Britney bops are darker than you think

Free Britney, bitch.

With her Sept. 29 hearing underway, multiple documentaries have been released regarding Britney Spears and her 13 year-long conservatorship. These documentaries shed light on the situation, but more importantly, they have made the conservatorship and its issues public knowledge. Spears shocked the world on June 23 when she openly addressed the conservatorship for the first time during her testimony.

However, Spears has been dropping hints post-2007 alluding to her conservatorship, and eerily enough, has foreshadowed her situation in a few of her pre-2007 songs. Maybe next time we bop to these bangers, we can stop to think of what Spears was going through when she released these songs:

Dark Lyrics:

Lucky – Oops!…I Did It Again (2000)

Being the second single of her second album, “Lucky” tells the story of a fictional character and her struggle with Hollywood fame. Nowadays, fans are spooked by how much the song’s lyrics, despite being released 21 years ago, eerily reflect Spears’ current situation. In the song’s refrain, Spears sings that “they say / She’s so lucky, she’s a star / But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart.” When Spears made her public court appearance on June 23, in her testimony she said, “I thought people would make fun of me … and say, “She’s lying, she’s got everything, she’s Britney Spears.” Later in her testimony, she says “I’m not happy. I can’t sleep … I cry every day.” In the second verse of the song, Spears sings that “the world is spinning, and she keeps on winning” but asks “what happens when it stops?” 

Spears confirmed in her testimony that the conservatorship has been effective for 13 years, and during that period of time, she released four studio albums and went on their respective tours. After her ninth studio album “Glory,” Spears went dark in the music industry and never spoke about her conservatorship in public until recently.

Overprotected – Britney (2001)

Only one year later, Spears came out with “Overprotected” for a third studio album that marked the beginning of her settling into her more mature image, contrary to her first two albums. In the context of 2001, “Overprotected” can be seen as Spears’ response to the criticism she received for assuming such a provocative image. However, the song’s lyrics also foreshadow Spears’ struggle with her conservatorship. 

She sings “I’ll tell ‘em what I like, what I want, and what I don’t / But every time I do, I stand corrected.” In “Britney: For the Record,” a documentary released in 2008 (the first year the conservatorship was put into effect), Spears says, “The way I feel, they hear me, but they’re really not listening. ”

In “Controlling Britney Spears,” one of the most recent documentaries released addressing the Free Britney movement, it is revealed that many of Spears’ interactions and conversations with other people were monitored and since the conservatorship, she has not been allowed to have a phone that did not have parental controls.

If U Seek Amy – Circus (2009)

This single for Spears’ heavily anticipated sixth studio album, which marked her supposed comeback following the tumultuousness of her 2007 “Blackout” era, shocked listeners then and shocks them now for different reasons. In 2009, the song was a clever way to sneak the f-word into the radio, which gives Amy’s seemingly innocent story a dirtier undertone. Spears sings “all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy.” Although this catchy line can be taken as Spears being sought after by everyone, she is also saying that everyone is out to get her and screw her over, which would align with her feelings of powerlessness within the conservatorship that would have already been in effect for a year by the time “Circus” was released.

Work Bitch – Britney Jean (2013)

When this ultimate workout anthem was released, fans made light of the fact that Spears became their main motivation to carry out their everyday goals. Although an essentially harmless bop, the song has a much darker lens with the knowledge that 2011-2013 was one of Spears’ most difficult periods in the context of the conservatorship. In the song, she lists specific items that the listener would supposedly want as a result of being rich and famous such as “a Lamborghini” and ends each line with “You better work, b**ch.” One of the most haunting lines in this song is when she sings “You wanna live fancy?” In “Controlling Britney Spears,” one of Spears’ former assistants reveals that because Spears no longer had autonomy over her finances, she was restricted from buying even the smallest things such as a pair of Skechers that she thought were cute. More recently, Spears posted on her Instagram that the iPad she ordered had finally arrived and emphasized that she never owned one prior to that day. 

Dark Music Videos:

Break the Ice – Circus (2009)

The music video that was released with this song could be considered one of Spears’ most interesting concepts to date. In order to further promote it, the concept of the music video was turned into a fan contest, and the concept that won depicted Spears as a superhero. In the video, we see Spears break into a laboratory where the bad guys are culturing clones of Spears’ character. Looking deeper, however, these clones of Spears can be seen as the typical sexy “Britney Spears” brand that she was known for most of her career that the conservatorship forced on the public to let them think there was nothing wrong, neglecting Spears’ true well-being under the surface of her happy and content persona.

Hold It Against Me – Femme Fatale (2011)

The elaborate and complex concept for the music video for the “Femme Fatale” single can be said to have had more impact on Spears’ fanbase than the actual song itself. With absolutely no correlation to the lyrics, the music video triggered the rise of conspiracy theories regarding Spears’ situation, some as extreme as her involvement with the Illuminati and others as simple as alluding to the possibility that she is trying to send us a message about her situation. Spears’ preference for camera symbolism in her music videos has been present since the paparazzi’s obsession with her in 2007. However, post-2007, the camera has taken on a different meaning and in the video, the insane amount of cameras focused on Spears could be a hint to the incessant monitoring of Spears during her conservatorship.

I Wanna Go – Femme Fatale (2011)

The fact that the music video jabbing at the conservatorship for this single was released within the “Femme Fatale” era same as the previous is very telling given that 2011 was one of Spears’ most difficult years in terms of the conservatorship. The video follows Spears wreaking havoc as a form of rebellion (while fighting off evil humanoids). 

The concept aligns with the song’s surficially sexual lyrics of “taking out my freak tonight” and showing “all the dirt I got running through my mind.” At the end of the video, Spears is led safely off-stage by her supposed manager until he breaks the fourth wall and reveals that he too is an evil humanoid. In retrospect, the turn isn’t surprising after Spears mentioned in her most recent testimony that her management played a complacent role in the conservatorship and often gave her ultimatums if she did not comply with their wishes.

Make Me… – Glory (2016)

Finally, Spears’ most recent single for her ninth studio album, was revealed to have had two versions of the music video, one released and one unreleased. The version that was released featured Spears auditioning various men who wanted to be in her music video, a rather simple concept. However, the unreleased version, which was leaked on YouTube, contains images that were obvious hints at her conservatorship. 

Spears, in the music video, throws a TV that was displaying the events of the music video into the pool, which ends up electrocuting whoever was swimming at the time it happened. The camera then cuts to Spears in a red catsuit in a cage in the pool. Cage imagery is not unfamiliar to Spears. During her “Piece of Me” tour, Spears was often seen dancing in a cage, representative of the restraint that colored her entire life.