Beyonce vs. Britney: Station Conversation

Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles, two of our nation’s finest pop divas, each debuted videos this week from their forthcoming albums, racking up impressive viewcounts despite dramatically different approaches to the music video art form. Which lady rocks it out hardest? And which video works better for the YouTube set? Jill Weinberger and Liz Shannon Miller discuss in this week’s Station Conversation.

Liz: OMG! Jill! DID YOU SEE that there is a new Beyonce video? She dances in it, and sings about boys, and how they should respect women! And…OK, that’s about it. But still!

Jill: Well, um, it seems good to aerobecize to.

Liz: I really need an off-shoulder leotard. Oh, and five inch stilettos.

Jill: Who doesn’t? But but BUT, there is a new BRITNEY SPEARS video! Oh, yes. And in it, she lambastes (yes, I said “lambastes”) a guy for being a womanizer, and in the video, he is coming on to all sorts of women…but they are all played by BRITNEY SPEARS!!!

Plus, she is naked in a sauna a lot.

Liz: Oh, naked Britney. It’s so cute when she does that. Like she still thinks it’s something new.

Jill: She’s looking very taut and shiny, though. I’m not even into women, and even I feel like when Britney is naked, she’s thinking of the fans and bringing what they want to the table.

Liz: Even if that means literally laying on the table dressed in nothing but sauna sweat.

Jill: She’s all about the fans.

Liz: Man, Jill, remember the old days of covering music video online? When something would premiere on TRL and then fans would upload it to YouTube, and we would spend an hour writing something snarky about it, and by the time we’d done that, the record companies had ripped it down?

Jill: Now, the bulk of the top 30 on YouTube is usually music videos the record companies put up themselves. Music video online is actually dominating original video content.

Liz: I mean, we don’t have any numbers to support that theory, but we FEEL it. In our guts.

Jill: And then there’s that freaking throne and tiara they gave Avril.

Liz: Oh, OK, there is that. Wait, do you ACTUALLY get a throne and tiara?

Jill: If you do, I’m putting out a music video tomorrow. TOMORROW!

Liz: I’d just settle for being a sidekick in Beyonce’s video. There is nothing better than a massive dance sequence. After all, if it’s good enough for the end of Dirty Dancing, it’s good enough for me.

Jill: Here’s my issue with the Beyonce video. Gimme a costume change. Or do some green screen work and have her not move at all but be dancing in space, at the Alamo, etc.

Liz: But those are the sorts of gimmicks you need if maybe you haven’t lost your baby-making fat and haven’t rocked a dance stage in a while. Single Ladies is four flat-out minutes of hardcore booty-shaking. Every element of the video is dedicated to focusing your attention on how incredible the dancing is. The song’s a little repetitive, and I don’t know if I love the monochromatic look. But DAMN, Beyonce. You got moves.

Jill: You know what? If it were a VMA performance, I’d think it was amazing. If it were all done in a single take, I’d think it was a fantastic combo of dancing and technical achievement. But as it is, I think the dancing is great, but I don’t think it’s an outstanding video.

Whereas Britney — OK, it’s got many video cliches: She’s naked, she’s all the girls, everybody around her bursts into dance…but at least it heralds the triumphant return of a brand. That brand being hot, costume-changing, hook-having-single-producing, Britney.

Also, by creating a video that focuses on dance more than the song, Beyonce is flirting dangerously with returning to Paula Abdul’s old glory.

Liz: But Paula Abdul also did videos that were heavy on concept too. Her stories were “look at me, I’m talking to an animated cat,” but there was some story element there.

Jill: And Britney did her share of videos where she danced around and didn’t do much else. I’m just saying that “I’m a SINGER! And yet look how well I can DANCE!” does not an original video concept make.

Liz: True. I just feel like the story element of Britney’s latest is REALLY labored. There are a lot of moving pieces, a lot of distracting elements.

Jill: I feel like the oversaturation is intentional there. But I guess part of the problem is that neither of them are groundbreaking videos, to me. And neither of them are extraordinary songs.

The Beyonce video feels soooo self-satisfied about being “just the dance.” I mean, it’s great dancing, yes. But the video thinks it’s smarter or more original than it is.

