Britney Spears’ 1998 breakout hit “...Baby One More Time” is so deeply embedded in the cultural consciousness of its era that it’s almost impossible to remember what its lyrics actually mean. Britney’s loneliness is killing her, yes, and she has a lot of thoughts on babies, but what, exactly, is going on with the…
In theory, the success of Kidz Bop makes sense. Kids like pop music and they like singing along to it, so why wouldn’t they like to hear G-rated versions sung by kids like them? In practice, however, Kidz Bop is both torturous to any parents born with eardrums and generally creepy as hell. That fact is never more…
Yesterday, celebrity and Cash Money Records recording artist Paris Hilton issued a simple tweet commemorating the 11-year anniversary of her invention of the selfie. At this point, the story has been told so many times, but why not recall when, pn the crisp evening of November 19, 2006, Hilton held out first her right…
In Podmass, The A.V. Club sifts through the ever-expanding world of podcasts and recommends the previous week’s best episodes. Have your own favorite? Let us know in the comments or at podmass@avclub.com.
Britney Spears’ oil painting video made the internet rounds about a month ago, capturing the public’s imagination with its use of a sprightly Mozart piano sonata as a score, her flamingo pose while painting what appeared to be a Lisa Frank-inspired work, and the painting’s own strange, bifurcated composition (why keep…
Nothing’s safe from Russian hackers these days—not democratic elections, nor even our celebrities’ social media accounts. Those carefully curated feeds draw a staggering number of eyes on Instagram, which is on track to hit a billion users this year, so naturally they’re now under threat from miscreants and malware.…
We’re going to go right out and call “Toxic” Britney Spears’ best-ever song, as it uses an insanely evil and addictive hook to tell the story of that person you should give up but you know you can’t. Spears released “Toxic” on her fourth studio album, In The Zone, in 2003, even before she met Kevin Federline, making…
Reminding us that there’s no power in the universe more potent than a certified diva, hot off a successful Las Vegas residency, Vulture reports that an international Britney Spears concert has disrupted a major political primary in Israel. The primary was scheduled for July 3 in Tel Aviv, the same day Spears intends…
If you are a successful pop star, conquering the movies appears to be the next logical step. After all, it worked (kind of) for Elvis. And Justin Timberlake! But it turns out that Elvis and JT are the rare exceptions. Most times, when movies are crafted around a particular pop star who’s new to film, the results are…
Although you should never doubt Lifetime’s ability to take a salacious story and puree it into the TV-movie equivalent of baby food, the network has once again got our hopes up with the trailer for its newest celebrity biopic, Britney Ever After. Starring Hail, Ceasar! bit player Natasha Bassett as the troubled pop…
CBS’s annual People’s Choice Awards are one of the few big-name award shows in which average citizens get a voice, with online voting determining the winners of the ceremony’s 64 categories (ranging from Favorite Movie all the way over to Favorite YouTube star). As such, the PCAs present a somewhat different picture…
From its earliest days, South Park had a tempestuous relationship with pop culture, at once skewering the speed of American discourse and generating its own, flashbulb-quick catchphrases. It’s the type of show that would bring on one of the world’s most famous actors and relegate him to performing a dog’s yips. As the…
The Twitter account TabloidArtHistory sets out with a pretty clear mission: pair tabloid snapshots with the pieces of fine art they most clearly resemble. It’s only been around since Sunday and already found 58 such pairings, but the results so far are consistently incisive. The easy argument here would be to…
If you’ve been feeling nostalgic for the days of elementary school music class, when you and a bunch of other kids were taught how to play the shitty excuse for an instrument that is the recorder, look no further than shittyflute, a YouTube channel entirely dedicated to why you shouldn’t be. Shittyflute’s devotion to…
Like most large internet platforms, YouTube is home to any number of strange, esoteric subcultures whose ways might seem incomprehensible to newcomers or outsiders. Writer Kelli McDonald explores just such an eccentric group in a piece for The Daily Dot called “Inside YouTube’s Neon Hive Of Vegas Slot Machine Videos.”…
Kanye spoke, Beyoncé astounded, but some other stuff had to happen at the VMAs to keep the show just long enough to feel interminable. Awards were handed out, though those were mostly an afterthought; there were numbers from artists whose names you haven’t bothered to learn (The Chainsmokers? Halsey?); and beloved…
Britney Spears releases her ninth studio album, Glory, today, marking 17 often-contentious, massively profitable years in the public spotlight. And while the folks over at Lifetime are getting ready to make a little bank of their own by peddling Spears’ life story to the masses, sans blessing or authorization, true…
People worried that Britney Spears can no longer make decisions for herself should take heart: A representative for the singer has said she wants nothing to do with Lifetime’s just-announced biopic about her, and that the project doesn’t have her blessing.
Allowing us to finally talk about Britney Spears and Robert Durst at the same time—outside of a discussion of people who notably belched on TV—Lifetime has announced that it’s signed on for a biopic of the “Hit Me Baby One More Time” singer, to go along with all the other projects it ordered up today. It’s not clear…
The Billboard Music Awards ceremony was held last night, and saw Adele and The Weeknd take turns taking the stage to accept most of the awards. It also featured Madonna’s tribute to the late, great Prince, of which few details had been made available. Everyone was pretty sure it would feature Prince’s signature royal…
