This made me cry

[koganbot]

The Elvis imitation at the start was great, and the amount of flesh on her body is actually quite attractive. But this is really really sad.

Britney at the VMAs

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I think physically she looks really good there, in terms of figure etc. I'm not even bothered by that wig, which doesn't look all that bad to me.

The performance, though... she looks so, so uncomfortable and I think it flags up what makes me uncomfortable about the song; this isn't what she is at the minute. The mere sentiment of wanting more, the attempt at the sort of dominatrix thing... it looks like watching some kind of deeply sleazy nightclub strip act with some sixteen year old thrown up there to be fed to the lions. Britney's always played on being innocent/not and she's still doing it there but in a sort of... uncontrolled, unintended manner.

Oh, I don't know how to explain how I feel about it. It agitates me.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I was going to post that tonight! Well, I was going to post that and Amy Winehouse's Mercury performance as a compare/contrast exercise. It is sad. It's like...you could tell that they'd made the choreography as simple as possible, and still Britney just...wanders around the stage, occasionally waving her arm three beats after everyone else. The bit when the backing dancer has to help her up the steps...aargh. I guess everything's been covered everywhere by now? The glazed-over eyes, the not knowing the words to her song, the shocked expression on Fiddy's face at the end, Rihanna's laughter...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Winehouse's Mercury performance - another high-profile train-wreck/scared little girl going out in front of an industry audience, but she manages to pull something special off, and saves the aimless wandering for after she's finished singing.

Honest reaction

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I was staring at her belly for three and a half minutes.

My inner feminist (and inner sensible human, too) is raging: "She looks NORMAL! This is what YOU look like! This is a perfectly reasonable body shape to aspire to! Why is this bothering the non-feminist, non-sensible human side of you so much?"

Non-feminist, non-sensible human side is countering with the following: 'That is a REALLY bad choice of outfit, she could have worn something just as revealing but that emphasised her lovely bits (legs, back, hips, boobs) without having this disproportionate distance between the bottom of her bra and the top of her pants. Something like this, perhaps:



Even just two crosses of material across there would be just lovely. Call me Trinny and/or Susannah but there's sexy and there's desperate. And she hasn't brushed her hair. Or bothered to learn more than 45 seconds of proper choreography."

Both halves are right, really. And both are quite angry with her for Not Making Enough Effort.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

"the amount of flesh on her body is actually quite attractive"

This is probably the weirdest way of expressing the idea "that girl looked hot in a bikini" that I've ever encountered!

Train of fools

[koganbot]

Jimmy Draper: "'train wreck' makes it sound like there was actual momentum at some point. more like a train puttering to a stop"

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

I've just posted about this. I don't really think it was all that bad. I think her demeanor and lazy/loose attitude was entirely matched to the song, and that it was an unfortunate choice, because everyone expects Britney to be highly charged and a highly technical dancer. I don't think it was great, but I don't think it was awful either. I just don't think it was worth remarking on either way. I can't believe the amount of press attention it's got; it was an entirely forgettable performance.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

I think people are running with this and turning it into major drama when it really wasn't. It was a very disappointing, lacklustre performance, but she certainly didn't come across as 'fucked up' and all the rest of it. She just seemed to be terrified - and given the slating she gets in the media, and the sheer pressure she must have felt for that one performance, who can blame her?

To re-iterate - bad, bad performance. But she can still pull it around I think. The single is brilliant, and hopefully the video will be too.

And the tabloids really can go fuck themselves. The way they turned the entire thing into some disaster of 9/11 proportions was just sad.

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

I was saying to a friend yesterday that, if you'll pardon the pun, I still believe (still believe!) that Britney will come back and kick all our asses - if not this time, then soon. It's just a question of when.

Unfortunately this performance has rather left my opinion looking about as credible as that of the bloke who stands on Oxford Street imploring me to be a sinner, not a winner.

Perhaps this shouldn't be seen as a bad performance in isolation, but in context it definitely was: because this was her chance to come back and wow us all, and it didn't happen. I'm intrigued by the various internet rumours that offer explanations for her general demeanour during the performance, but ultimately I just want Britney back being awesome again. C'mon, Brit. For me? Please?

I go runnin' in outer space, again

[koganbot]

My favorite Alice Cooper video (and a lot more lively than the Britney vid)

My favorite Hilary Duff video

[koganbot]

Let's go back, back to the beginning, hmmm, I'm swaying aren't I, now let's plant my feet firmly, perfect didn't feel so perfect, clutch stomach, let the rain fall down and I'm, um, sitting down, ah yes, now I'm, I think I'll run to the back and see what the drummer is doing, OK?

(In case they scotch that link - so to speak - here's an alternate one.)