Notebook Tidbits: Pop Star Overload

Okay, DON'T GET ME WRONG, Cedric and I were -not- serious fans of Christina or Britney, and by 8th grade our love for Madonna had turned into somewhat of a mockery, but there is plenty of material in one volume of our notebooks to show that we paid attention to what these chicks had going on at the time. I wish I had a scanner to provide more high-quality images, but as always, you can click to enlarge the photos below in order to view them in greater detail. First, I give you BATTLE ROYALE - Madonna vs. Britney. This genius concept was developed by Cedric to determine who of two celebrities were cooler, based on various aspects of their work and famousity (I made that up, WHATEVER). The text isn't all visible but the point is that Madge wins by a landslide.



Ceddog really kept up with what was going on with each popstar at the time, and really, nothing has changed since then, and it's been what, 9 years since he wrote this? PROPHETIC.



Detail of the Battle table, including lifelike drawings of Mad and Brit.



We kind of really loathed/morbidly loved Christina Aguilera. She was in her "Dirrty" phase circa 1999, which we found both sickening and hilarious. In my adolescent development class this past summer quarter, we watched the "Dirrty" music video as an example of what is being marketed towards teens as "cool" and "sexy," and even though the example is a little dated and I'm a little older, I was truly shocked at how disgusting I find the video now. And I was watching that at age 13 as entertainment? I never took the sexual overtones seriously or tried to emulate X-Tina in any way, but I'm sure a lot of girls even younger than me really did. Have a look for yourself and tell me this is not hideously inappropriate:



I really have no words. When I watched that video with my class, everyone's mouths were just agape. We're all in our twenties, we should have been able to laugh at it, it should have seemed "tame" to us after we've matured a bit, but really, it seemed worse than it ever did in 8th grade. Shame, Christina!



A tiny catsuited X-Tina in platforms Color-by-Number by Cedric. These things never got fully colored in.



Christina wasn't the only one slutting it up at the time--Britney Spears had to keep up and break away from her benign "I'm Not a Girl/Not Yet a Woman" image by wearing bejeweled, fleshtoned body suits onstage and crop tops and torn up booty shorts from day to day. Really, those of us barging into teenagehood in this era were the first to experience the onslaught of whorishness that continues to this day. Now, it's hardly ever given a second thought--that's just what pop stars do. "Genie" Christina and "...Baby" Britney are dead. Now they're mothers, but thank Goodness they both have sons, otherwise they'd be toting little girls around in infantile tank tops and hotpants. Um, I have to go now. That last image makes me feel like hurling. Oops! ...I did it to myself.