers.
In fact, Britney may not even be the most interesting test of forgiveness in the near future. Whitney Houston, who became a star with an image even more clean-cut than Spears' before her slow-motion tumble into drugs, has made appearances lately that are, well, encouraging. She also says she's recording again - and if someone finds the right songs and trusts her to sing them, she could do something that would erase every crack ever dropped about Whitney and Bobby and drugs. Doesn't mean that will happen. But it could. Music fans just may be those odd ducks who enjoy a rise as much as they enjoy a fall. (New York Daily News)
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