Brit fans' renewed enthusiasm is an arresting development. I tried. You do better.
A friend on Facebook posed the question: Would like someone to rationally explain the fascination with Britney? I was feeling a little pissed off at things, and had wrestled with this question a few days prior when Facebook was flooded with status messages proclaiming their attendance of a Britney concert. Here was my answer:
Britney is a nostalgic keepsake for her fans, most of whom were in middle or high school at the time of her arrival in the national consciousness. It returns them to a simpler, more innocent place before the pressures and depressions of adulthood crushed their hopes and dreams. Britney also indulges her fans in embracing her trashy persona and catchy-yet-lyrically-challenged music while allowing them to act like they’re really above it all, an ironic celebration of the mediocre, even though it’s anything but. Britney fans’ renewed enthusiasm towards Spears and her act is a full-throated, plunging chest line celebration of kitsch without the self-awareness necessary to pull off the charade. Ultimately, Britney Spears is a symbol of the collective arrested development of our generation, a triumphant return to childish desires and impulses despite never abandoning them in the first place.
