- There's a popular saying that goes,
if Britney survived 2007, you can survive today.
But what contributed to her public and private struggles,
and what can we learn from her trials and tribulations
that have contributed to pop culture as we know it today?
We're about to find out.
(electronic dance music)
We've got a panel of Britney experts here today,
ranging from diehard Stans to people who have
a more complicated relationship with the pop star.
We have like, a spectrum here, it's like.
- Straight to gay.
- Exactly. (panel laughs)
Who is Britney Spears?
She was born on a holy day, December 2, 1981
in Kentwood, Louisiana to Jamie and Lynne Spears.
At age 11, Britney is accepted into the Mickey Mouse Club,
and she goes on to sign with Jive Records
and becomes an opening act for N'SYNC.
Britney became a star pretty quickly.
In 1998, at the age of 17,
she released "Baby One More Time."
The album Baby One More Time
became the biggest-selling LP by a teenage artist ever.
- I think the music video is what made it go crazy.
- The whole video was her idea,
the whole like, school room thing.
She tied up her shirt all on her own.
She was in charge of her vision from day one.
I was officially a gay man.
- I think that's very smart, but I love the way
how you said, she pulled up and tied her shirt
as if she like, fucking solved gravity.
- That was so iconic,
tell me you didn't do that at this age.
- No, it's iconic, but people did that before her, too.
- I mean, we're still talking about it.
- True, true.
- [Sam] There's no argument.
She became the biggest pop star in the world.
From the beginning, the media has always
had a fascination with Britney's sexuality.
In 2000, at the MTV Movie Awards,
Britney ripped away a black suit to reveal
a crystal nude body suit,
which was considered controversial at the time
because she was only 19 years old.
- Girl Scout moms in my group thought
she was a bad role model.
- She once again sparked controversy at the 2001 VMAs
when she performed scantily-clad
with a python wrapped around her shoulders.
Also, this huge speculation
over her first public relationship
with the infamous Justin Timberlake.
You guys remember their AMAs outfit
where they were dressed in all denim, right?
- [Sheridan] Who doesn't remember that outfit?
(panel laughs)
That will go in like, a museum.
- [Sam] The media was instantly infatuated
with their relationship.
But the fairy tale was not meant to last.
Britney and Justin broke up in 2002.
It was rumored they split because Britney was cheating,
and she never directly denied these allegations.
- Justin really wants you to know
that Britney cheated on him.
- [Sheridan] Cry Me a River was his huge first song.
- [Christian] Because of what?
- [Sheridan] Britney, it was about Britney.
- [Christian] He put this woman with blonde hair,
gave her that pink hat,
and he made it into his first big hit,
and that pushed him into pop stardom.
Before that, he was just a member of N'SYNC.
- I want to know what Jessica Biel thinks about this.
- Right? I don't know.
- She's too busy running Au Fudge.
(panel laughs)
Justin publicly stated that during their relationship
they had sex, which was a big deal,
considering Britney talked a lot about her virginity.
- There is rule in the book, the Bible, that says that.
I think that is a really important thing to do.
- For some reason, parents wouldn't let their kids
listen to young women singing
unless they proclaimed they were virgins.
- But I mean, she was a teenager.
Just because someone was expressing their sexuality onstage,
didn't mean you could ask such personal questions offstage.
- [Pablo] I think she set the mold
for Disney channel stars and Nickelodeon stars,
because we saw Miley Cyrus kind of took the same cycle.
- Also this time, she dropped her fourth album, In the Zone.
This is when Toxic is released,
every straight person's favorite Britney song.
She returned to the VMA stage with Madonna,
Christina Aguilera.
- [Sheridan] Oh my God, the kiss.
Actually two kisses, but everyone forgets
about the Christina/Madonna kiss.
- [Christian] Well I mean, Missy Elliot was there too,
but who talks about Missy, either.
- [Sheridan] Missy was there?
- I was raised Mormon, so for me that was
a little bit of a shock, but it spoke to me a little bit
because I knew that I was this queer little boy.
- I know, it's like two women kissing
defined the adolescences of gay men, basically.
Someone could do that in the middle of the street now.
- [Sheridan] Oh yeah, but at the time.
- It made her more of a news story.
- With Madonna as her model, Britney Spears
has upset a lot of mothers in this country.
- [Kendall] Really, if I had an opportunity
to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would.
- Oh, that's horrible!
- People say it's the beginning
of the downfall for Britney, in a way.
- [Sam] Would you say this like, intense fascination
with her public appearance is also sort of indicative
of celebrity and paparazzi culture of the time period?
- Oh, a hundred percent.
