Let’s look at this unforgettable piece of music within pop cultural context. This particular song was off Britney Spears’ album Oops!… I Did It Again, the follow-up to her wildly popular debut album, …Baby One More Time. Apparently at this point in her life, she loved ellipses as much as she did implicit sexuality… (See what I did there?)
Heterosexual males: I don’t care who you were, how old you were, or what kind of music surrounded you at the time of these releases, Britney made your stomach feel funny (or your loins, depending on your age). Parents loved her because not only did she sing cute pop music, but she was a shining example to children everywhere for being a proud virgin. Little did they know that we, their children, only loved her so much because we wanted to steal said virginity. But neither parent nor child knew that Britney was struggling with remaining proud about her virginity. But we should have seen the signs of her duress. They were all around. Cue the video for “Lucky”.
For those of you who completely missed 1999, or were too lazy to watch the embedded video, “Lucky” is the story of a girl, aptly named “Lucky”, who is dissatisfied with her fame and fortune. She’s got everything in the world, and yet, she feels as though something’s missing. “She’s so lucky, she’s a star, but she cry cry cries with a lonely heart, thinkin’/If there’s nothing missing in my life, then why do these tears come at night?” A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, truly, and a story within a song worthy of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.
But when you really analyze all the nuts and bolts of this fine piece of musicianship, you come to realize that this song might not be about a fictional character “Lucky” at all! Bear with me, here, but I think this song is really an allegorical look at Britney’s own personal life. Or, as youtube user xxmayraxx90xx so eloquently put it, “i think? this song was her really life, but no body get the message…”. Couldn’t have said it better myself, xxmayraxx90xx. I mean grammatically, you could use some minor indoctrinating, but the point is as solid as it is simple: Britney was very dissatisfied with something. And I think that something was sex.
I mean, just look at all the subtle motifs in the video itself. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that Britney is actually playing the role of Lucky! Does this mean that she herself feels dissatisfied with the fame and the fortune and just wants a lover? I think so. And did you see that look of recognition Lucky gave Britney as she climbed into the limousine after the awards show? Something’s wrong with this picture. Lucky wants out! She’d give up all the fame and fortune just to be herself, that is to say, Britney.
This video is Britney’s plea to society to just let her be her. She wanted to have sex. And so, shortly after the release of this album, she did, and announced publicly that she was no longer a virgin. Gone were the poster child days of bubble gum pop; replacing them – unabashed, outright sexual expression (see: the video for “Toxic”). It was right in front of our eyes, and we all missed the message she was trying to convey, which should fill us all with guilt.
Who knows, if one of us would have spoken up, we might have saved our favorite pop virgin from the impending K-Fed child-having, weight-gaining, disappearing from the public eye debacle that would eventually ensue.
