Britney Spears. Rise and Fall of a Star

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction

2. Britney´s childhood
2.1 Early starts of her career
2.2 New York
2.3 The All New Mickey Mouse Club

3. Britney´s relationships
3.1 Justin Timberlake
3.2 Kevin Federline.

4. Breakdown in 2004
4.1 Shaving her head
4.2 Under conservatorship of her father

5. Rising again

6. References

1. Introduction

Britney Spears is and has been one of the most famous pop artists for almost fifteen years. She has been trough a lot since then and has progressed from being a cute, blonde teenager to the 31-year old grown woman with two children she is today.

I have always been interested in her and her story, so I chose this topic. In my paper, I follow her story from her childhood days, trough all the trouble the years of 2007 and 2008 have brought her including a massive mental breakdown, to the new success both in private and professional life she has now.

2. Britney´s childhood

2.1 Early starts of her career

Britney Jean Spears was born on December 2, 1981^[1]. She was the second child of Lynne and James Spears, having a four years older brother. She was a highly expected child, as every other woman in the Spears’ Family ever had only given birth to sons.

Britney’s love for dancing became very early very clear, when she took her first lessons at age two and was the best attending student^[2]. Even at this age she was very ambitious and always wanted to give the best performance^[3], her dancing teacher then describes her as a perfectionist^[4]. At that time she also developed a desire to sing, at first along to the radio in her mother’s car^[5] but very soon she started singing the hits from the radio on her own and this was when her mother realized that Britney really could sing. The girl started doing little concerts in the bathroom for her stuffed animals^[6] and clearly loved performing on stage when the otherwise shy girl suddenly turned extrovert^[7]. At that time, when Britney was about seven and had just won her first talent contest^[8], her family had some serious financial struggles^[9] but decided for Britney to get all the lessons she needed to possibly succeed^[10]. Britney had “always been an athletic little girl” and at age five, she started taking gymnastic lessons^[11]. She was quite a big talent and soon won some local competitions^[12] but eventually gymnastics didn’t make her happy anymore. So her mother, despite her heavy doubts, decided to trust her little girl and to allow her to quit gymnastics and focus on singing and dancing.

2.2 New York

When she first auditioned for The All New Mickey Mouse Club in Atlanta , Britney was only eight years old. She wanted very bad to be casted and gave her best, but even though the jury was all excited about her, they were convinced that she was too young. But the casting director found her “stunning, so there was no way [he] was going to give up on her”^[13], so he arranged for the Spears Family to make contact with a well-known agent in New York City, Nancy Carson. Lynne Spears phoned her as soon as possible, but as it turned out the Spears’ didn’t have the money to travel to the Big Apple, so they had to send her a package with tapes of Britney singing a few songs. The agent recognized Britney’s talent, as she wasn’t “just singing, she was performing”^[14], so she suggested for the young girl to come to New York with her mother, who was highly expecting her third child at that time.

Their finances were becoming much of a topic in their life anyway; Jamie wasn’t working regular^[15] so they were often struggling to pay their bills.

When they finally arrived in New York and made it to Nancy’s office, Carson finally insisted for Britney to take part in a very intensive training camp that would require her to move to New York. The family decided that Lynne Spears would move to New York with her daughters, even though Jamie Lynn was just a baby.

At the end of the summer, the Spears women were forced to go back to Louisiana without having had a big success. Nancy promised to look for other auditions Britney could go to, but the financial problems were big^[16].

But then Carson told them to come back as she had arranged for Britney to participate in a casting for the musical “Ruthless!”. She was made understudy for the main role.^[17]

The Spears family decided that it was best for Lynne to move to the Big Apple with Britney and baby Jamie Lynn for the time the show ran. At first Britney had much fun at the show but as time passed and she rarely got to play but had to attend every show, she got bored^[18].

At that time she also got to participate in Star Search, a major talent show in the early 90s. She got really far into the show but in the end the winner was another boy.

Britney and Lynne decided to drop out of “Ruthless!” so they could be home for Christmas.

