BRITNEY OR BETH: THE MUSIC VIDEOS

I had done a post a little while ago comparing the latest songs by Britney Spears and Beth Ditto of Gossip and now both have released the music videos for each of their tunes.

Both videos owe a large debt to the visual imagery of the Material Girl back in her glory days. For the video of her first single as a solo artist, "I Wrote The Book" , Ditto is seen carrying a suitcase, shot in black and white photography, walking down a long hotel hallway. Sound familiar? A couple of male dancers voguing in skintight bodysuits are thrown in to complete the look and you now have a 2011 revisiting of Madonna's "Justify My Love". It's all harmless and fun with Ditto looking sexy and being sassy.

With the video for Spears's hit, "Hold it Against Me" on the other hand, it's much more subtle in it's homage as it reminds me, in fleeting moments, of Madonna's "Bedtime Story". But this video comes across as an overly busy and unfocused mess. Photographed on a set of electronic garbage, Britney lip-syncs her single, surrounded by a standard troupe of male dancers. We are bombarded by fast cuts involving stiff dancing, flying paint, "Rocky Horror" red lips and a battle between two versions of Britney.  By the end of the video, I felt like I was suffering from whiplash. There's just way too much going on in this four minute clip.

Check out the videos and judge for yourself:





And just to make the comparison, here is the videos of Madonna's "Justify My Love" and "Bedtime Story":