Britney Spears is 29 years old, which isn’t really old at all, even for a pop star. And yet much of the talk surrounding her two new videos, “Hold It Against Me” and “Till the World Ends,” and especially her live performances on Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel has centered around the erosion of her once formidable dance skills. Now, Girlfriend has been through an awful lot since “…Baby One More Time” seared eyeballs in 1999: marriage(s), divorce, kids, custody battles, public humiliations, corrosive scrutiny, ugly power-plays over control of her very being, and more.
Remember when Britney Spears used to appear on stage in nude bodysuits or wearing a snake and barely anything else while dancing her butt off?Times have certainly changed.Pop Dust compiled shots of Spears dancing in her pre-head-shaving heyday to now — and the results are remarkable.As a twenty-something on the verge of my 30th birthday, I often wax poetic about the golden years of pop music that will always remain near and dear to my heart.
You know, that amazing block of time from about 1998-2002 where the music charts, radio charts, and heck even TV airwaves (TRL, baby!) were dominated by boybands, bubble-gum pop, synchronized dance moves, and of course, the force de dance that was Britney Spears.While we show mad love to Ms. Spears — especially her latest album Femme Fatale, which wowed us — we can’t help but wonder what the heck happened to her? How does a prolific entertainer, especially a dancer, go from tearing up the stage to looking like deer in headlights in a few short years.