Whereas, the Britney video is, I agree, TOTALLY paint by numbers giving the audience what they gobbled up before. But it’s not pretentious about it. It’s more like, “Hey, remember that great party we had? Well, it’s starting up again. Come on over!” Sure, it’s not too fresh and it’s ever so slightly desperate, but it’s still working hard to give people a good time.

Liz: I guess the question is, which plays better in this medium?

Jill: Now that’s a good question, ’cause to be honest, I think I’d like the Beyonce video better on TV. I don’t find a tiny YouTube window a great format for watching the art of the dance.

Liz: But the execution is so simple that I feel like you do really get to see it. Meanwhile I think there’s a level of detail to the Britney video that you miss out on because the screen is so small.

Jill: I don’t know, ’cause I gotta go back to that damn Avril video again, and say it had a similar feel, with the bright colors and the many set pieces and whatnot (not as much as Womanizer, but there was enough going on visually), and that obviously played really well on YouTube (for people that aren’t me, anyway). I think your average online video viewer would choose overstimulation over quality. Quality in terms of ability to process everything, that is.

But which is a better promotional tool for its song?

Liz: Well, I’ve seen both, and I can remember what the Beyonce one sounds like. It’s kind of stuck in my head right now, in fact.

Jill: See, here’s the thing for me. And let’s be honest and admit I’m not rushing to iTunes for either single. But, even though Single Ladies is kind of an infectious song (and better sung than Womanizer by a long shot), I watch that video and see what a good dancer Beyonce is. And I watch the Britney video and know Britney made another catchy pop song.

The Britney video, for me, promotes the song and her brand. And the Beyonce video promotes Beyonce’s look and dancing talent and her desire to show them off with a little chutzpah.

Liz: But doesn’t Beyonce’s brand consist of her look and her dancing talent and her chutzpah? In fact, isn’t that what EVERY pop star’s brand is built on? Single Ladies is just distilling that down to its core essence. Meanwhile, Womanizer hides Britney’s talent and sass behind wigs and backup dancers.

Jill: I just don’t think the Beyonce video promotes the song at all. It JUST promotes the artist. The only think about that Beyonce video that makes me remember the song, and not the video, is the fact that the song is repetitive enough to get driven into my head no matter how mesmerized I am by the dancing. (All dance singles are repetitive mind you; that’s not a slam on Single Ladies.) Just in terms of “how well does the video sell the song,” I really do think the Britney video does a job of promoting the actual song better.

Liz: If that’s true, then you’ll be able to tell me what the lyrics of the chorus are, right now. NO CHEATING. Go.

Jill: Um, the lyrics are WOMANIZER WOMANIZER WOMANIZER WOMANIZER WOMANIZER WOMANIZER. Thump, thump, thump. Britney in a sauna. Duh.

And the lyrics of Single Ladies are, PUT A RING ON IT PUT A RING ON IT PUT A RING ON IT PUT A RING ON IT. Cha cha cha. Look at how awesome Beyonce’s behind is.

Liz: Hey, it’s not just PUT A RING ON IT. It’s IF YOU LIKED IT YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT A RING ON IT, or something. And they point to their hands so you know what they mean. That’s a whole little love story, right there.

Jill: Ooh, by the way. what’s with Beyonce’s bejeweled Terminator glove thing? Is she secretly a robot? A heartbroken dance robot? ‘Cause that would add a whole other layer to the story for me.

Liz: You never know. I’d find Beyonce being a robot pretty plausible. Certainly more plausible than Britney being a robot.

Jill: Maybe I MYSELF will release a new single. And it will go HEARTBROKEN DANCE ROBOT HEARTBROKEN DANCE ROBOT HEARTBROKEN DANCE ROBOT — whoo whoo whoo — Look at my pretty new shoes. The shoes that will be featured in the video, of course.

Great, now I’m gonna have Brokenhearted Dance Robot stuck in my head all day.

Liz: That’s not even the best song on the album! Dance Robot Is Tired of Politics I find particularly touching.

Jill: Really?

Liz: It speaks to me, what can I say?

Jill: I prefer the poignancy of Broken Spring, Dance No More.

Liz: Sure. If you like rap solos.