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Posted by on Dec 29, 2013 in Blog, Las Vegas, Music and Concert Reviews | 1 comment

Why Britney Spears Matters

 

britney-spears

 

 ”While the show’s producers claim Spears is singing along with backing tracks of her own voice, there was little evidence Britney sang a note live.”    

— Rolling Stone (Online) on Britney Spears’ debut show at Planet Hollywood on December 27, 2013

 

We all knew this moment of horror was coming.  Like pending doom.

It was just a matter of time before the image finally superseded reality.  Just a matter of time when lipsynched lyrics and dance-infused schlock kicked the art of live performance to the curb.  After all, they’ve already faked the National Anthem at a Presidential Inauguration.  So, fooling a bunch of ass-kissing sycophants with comped tickets at a casino should be super easy.

And wearing the jackboots, gyrating behind all the smoke and mirrors, is none other than pop princess Britney Spears, who according to at least two sources DIDN’T SING A SINGLE NOTE ALL NIGHT LONG in her hit-and-miss-and-miss-and miss debut show at Planet Hollywood, which premiered last Friday night.  That’s right, citing overnight reviews by Rolling Stone (SOURCE LINK) and the Los Angeles Times (SOURCE LINK), every vocal pitch from Spears’ glossy lips was probably prerecorded.  Oh, it sure looked like she was singing live — given she was hitched up to a microphone headset and mouthing the suggestive lyrics like a pro.  Believe what you want.  As they say, fools rush in.

But reality doesn’t matter.

With the debut of her long-awaited new show called “Piece of Me,” the uber-fragile paparazzi queen stands on the brink of quite possibly transforming the entire Las Vegas entertainment landscape.  Imagine that.  Shudder.  Should her two-year-long engagement prove successful at the box office — and all that really matters will be ticket sales (the critics and reviews be damned) — you’ll soon be witnessing a wave of high-tech copy-cat acts flooding onto the Las Vegas Strip.  Mega-casinos will be ripping up the contracts of the has-beens, you know performers with actual talent, in favor of pre-programmed niche performers that have all the originality of a prize tucked inside a cereal box.

Perhaps it’s inevitable.  If Spears doesn’t lead the way now, then someone else behind her will follow.  Like a breaking dam full of sludge.  Let’s face it, all the classic performers are getting older — much older — and the Las Vegas entertainment scene desperately needs to change along with the times.  It sure was fun while it lasted.  But the clock is ticking — and about to strike midnight on a bunch of names in bright lights with the bulbs about to burn out.  Legends like Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Cher, Elton John, Wayne Newton, Gladys Night — and long before that Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Bill Cosby, and so many others — have all become that one-word performer fears the most — nostalgia.

READ:  Why Mariah Carey’s failure is so much better than Britney Spears’ “success’

It’s become a different time.  A new age.  The time has come when deejays, dance queens, and rap artists will dominate our entertainment culture.  It’s here already.  And now, as some of those more contemporary acts begin to grow a bit older and fade somewhat in the public eye, they look for a career life raft.  So, Las Vegas becomes an attractive alternative.  Enter Exhibit A — a little older, faded a bit, needing a life raft — Britney Spears.

This is hardly anything new for our city.  For decades, Las Vegas has been a revival haven for performers who haven’t been relevant for years.  Even Elvis at the old International (now LVH) was thought of yesterday’s news when he made his famous comeback in 1969, which then kick-started an entirely new look for the kind and regurgitation of shows.  No matter what the genre, this city continues to feast on the scraps, whether it’s rock legends like Rod Stewart playing at Caesars Palace, or some broken down ensemble that calls themselves Creedence Clearwater Revival, booked at Texas Station for $19 a ticket.

But Spears is something completely different.  She’s a game-changer.  Certainly, no one expects the 32-year-old mom of two to continue doing that jail bait act forever — although from the looks of her new show she’s still trying to pull off petty much the same moves that made her into the world’s biggest cum dumpster at age 18.  What makes this performer and this show so different (and potentially meaningful) is the much larger question as to whether Las Vegas is quite ready yet for a performer who appeals to such a narrowly young demographic.  Not that there’s anything wrong with young crowds.  For a few shows, a limited engagement, that probably works.  But will anyone over the age of 35 spend $179 to see someone lipsynch their way through an entire show?

Perhaps they will.  At least she’ll sell out the first few months when everyone’s naturally curious about the new kid on the block.  Trouble is, all stage acts grow tired.  Word eventually gets out as to which performers “give it all” every single night versus those who mail it in and go through the motions.  Enter Exhibit B.  His best days are long gone by now, but you could always be sure you’d get everything out of Wayne Newton when he took the stage.  Hey, he had one lousy hit during the late 1950s but still managed to sell out showrooms for nearly four decades.  And he sure as hell never lipsynched.