2.3 The All New Mickey Mouse Club

Just before Britney was turning twelve, she had her second chance for getting cast for the All New Mickey Mouse Club. The competition was tough, as there were other, nowadays famous, back then already very talented kids in the race. For example, there were such big names as Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling^[19]. But Britney became a member of the cast and thereby a dream came true for her.^[20]

The Mouseketeers were like a family. All the actors had apartments near the Disney Studios in Orlando, Florida, where the show was recorded. There were some older kids on the show who had been there for a longer time and were idols for the new members of the cast. The children had to attend classes; Disney was very strict when it came to their academic efforts^[21]. The kids were very close and many of them remained friends, even years after the show was cancelled in 1994^[22]

3. Britney´s relationships

3.1 Justin Timberlake

Britney’s Father had had a drinking problem even before her birth^[23] but had been able to control it for a long time. But when Britney was 13 he started drinking again and this time Lynne insisted on seeking help. So she took the whole family to a pastor’s whom the rest of the family wasn’t very fond of, but who foresaw that “if [Britney] and her daddy don’t resolve their issues, […], she will end up clinging to the first real romance in her life. […]”^[24].

Britney and Justin had known each other since the old Mickey Mouse Club days and Britney even had her first kiss with Justin^[25]. Years after the MMC ended, Britney and Justin met again as Britney joined Justin’s very successful boy band ‘N Sync for their tour in 1998 to promote her debut album “… Baby One More Time”. But at first, both of them were in a relationship, although even Britney’s boyfriend at that time, Reg Jones reveals that [he] “knew they were either already together or would be together real soon”^[26].

She tried to get rid of the teenage-girl image she still had, although she clearly wasn’t a teenager anymore. The public made a very big deal about whether Britney was still a virgin or not and she was forced to deny that she had ever had sex by her management^[27] although her mother later wrote in her book that Britney lost her virginity at age 14^[28].

In 2000, the two young stars announced their relationship in public^[29] and got engaged in 2001^[30].

[...]

^[1] C.f. Heard, Christopher: Britney Spears. Little Girl Lost. Montreal: Transit Publishing, 2010. p. 24

^[2] C.f. Spears, Britney and Lynne: Britney Spears’ Heart to Heart. First Edition. Munich: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, 2000 p. 29

^[3] C.f. Ibid, p. 25

^[4] C.f. Heard, Christopher: Britney Spears. Little Girl Lost. Montreal: Transit Publishing, 2010. p. 25

^[5] C.f. Spears, Britney and Lynne: Britney Spears’ Heart to Heart. First Edition. Munich: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, 2000 p. 18

^[6] Ibid, p. 21

^[7] Ibid, p. 35

^[8] Ibid, p. 29

^[9] Ibid, p. 25

^[10] Ibid, p. 26

^[11] Heard, Christopher: Britney Spears. Little Girl Lost. Montreal: Transit Publishing, 2010. p. 26

^[12] Ibid, p. 26

^[13] Christopher Heard: Britney Spears: Little Girl Lost, p. 37

^[14] Ibid., p. 39

^[15] Christopher Heard: Britney Spears: Little Girl Lost, p. 41

^[16] Christopher Heard: Britney Spears: Little Girl Lost, p. 46-47

^[17] Britney & Lynne Spears: Heart to Heart, p. 47

^[18] Ibid., p. 47

^[19] Lynne Spears: Through the Storm, p. 84 et seq.

^[20] Lynne and Britney Spears: Heart to heart, p.74

^[21] Christopher Heard: Britney Spears: Little girl lost, p. 63 - 65

^[22] Lynne and Britney Spears: Heart to heart, p. 74

^[23] Lynne Spears: Through the Storm, p. 23

^[24] Ibid., p. 85

^[25] http://de.eonline.com/news/459658/britney-spears-reveals-her-first-kiss-was-justin-timberlake-says-jason-trawick-breakup-sucked (Last Access on 11/06/13)

^[26] Christopher Heard: Britney Spears: Little Girl Lost, p. 113

^[27] Ibid., p. 125 et seq.

^[28] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1052356/Britney-started-drinking-13-lost-virginity-14-took-drugs-15-says-mother-shocking-new-book.html (Last Access on 11/07/13)

^[29] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1519073.stm (Last Access on 11/07/13)

^[30] Christopher Heard: Britney Spears: Little Girl Lost, p. 146