It's Britney Bitch!

Britney Spears is back, again. How many times does she have to fade into obscurity and then make a comeback before people stop caring? Probably a few more times, since I too am eager to judge and make fun of her once again. Don't get me wrong, Ms. Spears has made some classic contributions to music history with songs like "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Hit Me Baby One More Time" however I just can't understand why everyone is so excited for her next album. I think it comes down to the fact that we love a comeback, even when we never liked the original. This got me wondering, why do we love them so much. Here are a few possible theoretical understanding of why we are excited to see what Britney has in store for us this time:

Marxist: A lot of money is going to be made by some already rich record labels. A cynical, sinister understanding of the motivations for the release of this next album could be that it all comes down to money. and we as consumers are being manipulated by the bourgeoisie record label execs. Every time Britney releases a new album, at least one of the singles hits (close to) the top of the charts. This leads to increased album sales which leads to more money. So why not make Britney continually release new albums you ask? For three reasons reasons

1. It takes time to make an album and very few artists are able to cut an album, tour, and then cut another album in sequence without a break. Making music and touring  is exhausting both physically and mentally. (In Britney case, very mentally exhausting which can lead to ... wel, you know- head shaving, umbrella attacks, infant drivers, ect.) 
2. Even a very good artist can over saturate the market and thus her popularity will decline and each release will make less than it could have. So it makes sense to avoid this and make her go away untill we are happy to see her again.
3.  Britney was never that good in the first place. Yes I said it, get over it. Even in her hay day, nobody exclaimed what an amazing vocal talent she was, or how powerful and moving her music was. In fact most critics noted that Britney is very likely lip-syncing to bad music that is carefully produced so that the general population doesn't notice how bad it really is. They need to make her visits with the public short enough to mask her lack of talent.

Feminist: Ok now maybe I'm taking a leap of faith here, but  I'm pretty sure most feminists would probably dislike Britney and what she stands for. (I'm a Slave 4 U -> put the feminist movement back  a very long time considering women haven't been considered property (ie slaves) in a few decades.)  Maybe men like when Spears has a comeback because it leads other women to emulate her persona a become more docile (and slutty). But women love Britney too (and I really dislike the argument that these women are brainwashed popular media run by men.)  We need to understand why women love her. Maybe it's because for a short time we like to see women in the media who we know are not perfect (she stopped being a perfect replica of a barbie when she dropped her baby.) I'm a little shaky on this argument as you can see, I don't fully understand why competent women like Britney Spears. (Myself included, I have a bizarre affection for her and have even caught myself defending her music- "it's good to dance to")

Social-Functionalist- This theory might posit that a comeback reifies the notion that hard work is rewarded. We are glad to see Britney make a comeback because we are confident that she worked hard for it. She should serve as an example to others, so that they too will work hard to make it on top again. (This theory sucks though because all of structural functionalist theory completely ignores the fact that not every one who works hard is rewarded, and not everyone who is rewarded worked hard for it. We don't live in a meritocracy Britney Spears may be a hard worker but there might be another reason why this White girl has managed to make so many comebacks while other Non-White artists are held to stricter standards.)

My theory- We like her costumes because usually they are sparkly and shiny and we like her live shows because thy have lots of pyrotechnics. We also like to talk about how crazy she is and a comeback likely signals more craziness to come!