This isn’t meant as a hate fest against Spears.  With her new show, she has a unique opportunity to mature right along with us.  It’s the chance of a lifetime to morph from a caterpillar into a butterfly right before our eyes — just as greatest acts in the past have done.  Spears has an extensive 15-year catalog and eight albums of music to pull from, plus one of the best creative music and dance teams in the world.  She can spend any amount of money and make any request, and it will be granted.  She can do whatever she wishes.  So, she bears the responsibility.  All we are saying is — entertain us.  Sing for us.  Dance for us.  At least, make it real.

So far, we haven’t gotten that.

Yeah, it’s still early.  Real early.  And perhaps things will improve.  Maybe Spears will get better onstage and, you know, actually, try and engage her audience with something that’s said from the heart, rather spew out than the canned line every night, “So, how you doin’ Vegas?”  More important, perhaps she’ll take the dead-on advice of Doug Elfman, the excellent music and nightclub critic of the Las Vegas Review-Journal who recently gave her the best advice I can imagine.

Paraphrasing Elfman, he wrote Spears needs to become an integral part of the Las Vegas community.  That’s the real key to gaining acceptance.  Take her kids to shows.  Be seen in and around town.  We’re a fickle place.  We see through the bullshit.  What we really want is sincerity and a genuine connection to the entertainment community.  Don’t try to be the entire blanket, but rather be part of the collective quilt that makes this city the entertainment capital of the world.

Unfortunately, Spears got off to a really bad start last week when she was quoted as saying, “This is my city, now.”  Really?  HER city?  Right after that, she reportedly flew off to Los Angeles.  SOURCE LINK

If Spears thinks she’s going to win our respect and gain our appreciation by hiding behind her bodyguards and following every scripted and prerecorded note on the sound machine, she’s in for a bitter disappointment, or much worse.  Someone else came to Las Vegas a few years ago and tried that.  Enter Exhibit C:  His name was Michael Jackson.

The hype will soon fade.  Then, Spears faces the real test.  She’ll have to make some serious changes and ramp up her talent for the show to make the successful haul over two long years.  She’s at a huge disadvantage already, since she’s nowhere near the talent of a Lady Gaga or Madonna — pop divas to which she’s often been compared to (unfairly to them, I might add).  So, the energy is going to have to come from somewhere else.  How about starting with the vocal cords and actually singing?  That might help.

Indeed, whether we like it or not — a new era has dawned on the Las Vegas Strip.  All thanks to Britney Spears.  And now she’s got to deliver.

1 Comment

  1. I realize this article is a few months old now, but I would like to leave a comment for the author, or even the website.

    Pieces like this always make me want to chuckle while shaking my head. Reason being is that this story ‘tutorial’ tailored around whether or not (but PROBABLY!) Spears was lip-syncing, has been done time, and time, and time,……. and time again. Going on about it as if this is some big news, or revelation that ‘Wow, 16 years into Britney Spears career, and she still might possibly, but most likely is lip-syncing – ACCORDING TO TWO PEOPLE THAT WERE THERE!’ (PS that part made the article look really cheap).

    Britney Spears lip-syncs. She always has, and always will, and no one knows this more then her fans themselves; the people who bought the 200, 000, 000 copies of her albums. The same people who have purchased the 1.5 billion+ bottles from her perfume collection, etc. These people don’t care that she lip-syncs, and never will.

    Discussing, and especially devoting as much time as was done in the writing of this article on Spears possible lip-syncing is not worth reading. As was stated Spears has always lip-synced, so the author is extremely behind the times if they think it’s still a ‘maybe’.

    What would be interesting to read about on the viewers end which no editorial writers have yet to touch on (because they haven’t thought of it yet?) is why is it that Spears is the only musical entertainer in history who it’s perfectly acceptable for to lip-sync. Ashley Simpson lost her career over her SNL lip-syncing blooper. Beyonce was slammed for her presidential performance. Madonna had to actually start singing around 2000 to save her career. And those two black guys that were lip-syncing to someone else’s voice… etc.

    Anyone else, and it would be a no-go. Anyone else and it would in fact be a rip-off. Anyone else, and it would not be entertainment. But Britney Spears? Britney Brands Inc has grossed billions, and probably made Spears herself almost a billion by now, and it’s all thanks to her lip-syncing.

    Why is this? There’s your next Britney Spears article topic.

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