Last night I had the distinct privilege of attending the Blackout Ball, hosted by Jive Records and Miss Britney Spears. Sure, it was an online affair and anyone with an Internet connection was invited and if you ask me, the rhyming couplet e-vite was a little tacky. But a ball, how fabulous! After obtaining the necessary "secret words" for "access past the velvet rope," I got to yuck it up with other Brit fans (YOU_WANA_PECE_O_ME, BRiTsBoY, and so on) in the Blackout "cocktail hour chat room." (Cocktails were strictly virtual.) It was there we waited anxiously for the cyber-gala’s main event, the premiere of Britney’s new music video for her third single from Blackout, "Break The Ice."
After watching the video, I can honestly say that Britney has never looked better. She’s wearing a tight black bodysuit number and thigh-high boots, which really accentuate her slim, sexy figure. She performs some unbelievable stunts (back dive off a skyscraper, through the glass ceiling of a nightclub, and into a pool of water) and breaks out martial arts moves that I had previously thought physically impossible (the 360 degree spin of her lower leg, moving fluidly as if disconnected from her knee… impressive!) Her long, tasseled blond tresses look gorgeous, and her lip-synching can only be described as impeccable. Yes, Britney looks spectacular in "Break The Ice."
I guess my major problem with the video was that it was fully animated.
In a surprisingly boring, ill-conceived continuation of her "Toxic"video, Britney is surrounded by mutant/man hybrids in suits, as well as SWAT teams with shields and lightsabers. She successfully battles themoff, and, after a series of hand scans and passwords and key cards andlight beams and flashing DANGER! signs and explosions (give me asecond, I might be having a seizure), she successfully locates, uh,herself, floating lifelessly in a water capsule. It ends with Britneyblowing up aqua-Brit, and then leaping from a building, nearly beingengulfed in flames.
So if the mutants are the "industry," and aqua-Brit is the oldBritney we know and love, and new super-sleek-black-leotard Brit is theNEW Brit, whose solution is to destroy her old image and nukeeverything, then I have to ask:
Why animated? And "To Be Continued"? With virtually no connection tothe song, aside from an occasional flying shard of glass that could bemisconstrued as ice? She’s supposed to be breaking ice, not the heartsof her fans, right?
So PopArtWatchers, when you hoped Brit would reinvent her image, were you wishing she’d go anime?
Would you rather she just sat around chopping up ice sculptures or something? It’s a music video, who cares?
I like Anime. I like the song. I quasi-like Britney. What’s the problem? She’s too tow-up to be dancing around in videos right now so just draw her instead, I say.
I think it’s her best song from the album. The animated video could have worked except it doesn’t work with a song that requires hot Britney dancing a la Slave 4 U. I just felt like I was watching Toxic: the animated version.
It’s a well-known fact from the numerous Britney biographies that her record company wanted her very first music video for “…Baby One More Time” to be animated but she refused, insisting upon the Catholic schoolgirl outfit that would catapult her into stardom. Now, a full 10 years later, she’s come full circle: she HAS to release animated videos because she isn’t physically or mentally capable of appearing in a live action one. The ultimate irony is that this is the best single of her career (I think the play count of “Break the Ice” on my iPod is up to about 45!) but it will probably die a quick death on radio now that the Britney media hurricane has quelled since the beginning of the year.
Um, yeah. It was boring. I at least expected some anime-Britney-dancing. The song is my favorite from the album, so consider me one disappointed Britney fan. =(.
What’s sad is that this song is diff from her other stuff on that album and coulda been a hot live video – esp if they went futuristic and artsy! It could’ve done for her what umbrella did for riri, but alas we get this quasi-intellectual anime… It’s not bad, but not yet BRITNEY!
This is the most contemporary and radio-friendly song on Blackout and an excellent choice for a single. Take two weeks out of your life – which, if you believe OK!’s reports, is super boring now that she is on constant watch – to learn some choreography and shoot a music video.
Why must she keep shooting herself in the foot?
Blackout is a VERY commercial album that could’ve sold well and been a major landmark in her career. Instead it is the soundtrack to her meltdown – a soundtrack no one is listening to.
Once again, I am rooting for Britney. Maybe this’ll be a hit for her.
I think the animation concept is a good one, but it doesn’t look anything like Britney…does it?
I think that the animation was a good idea… but I wish that the video had been less boring. A little more action would have been nice.
I think for Britney to really invent her image, she needs to be of sound, mind and body first. For now, I just want her to get well. Then we’ll worry about the image!
Well, I hope this means she’s just saving her balls-to-the-wall, full blast dance video for “Toy Soldier” cause that’s the perfect track to stage her visual comeback.
Well I don’t think there was much choice in the matter was there?
It looks great, but yeah. If it connected to the lyrics more, it’d be great (and i’m not talking about ice). I’d even love it if they included those breakaway shots of an animated britney on a fake set just lipping the lyrics, and a dance routine as if she still could pull off the moves.
I like the song “Radar” better than this one. And I hope she’s in it, looking sexy and dancing fierce!
It may have been well-drawn, but it was kind of boring. And if all that action meant what you deciphered, then kudos to Britney. But I would’ve been satisfied with waiting till she got better to do a video. I actually have my fingers crossed that she’ll stay normal until June, so she can perform at the MTV Movie Awards and show everybody that she’s still a great performer.
Dudes, this sucks. like…ANIME?? We’re not asian, thanks.
This was my favourite song of all time. And this “quasi” bullshit just doesn’t cut it out for I think, anyone.
I think everybody was expecting some huge awesome comeback, dance choreo amazement. Yet they got….a saturday morning cartoon?
please, brit.