Video Vantage Point

"If You Seek Amy"



Britney Spears may be a lot of things, but shy and reserved is definitely not one of them. Her personal troubles have certainly been well publicized in the last few years, but now the focus is back on her music. By no means is she the deepest artist in the sea of musical fish, but she's figured out what works for her, and if she has to make fun at her own life while batting her eyes the other way, then she will. "If You Seek Amy" garnered a lot of controversy over it's suggestive lyrics, as well as the double meaning of the song title (If you don't get it, say it really slowly), and in true Britney fashion, set the stage for what would inevitable be a media field day. She called herself "Miss Bad Media Karma" in the single "Piece of Me", but maybe she should reverse that title, because her media karma just may propel this song up the charts.

On to the video. She still possesses her blatant, teasing sexuality, but instead of flipping her hair, hips, and other body parts in front of a million back up dancers in an anonymous club somewhere (as the teen pop formula for successful videos had long required), she's picked up her come-on's and taken them to suburbia. This is the time where the kids need to leave the room. "Amy" is set in a typical suburban home that has been taken over by drunken, promiscuous partiers. Spears emerges as the lone vixen, and as she wanders through the remains of the night before, we see flashbacks of Britney doing what she does best, putting on a show. She certainly proves in this video, that the sexiness of past years, has not gone anywhere, and if anything, mature Britney has become more tantalizing to fantasize about.

While the video is considerably less choreographed than many of her older (and more infamous videos), her dancing is still there, although Britney has moved her mindset into the world of double meanings. The video cleverly ends with a June Cleaver-esque Spears stepping out of her house with her two children and husband and greeting a voracious paparazzi, news media mob. Translation? What goes on behind closed doors, is not always what you get in front of your face. If anything, this works for her "Amy" persona, because that is who the world is looking for; sexy Britney writhing on tables and beds in bustiers, with an apparent reckless abandon. Instead what we see is a modern-day Stepford woman. I'll bet money that Britney would rather stay inside if she could. Can you really blame her?