Doesn't matter which lives they ruined,
if they could follow Britney Spears around,
get a good shot of her, they could live pretty well
for the next few months.
And if you also look at her in photos
during this time period, going to gas stations
and just not wearing much, getting Cheetos.
- I don't know, I like at her just going to the gas station
in Uggs a little liberating for her
because she's not feeling like she has
to get all gussied up, and being Britney Spears,
this perfect package.
She's a human, okay.
- But behind the scenes, she's...
- But is she okay? - Yes.
- [Sam] Following her iconic MTV performance,
Britney's personal life takes a strange turn.
Britney marries her childhood friend,
Jason Alexander, in a Las Vegas wedding.
- Well, it technically never happened
because it was annulled.
- So forget it happened. - Just poof.
- [Sam] The marriage lasts 55 hours.
- She just became this mega, mega, mega star,
and that was something more simple.
Something that she was probably nostalgic for.
- Christian, you're getting real deep about this,
and like-- - Well, how can it--
- And there are a lot of things to get real deep about,
but let's be honest. - How can it not be real deep?
- They were drunk in Vegas, got married, had it annulled,
and I think that's okay to say.
- Right but there are--
- That happens, I have three college friends
who did the same thing.
- I think there was something a little more
than just being drunk.
- [Sam] To make matters worse, Britney had to cancel
her highly anticipated Onyx Hotel Tour
because she injured her knee on a music video shoot.
- And I think after that, I mean,
she hasn't really ever moved the same way.
'Cause she was such a great dancer,
and that's what she was really, really, really known for.
- Kind of stuck with her to this day.
- It has, yeah.
- I know if you're super busy, it's hard to confront
your problems, no matter what they are.
You're not thinking about it, but for the first time,
she finally had to take a pause and step back.
It was kind of a huge turning point.
- This brings us to another infamous name in Britney's life,
Kevin Federline, a 25-year-old high school dropout
from Fresno, California.
He and his ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson
had one child together and another on the way.
Spears became enamored with the club fixture
and known as Meat Pole.
- Meat Pole?
- You're not attracted to that nickname?
- No, for some reason that doesn't get my juices flowing.
- [Sam] Later that year, she proposed to Kevin Federline.
- [Sheridan] Britney Spears could have had
anyone on the planet, but.
- [Pablo] I can see why she chose him, lookswise.
- Definitely a career low for her.
I mean, and then, Chaotic, the show on UPN.
- It's kind of interesting to see how
we fell in love, got in fights, everything, you know.
It's just kind of there.
- I don't know how much of fights it shows.
- Well, it doesn't show all the fights.
But you can feel the tension.
- [Sheridan] Oh, my God.
RIP UPN.
- [Sam] On September 14th, 2005, Britney gave birth
to her first child, Sean Preston Federline.
In 2006, she gave birth
to her second son with Federline, Jayden.
On several occasions, the paparazzi caught Britney
in compromising positions with her children.
Sean sitting improperly in a baby seat.
- And what are the circumstances?
She was trying to get away from the paparazzi.
She was trying to protect her kid,
and it was the quickest way to get out of that situation.
- And she was being followed,
not by just one or two photographers at a time, like dozens.
I couldn't live under that microscope.
That's insane.
- She couldn't go anywhere. - She couldn't go anywhere.
- We just need privacy, and we need our respect.
And those are things that you have to have as a human.
- If someone's following you 24/7,
are you gonna be perfect 24/7?
- No.
- Absolutely not.
- [Sam] Media speculation about her parenting
resulted in the LA Department of Child and Family Services
to investigate her.
Britney broke up with Kevin Federline
after two years of marriage.
- [Sheridan] He was a "rapper," right?
Oh, God.
Never trust a White guy in cornrows.
- [Sam] The first song was called Popozao.
- [Sheridan] Oh my God, I remember, yes.
- Following the announcement of her divorce,
Britney is seen partying it up
with none other than Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
- Yeah, this was the start of Britney's excessive partying.
She is under the influence of alcohol,
and you don't know what else is going on.
- There are these famous images of her exiting the car
with her hoo-ha showing to the world.
- That point, there was nothing she could do
that was off limits to anyone.
- In February, Hollywood.com reports
that an email from her assistant says
that Britney was spiraling out of control
and her family wanted her to get treatment.
Britney Spears checked into rehab,
and left in less than 24 hours.
Britney went to a hair salon in Tarzana, California.
She was reportedly complaining
about her hair extensions be too tight.
The salon owner refused to cut her hair,
so Britney grabbed the clippers, and she did it herself.
(subdued electronic music)
- [Sheridan] We saw photos.
