In the news......
Britney Spears says
"fuck." The earth moves.
That about sums up the near-monolithic buzz currently stirring over the multiplatinum popster's newest hit single. And no, this one isn't from her album.
Fans, perhaps stunned that Spears has the mouth of a sailor (read: normal teenager), are currently rushing to get their hands on a sound bite that features the 19-year-old princess freaking out prior to her performance at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil last week.
The clip features a lighthearted but anxious Spears--apparently unaware her microphone was on--using the
word fuck, fretting that her pants were too short (since when did she care?) and generally describing the situation as "retarded."
The tape first aired earlier this week on Los Angeles radio station KROQ. Since then, the clip has turned into a minor hit on Napster and become one of the Web's most downloaded files
since.
"Don't tell me they're just letting the audience
fucking stand out there like that. Oh my God," she says. "Okay, let's hurry y'all, seriously. This is retarded. They told me they were gonna do a vamp."
A "vamp" is musician slang for the opening music, usually played repeatedly before an artist hits the stage.
"Thank you, baby," Spears continued. "Oh...shit! Oh, nooo, what are they doing? Let me see...[Shrieking.] Oh, my pants are too short! I grew! I thought they were gonna...I know...I'm not just gonna stand out there. I thought they were gonna
fucking vamp. Okay, okay thanks. This is retarded."
Those wanting their own copy of the file can simply search on Napster under "Britney Spears" and "Rio."
The sound bite's popularity seems to prove that the singer's fleeting remarks are garnering more attention these days than even Alan Greenspan's. Some, however, suggest that fans are rushing to hear Britney's flip-out, not because of the cursing, but because it shows the navel-baring idol doing something few boy bands or teen starlets do in public these days: Acting normal, without posturing and without interference from paranoid handlers.
"I think it shows a different side of Britney that we normally don't see," says Rajiv Doshi, founder of
a Britney fansite. Doshi says traffic at his site has more than doubled since he posted the Rock in Rio sound clip Monday.
"In the press, she is so magnified, but in reality she is just a normal teenager," he adds. "This is the first time we get to hear Britney as she really is."
So the question here is
what makes you shake your head more:
a) A 19-year-old flash-in-the-pan pop singer saying 'fuck.'
b) A 19-year-old flash-in-the-pan pop singer saying 'fuck'
being newsworthy.
c) A
19-year-old flash-in-the-pan pop singer saying 'fuck' becoming the
#1 download on Napster.
d) Me adding to the
insanity by even mentioning all of this.
Answer: d), obviously.