Every moment of this whole weekend was heavily documented.
- [Christian] I know there's conspiracies
as to why she did it, but, like she said,
she was tired of everyone touching her.
She was constantly told what to do, and pulled and pushed,
and I think it was her liberating herself, in a way.
Like, I'm shaving my head, that Britney, gone.
- Our first thought, when we were seeing this,
say, oh, Britney's so crazy.
- Yeah, at the time, I didn't understand
the whole mental health aspect about it.
I don't think any of us really did.
And so, she just became the butt of the joke.
- [Christian] I don't think it came as a surprise to anyone,
because that's where we were pushing her.
- [Sam] In September 2007, a judge ordered Britney Spears
to submit to random drug tests.
In October 2007, Federline is awarded
sole custody of the kids,
and Spears' visitation rights with her children
were also suspended until she complied
with court orders in their custody battle.
After she was asked how she was doing,
Spears was filmed telling reporters,
quote, "Eat it, snort it, lick it, fuck it."
And she's also speaking in a British accent
to paparazzi at this time.
In the midst of all this personal drama,
Britney's team strong-armed her into performing at the VMAs.
- Obviously, the performance of someone
who was struggling with a lot of stuff.
- [Sam] For the performance, she had to wear a wig
because her hair was still growing back.
- She stayed out until 2:30 a.m. that night.
- Forget appearance, because people have made
comments about her not being in peak shape.
She looked downright out of it.
- Was she ever going to win over
the general public at that point?
I mean, we were in the middle of lighting her on fire.
- They wanted that to happen.
- Despite all these person struggles,
in 2007, Britney manages to release
quite possibly her best album yet, Blackout.
- A piece of light in a very dark, dark time.
- [Pablo] I think, after seeing headline after headline
being like her career's over, her career's over,
her fans were over her,
she still releases a good body of work.
- It was her only album to join the archives
of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
After Blackout's release, Britney Spears was hospitalized
after locking herself in the bathroom
with her youngest son, Jayden, for three hours,
and refusing to hand him over
to her ex-husband Kevin Federline.
Later in the month, Britney Spears is hospitalized again,
and a motorcade of police vehicles and a police helicopter
took her in an ambulance at 1 a.m.
Her mother also encouraged Dr. Phil
to visit Britney in the Psychiatric Ward
of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at this time.
Dr. Phil immediately went around
and told the press everything.
In 2008, Britney Spears begins
being controlled by a guardianship,
a court approved conservatorship for people
who are deemed incapable of taking care of themselves.
This is a major turning point in her life.
- I think why she committed to the conservatorship
was so she could have some custody of her kids,
so she could see her kids.
- All she cared about was her children.
- There's a lot of good things that can come
out of structure and some certain limits.
- She went into hiding a bit.
You didn't see her everywhere.
You didn't see all these Britney controversies.
It's gets sticky when you think about her dad
and the money he makes from being a conservator.
- [Sheridan] If she's being forced
into a studio at gunpoint, we have no idea.
- And they're priming her up
for this huge comeback at the 2008 VMAs,
a year after the "Gimme More" performance.
- [Sheridan] Was it really only a year?
- Only a year.
Was it too soon for her?
- Hopefully, their cycle just doesn't repeat itself
where she feels like too many people
are around her and controlling her.
- If what happened in Britney's career in 2007
happened today in 2018, how would it play out differently?
- People are way more empathetic
to issues surrounding mental health.
- I will say that sometimes
I feel like people still haven't even learned this
because if you you look at Amanda Bynes in her time,
there was the same exact process.
None of us want to be watched like that,
so I don't understand why you can watch someone,
laugh at them, but I'm gonna go mess up in private
because I have that ability to.
- Do you guys think we made any progress
in the way that media treats and portrays
women's bodies and sexuality?
- Now we're in a place where we're talking about it,
and people are admitting things and being vocal.
I see, as time goes on, we're reclaiming our sexuality
and trying to figure out what it means to be a woman.
I think we can describe Britney as a trailblazer.
She could have just crawled back to Louisiana,
and we would be talking about,
like, whatever happened to Britney Spears.
But the mere fact that she came back
and stronger than ever is pretty impressive.
Before her, Vegas was seen as you're getting
a little older as an artist, have a Vegas residency,
get some good money in your last years.
Britney turned that into you can go
while you're still the young artist you are,
make good money, people will come see you
from all around the world.
And now, look, everyone's coming to Vegas.
- Yeah. - She is a trailblazer,
so it's exciting to see.
She's only 35, 36.
- Which I think is the age that you qualify
to run for President of the United States.
- I can't handle that.
(panel laughs)
("America the Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates)