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Mutual appreciation: Britney Spears and the media machine

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Mutual appreciation: Britney Spears and the media machine

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Content MUTUAL APPRECIATION: BRITNEY SPEARS AND THE MEDIA MACHINE by Nora Clark Crutcher A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS (SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM—THE ARTS) August 2010 Copyright 2010 Nora Clark Crutcher ii Acknowledgements For helping me shape this work, I am endlessly indebted to Tim Page, Sasha Anawalt, Jon Burlingame and Josh Kun. A special thank you to my parents, Dan and Julie Crutcher, for putting up with all of the Britney Spears singalongs of my youth and for buying me my first concert tickets. To my friends in the Specialized Journalism program who listened patiently and never complained—thanks for keeping me sane and laughing throughout the process. And love and gratefulness as always to Mollie Crutcher, who has forever been my biggest cheerleader and who once told me not to underestimate the power of “…Baby, One More Time. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract iv An Experiment In Celebrity 1 A Spectacle Is Born 4 The MTV Moment 8 Leaving Innocence Behind 12 The Quest For More Edge 15 Explicit Packaging 18 Tabloid Queen 21 TMZ Takes Over 24 An MTV Homecoming 28 Taking Back Control 32 Bibliography 36 iv Abstract In the public eye since the age of 11, Britney Spears has cultivated a relationship with media that has evolved as her career has flourished. She used media to establish herself as an artist, and maintained a symbiotic relationship with MTV, promoting new albums and videos on a network that spoke directly to her core audience while allowing that network to reap the benefits of her much-hyped appearances. As her audience grew, so did her opportunities to exploit media coverage, and she built her career on scandal- making performances and the explosion of press that followed them. But the media machine eventually surpassed all of Spears’ attempts to control her own public image, and a monster industry of online gossip websites was spawned in part on unflattering photos of and stories about her. Spears had to find a way to once again establish herself an as artist capable of putting on a great show, and she turned once again to MTV to help her manufacture a comeback. Throughout every phase of her career, Spears has had to navigate the increasingly muddled waters of modern media, and though her methods have not always been successful, they nonetheless show that being a pop star in the 21 st century is as much about effective image management as it is about climbing the Billboard charts. 1 An Experiment in Celebrity Britney Spears was born on TV, in that everything her name has come to encompass--immense revenue streams, endless controversy and more than a few contradictory personas--is in some way product of her interaction with the medium. Television (most notably MTV) has benefitted from having Britney around, and so has Britney benefitted from using both television and the internet to present (or to appear to present) a side of herself that contradicts all of the sex-tinged antics of her song lyrics, concerts, performances and music videos. In her television interviews, Spears appears polite but reserved, naïve despite the number of times she’s traveled the world performing. It is in these brief glimpses of the person behind the glamorous if manufactured image her name instantly brings to mind that the true nature of her specific brand of entertainment emerges: here is a star who can push boundaries onstage and at the same time be casual and relatable in interviews and made-for-TV specials. Here is a star whose very appeal rests in the crux of what it means to be a celebrity: people both know who she is and voraciously consume media trying to figure out who she really is. Each new persona she presents to the public is really just the same brand in a slightly different package, but nonetheless the perceived disparity between Britney Spears the person and Britney Spears the performer (and commodity) has been beneficial to both the star and to those outlets that have helped to create her. Though Spears is not the first singer to exploit multiple personas for the benefit of a camera, she is the most emblematic of what it means to be truly famous in the 21 st 2 century. It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario: the media machine that sustains her level of fame wouldn’t exist without her, nor would her name carry any pop culture significance without the machine. Spears’ relationship to the machine has evolved over her decade-long singing and performing career. As her level of fame was rising steadily in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she was more than happy to play the role of eager promoter of her own brand. She appeared on MTV staples constantly, stopping by Total Request Live to introduce a new music video (which would inevitably rise to the #1 spot in a matter of days) and gamely sitting down for interviews with long forgotten MTV VJs before her new records were released. In an ABC Primetime special from 2003 (coinciding with the release of Spears’ album In The Zone), Diane Sawyer speculated, “In some ways, she’s like a laboratory experiment in the insulating power of relentless fame.” 1 The experiment imploded a few years later, as the attention focused on Spears’ every move intensified. The subsequent rise in the mid-2000s of gossip websites like TMZ.com and Perezhilton.com and the high numbers of web traffic they drew because of exclusive paparazzi photos and videos of her made “Britney Spears” the most searched name on the internet of the decade. 2 Every tactic she tried to use to lash out at the photographers following her every move only got her more press, and when she finally 1 ”Britney Spears.” Primetime. ABC. 13 Nov. 2003. 2 Davies, Rebecca. “Spears ‘most searched celeb of decade’.” Digital Spy. 22 Dec. 2009. <http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a192465/spears-most-searched-celeb-of-decade.html>. 3 returned to television, without any album to promote, it was only to beg for the attention that was a byproduct of the same “relentless fame” she had once thrived upon to cease. 3 Spears’ professional rise and fall—from young singer seemingly incapable of making an unpopular song to wobbly performer who could barely manage to properly lip synch to her latest tune—were chronicled on television, but so too were her attempts to have a voice outside of that which had been created for her. Throughout all of her television appearances, the most consistent element is Spears insisting she is a normal girl in extraordinary circumstances. At the beginning of her career, it sounds like a marketing ploy; by 2006, it has become a plea. In examining television clips from different periods in Britney Spears’ career, it is possible to trace both her role in the making of her own image—from compliant young performer with a singular focus on selling her brand to America to her insistence that she be allowed to explain herself amid a frenzy of bad press—and to outline uncanny parallels between the merciless celebrity culture surrounding Spears and subsequent shifts in mainstream media and its treatment of the intoxicating, often detrimental, power of fame. 3 “Britney Spears: Speaking Out.” Dateline. NBC. 15 Jun. 2006. 4 A Spectacle Is Born Britney Spears first appeared as a regular fixture on television in 1993, as a cast member of The New Mickey Mouse Club (also known as MMC) on the Disney Channel. 4 She was 11 years old at the time, and there was no Britney Spears brand to speak of. On the daily variety show aimed at kids, she performed skits and sang songs with an ensemble cast that included her future boyfriend, Justin Timberlake. Her dancing skills were already formidable, though her wardrobe on the family-friendly show consisted mostly of modest overalls and oversize t-shirts. In one segment, she showcases her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana, explaining to viewers the thrill of racing Go Karts and the proper way to eat a crawfish (“the head’s the best part.”) 5 “Where I come from is country,” she says, “and I when I get back home I start talking country again.” 6 Though she would use her very “country”-ness as an excuse for driving with her infant son on her lap in 2006, 7 the most striking element of the piece (especially compared with the stiff, laugh-track laden skits she was put in) is her ease in front of the camera. Disney hadn’t yet mastered its current technique of signing promising young stars to lengthy and potentially lucrative multi-year contracts, and it certainly didn’t use Spears’ down-home charm to its fullest extent. Though many of the featured players are now successful actors or musicians (Timberlake and fellow ‘N Sync bandmate JC 4 Daly, Jon. “Inside The Bedroom of America’s New Teen Queen.” Rolling Stone. April 1999: p.1. 5 The New Mickey Mouse Club. Disney Channel. 1993. 6 Ibid. 7 “Britney Spears: Speaking Out.” 5 Chasez, Christina Aguilera, Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling), Disney didn’t make any money off of their profitable later careers. 8 After Spears and some of her peers became successful outside of Disney, the company hatched a new plan to “essentially [recreate] the old Hollywood star system with its tween actors and actresses,” giving 10-to-14 year olds who fit a preconceived ideal shows, recording contracts, movies and merchandising deals. 9 “These days,” writes Catherine Applefield Olson about Disney’s strategy, “it is standard procedure to have an act--Raven-Symone, the Cheetah Girls, Vanessa Hudgens or Miley Cyrus, to name a few--to star in a Disney Channel series or movie, make a Disney soundtrack album, shoot a music video that airs on Disney Channel and burn up the Radio Disney airwaves”. 10 In 1994, Spears was released from her contract with The New Mickey Mouse Club and returned to her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana to attend high school. Ironically, her success with young fans in the market just five years later would cause Disney to rethink its entire branding strategy so as to never let another potential Britney get away. Without the power of Disney (or its uniformly wholesome image) behind her, Britney Spears was left to invent herself. The persona she chose was full of contradictions, as witnessed in her debut music video for her first single, “...Baby, One More Time,” which Rolling Stone described as “seventeen-year-old singer cavorting around like the naughtiest of schoolgirls.” 11 In the iconic video, Spears appears in a 8 Boorstein, Julia. “Disney’s ‘Tween Machine.” Fortune 29 Sept. 2003. 9 Ibid. 10 Olson, Catherine Applefield. “Disney at 50.” Billboard 11 Nov. 2006. p.42. 11 Daly, p. 1. 6 Catholic school uniform with her shirt tied up above her navel, pouting and shimmying for the camera. Alison Trope, Clinical Associate Professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism says of her look in the video, “She played off the little girl and schoolgirl image…which set her up as a very conventional Lolita, even sex kitten role.” 12 At the time, she was only just beginning to play with contrasting elements of her personality, declaring her commitment to her Baptist faith in one breath and acting the role of teenage temptress the next (she defends the video’s concept, telling Rolling Stone it was her choice to show some skin: “I said, ‘Why don't we have knee-highs and tie the shirts up to give it a little attitude? — so it wouldn't be boring and cheesy.’”) 13 In the same interview, Spears explains the importance of being a good role model ("You want to be a good example for kids out there and not do something stupid”) and later describes the fake ID she has for trips to New Orleans bars with her older brother, explaining, “I know how to drink.” 14 Is she a nice young Southern lady or a sneaky party girl? In part what made Spears so popular with her own demographic was the way she embraced what it meant to be young in the last years of 20th century, using her early videos to exploit the contradictions within herself and by extension, those of her generation. Her first music video showed that she loved basketball and Abercrombie and Fitch clothing as much as she loved dancing around in various states of undress. A churchgoing girl who was aware of her own sexuality (if not entirely in control of its 12 Trope, Alison. Email Correspondence with Nora Crutcher. 16 Jun 2010. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 7 power), Spears hooked America’s youth by “playing innocent and then playing the shock for all [it was] worth.” 15 15 “Britney Spears.” 8 The MTV Moment The popularity of Spears’ “...Baby, One More Time” video, and the subsequent fame she got from its ubiquity would never have been possible were it not for a new MTV show called Total Request Live (TRL for short). Hosted by VJ Carson Daly, the show allowed viewers to call in and vote for their favorite music videos, which were then presented in a daily countdown. TRL went on the air in 1998, just as Britney Spears’ first single was being released. The timing could not have been better for both the young pop star and MTV, whose mutually beneficial relationship would continue throughout the next ten years of Spears’ career. Her videos, played nonstop on the daily show, helped to define her particular brand of superstardom, which hinged on signature moments that mixed femininity and overt sexuality, and she in turn garnered MTV ratings for its programs and awards shows (at which she was a fixture) as well as the right to premiere all of her newest music video creations. TRL epitomized what music critic Ann Powers calls “the idea that kids are consumers and their power is mostly the power of consumption.” 16 What kids wanted to consume at the time was everything Britney. Her video for “...Baby, One More Time” quickly claimed the number one spot after its debut in November of 1998. 17 MTV executive vice-president Dave Sirulnick said in 2000: 16 Powers, Ann. “Inside ‘Total Request Live’: MTV’s Hottest Program for Teens.” The Merchants of Cool. 2000. PBS Online. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/etc/trl.html>. 17 Britney Spears. <http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/spears_britney/artist.jhtml> 9 Look, there are times when the folks who run the music department here make absolutely terrific decisions and break new acts and we say, you know, "This person, this act, this is pretty cool, this is something unique. This is something that's in the MTV moment. Let's go for it." And it works tremendously and everything falls into place--Britney Spears. 18 The forces behind Spears’ “MTV moment” were unique and specific. The rise of a booming generation of teenagers was nothing new, nor was the idea to have a show that focused exclusively on commercializing the music that young people liked. American Bandstand capitalized on the same market forces in the 1960s. Steven D. Stark, in his book Glued to the Set: the 60 Television Shows and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today, points out that “Television’s strengths lay in its visuals,” going on to claim that host Dick Clark “portrayed the youth culture mostly in the trivial way that adults wanted to see it.” 19 When rock n’ roll was first gaining in popularity, American Bandstand sold certain teenagers (typically those in white suburbia) a show that purported to reflect their own interests while also subtly selling the new genre of music to an older audience terrified of its corrupting moral influence. 20 It put a well-groomed face on the wild sounds of rock music, allowing kids to see the performances they wanted to see while their parents saw nothing but nicely dressed teenagers dancing with restraint. Britney Spears used a similar tactic at the beginning of her career to sell herself both to teenagers and their picky parents, but she was purely of her own MTV generation. 18 Sirulnick, Dave. “Inside ‘Total Request Live’: MTV’s Hottest Program for Teens.” The Merchants of Cool. 2000. PBS Online. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/etc/trl.html>. 19 Stark, Steven D. Glued to the Set: the 60 Television Shows and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today. Brooklyn: Delta Publishing, 1997. p.92. 20 Stark, pp. 95-96. 10 Stark writes of the channel’s early years, “It was said by some that by putting the emphasis on visuals, rather than on sound, MTV would change the type of rock artist who would succeed.” 21 By the late 1990s, during the new teen pop craze, the emphasis had shifted entirely to visuals, as epitomized by Spears’ rise to fame, predicated almost completely on her looks--sweet in person, so as to appeal to parents, and just edgy enough in videos to seem cool to her target demographic. Her appeal didn’t (and many would argue, still doesn’t) lie in a powerful voice, but in catchy beats and great hooks that were all a part of the package she presented. Even today, no one attends a Britney Spears concert to hear her hit high notes, or even to hear her sing at all. They go because of the spectacle she provides no matter the mode of presentation. Carson Daly explained to Rolling Stone in 1999, “‘Teens don’t have an attention span anymore....They don’t want to take things too seriously, and they wanna move-- tempo is everything. Britney is a poster child for them.’” 22 As their poster child, Spears would go on to sell more than 75 million albums, with an estimated personal fortune to date of $100 million. 23 In 2001, TRL began “retiring” overwhelmingly popular videos that had been on the countdown for fifty days in order to create more open slots on the countdown for new music. Most artists never made it to the point where their videos were retired, but some superstars experienced the honor multiple times and were inducted into the TRL Hall of Fame. To put the level of popularity needed to reach such a milestone into perspective, Justin Timberlake had seven retirements; The Backstreet Boys had nine; 21 Stark, p. 325. 22 Daly, p. 1. 23 Blakeley, Kiri and Lea Goldman. “The Richest 20 Women in Entertainment.” Forbes Jan. 2008. 11 Britney Spears had 14 of her videos retired over the course of the ten year run of the show. 24 And when Total Request Live finally went off the air in 1998, the number one video in its final countdown of the top ten most iconic music videos of the past decade was none other than “...Baby, One More Time.” 25 24 TRL Retirement Home. <http://www.angelfire.com/music3/multi/retired.html>. 25 Lloyd, Robert. “Review: TRL’s ‘Total Finale Live’.” Los Angeles Times. Show Tracker blog 17 Nov. 2008. 12 Leaving Innocence Behind Besides her numerous videos on TRL, Spears also turned to MTV to promote her new records and live performances in other ways. In November of 2001, she appeared on the channel’s documentary show, Diary (tagline: “You think you know, but you have no idea”), to conveniently hype both her upcoming album, Britney (2001), and her performance on the network’s Video Music Awards. The show presents Spears as a hardworking but fun-loving young woman striking out on her own. Subtitled, “Stronger Than Yesterday” (also a lyric from one of her songs), the episode features Spears working in both recording and dance studios, as well as hanging out with her family and her then-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake. 26 The themes of Britney are echoed in Diary. The album focuses on how Spears is growing up and becoming independent, with songs like “Overprotected” (sample lyric: “I need to make mistakes just learn who I am/And I don’t want to be so damn protected.”) 27 Though she hardly expresses dissatisfaction with her lifestyle, there are parts of Diary that foreshadow the darker period of Britney Spears’ career. On the show she says, “I’m definitely at a stage in my life where I’m starting to realize with everyone, because of how young I am, they feel like have to take care of me...and they mean well...but there is a point in your life where you want to feel like you’re in control.” 28 Spears’ biggest problem at the time was her desire to be treated like an adult. To that end, she shows off 26 Diary: Britney Spears. MTV. 4 Nov. 2001. 27 Spears, Britney. “Overprotected.” Britney. Compact Disc. Jive Records, 2001. 28 Diary: Britney Spears. 13 her first home and explains how much she loves to get out of the house and drive on the open road. Her rebellions are tame, and her fame is hardly an issue. “A lot of times,” Spears says, “when I go to a lot of places, I’ll just put on a hat and a pair of jeans and a big shirt so no one will recognize.” 29 Her simple disguise seems to work, as the MTV cameras don’t capture any paparazzi stalking her, though there a few teenage autograph seekers. Spears dutifully plugs her new album and her role in writing many of the songs with Swedish pop master Max Martin (also responsible for “...Baby, One More Time”). “It’s been something that I’m really proud of” she says, bowing her head, “and, um, I hope people like it.” 30 It is apparent that Spears has not yet come to terms with her own fame, because it does not confront her every day. When a fan notices her driving her convertible and waves to her, she looks momentarily confused, confessing to the camera, “Sometimes I forget that I’m, like, a celebrity.” 31 The show ends with her preparing for a controversial performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in which she drapes a live snake over her shoulders while dancing. The song she performed, “I’m a Slave 4 U” reinforced her desire to take control of her own life, beginning with lyrics, “I know I may be young, but I’ve got feelings too.” 32 The focus of this part of Spears’ career, as suggested by her television appearances and reinforced by the overarching themes of her 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Spears, Britney. “I’m A Slave 4 U.” Britney. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2001. 14 album, was in establishing distance between herself and the innocent, impressionable young girl she was when she first rose to fame. In the next few years of her life and career, Britney Spears mastered the construction of her onstage image as separate from her real self. Trope says of her VMA performances: “She seemed in these moments to deliberately exploit her sexuality and market herself as a sexualized pop star.” 33 Spears was always careful to point out that her performances were just that, and not necessarily reflective of who she was as a person. “When I go onstage I do my thing and I perform and that's my time to express myself,” she has said, “but when I come off [stage] I trip and I burp and I fart just like everyone else.” 34 Her songs became more sexually aware, her performances and videos more risque, and she continued to insist that there was no specific meaning behind any of her lyrics or dance moves—a clearly media-coached perspective, considering that though most of her singles borrowed heavily synthesized beats from mindless techno music, they also dealt directly with explicitly sexual themes. 33 Trope. 34 Associated Press Interview. Dec. 3, 2001. 15 The Quest For More Edge Spears sat down for an ABC Primetime special with Diane Sawyer in 2003, shortly after Forbes named her the most powerful woman of 2002, to promote an upcoming appearance on the American Music Awards (airing, of course, on ABC) and her latest album, In The Zone. The focus of the special is on the Britney brand, which at that point included apparel, dolls, and a video game. Sawyer points out that Spears, “has upset a lot of mothers in this country,” suggesting that for all of her power, she has ceased to be a sufficient role model. 35 Spears herself agrees that she no longer wants to be held accountable for actions of the young people of the world: “I want to be a good person for me but I think it’s a huge pressure to think that you have to take the responsibility to be this role model,” later asking, “Am I responsible for [young girls]?” 36 Though Spears reinforces her image as a polite young woman in the interview, correcting rumors about out of control spending sprees and shrugging off accusations of cocaine use, she also confesses to a cigarette addiction and to writing new song lyrics about female masturbation. Richard Dyer, writing about the incongruities inherent in every star’s image, states that each star uses a “clash of codes” to expose contradictory elements of society, thereby manufacturing the basis for the star’s appeal. 37 He suggests that most, if not all, pop culture icons manage the opposing elements in their personas, 35 “Britney Spears.” 36 Ibid. 37 Dyer, Richard. Heavenly Bodies. New York: Routledge, 2004. p.34. 16 either by smoothing over the visible contradictions or by exploiting them. 38 For example, Dyer argues that Marilyn Monroe’s combination of overt sexuality and innocence reflected the social and sexual tensions of the 1950s, thereby creating her legendary charisma. Britney Spears, faced with rumors of promiscuity and excessive partying at the height of her already lucrative career, capitalized on the same ideological framework in her own era by using her media exposure to deny all wrongdoing while at the same time promoting an album that hinted at debauchery. If Monroe was the first celebrity to exploit the innocent/sexy dichotomy, Spears summoned 40 years of the history of good girls who like to be (or at least to seem) naughty when her own time in the spotlight came, acknowledging her predecessors but making the dichotomy so explicit as to be in part an homage to a familiar type of female character. And Spears took it one step further, exploiting the contradictions of her own generation by both playing into the media in order to become famous and then denying that she ever courted their attention. Sawyer echoes Dyer’s theories, calling her “a kind of puzzle under all of those shifting images” and suggesting that all of her questionable onstage behavior (including a highly publicized girl-on-girl kiss with Madonna—another female pop star whose combination of masculine and feminine traits heavily influenced Spears—at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards) is merely a quest to become more even more edgy, and to generate even more press. 39 It’s an accusation that continues to haunt Spears today. In her determination to seem more controversial without adopting the persona of a bona fide 38 Dyer, p.35. 39 “Britney Spears.” 17 bad girl (she could never pull off Madonna’s playful use of iconic Christian imagery, for instance), she would soon push herself to a point where her fame engulfed her antics, and where the media, far from a place to advance her agenda by peddling allegedly new and improved versions of herself or hide from probing questions, would become the only place she felt she could turn to tell her side of the story, and to reinforce that she was still a human being under the oppressive blanket of attention that was thrust upon her. 18 Explicit Packaging The first stumble in Spears’ downfall was a short-lived reality show she produced, shot (on a low resolution video camera) and starred in with her husband, Kevin Federline. Britney and Kevin: Chaotic was Spears’ attempt to reclaim her throne as America’s sweetheart, much as Spears’ young female pop star contemporary, Jessica Simpson, had managed to rehabilitate her flagging pop career primarily through the sweet but ditzy version of herself she presented on her MTV reality show, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica (2003-2005). Spears’ own attempt at reality TV image rehabilitation premiered just two months after the end of Simpson’s, and was decidedly less wholesome. Reviewer Josh Wolk of Entertainment Weekly called Chaotic “career suicide by videocam,” adding, “Considering the sheer number of celebrity-based reality shows that have popped up since The Osbournes, I had assumed that no new heights of narcissistic exhibitionism could be reached. But oh how wrong I was.” 40 On the show, which aired for only five episodes on the UPN network, Spears and soon-to-be husband Federline present the story of their love, a cigarette and booze-fueled adventure that begins when Spears invites the then-unknown backup dancer she met at a Los Angeles nightclub to join her on tour in Europe and only devolves from there into a series of blurry night vision shots and jokes about sexual positions. Chaotic can be seen as Spears’ blatant attempt to defend attacks on her image by showcasing what she calls 40 Wolk, Josh. “Shooting Her Own Foot.” Entertainment Weekly 18 May 2005. 19 “[her] truth”, but she also talks a lot about her fame. 41 “I think being in the public eye, [people] have their own way of projecting you and what they want the world to think of you,” Spears says, adding, “I think I’m just like everybody else.” 42 Of course, the fact that her home videos end up becoming a reality show suggests that she probably doesn’t consider herself to be like everybody else, but her point is reflective of the state of her career. The only real difference between Chaotic and her carefully controlled interviews is the marketing—Spears’ “truth” is made up of the same stories she’s been telling about herself for years in more explicit packaging. In clips from the show, Spears still clings to the idea that is she is somehow a normal girl while exposing herself to be anything but. After her comment about being just like everybody else, she unintentionally alludes to a problem unique to someone who has been photographed for most of her life: “I’m not really good at just being intimate one on one,” Spears says, “I think it helped me to have the camera there.” 43 This time, Spears controls the camera herself, and is able to circumvent the rumors about her love life and present her own version of events. The problem for Spears was in the reception of the show. Far from presenting her relationship as one of goofy mishaps (as with Simpson) or one of lovable eccentricity (as with the Osbournes), Spears presents to the entire world the explicit details of her sex life and her obsession with a man who seems for all of his meek protests like a freeloader, living off of Spears’ considerable wealth while having no career of his own. It’s an unfortunate compendium of the “trashy” 41 Britney and Kevin: Chaotic. UPN. 2005. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid. 20 stereotypes that were already being leveled at Spears, who in attempting to present her “truth” instead presented little more than material for those wishing to mock her. This dark period of Britney Spears’ career, kicked off so ominously by Chaotic, was characterized by two things: her refusal to live up to the image she had so carefully crafted for herself, and the media’s gleeful (and profitable) documentation of her fall. There were endless tabloid stories about her troubled marriage, her two young boys and the bad habits she was instilling in them, and most of all her mental health, which was said to be deteriorating. Spears, who had so clearly courted fame in the early years of her career, was forced to become accustomed to the constant bad press, and she used television appearances not as a way to combat rumors, but rather as a means to ask for all of the attention to stop. In 1999, Spears had summed up her life’s ambition to Rolling Stone like this: “I want to big all around the world” (Daly). By 2006, she had achieved her goal, but at the expense of her own privacy. 21 Tabloid Queen What had changed between her bubblegum-tinged early career and the urgency with which Spears appeared on Dateline NBC in June 2006 in a special called Britney Spears: Speaking Out to fight back against the tabloids? Certainly Spears had in many ways invited the attention she was receiving, putting the private moments of her relationship on a reality television show and going out to nightclubs in Los Angeles with tabloid fixtures like Paris Hilton, but the culture of online celebrity media was also fast becoming extremely lucrative, and much of that cash was made from exposing, repeating or creating rumors about Spears. Before the rise of the gossip blogs, people had to rely on newspapers, tabloids, and daily entertainment news shows (like Entertainment Tonight or Extra) to find out information about their favorite stars. Now, it’s available in a constantly updated stream of rumors, posted in the moment as if they are fact and confirmed later (if at all). The appetite for gossip has only increased as it has become more instantly available. Most stories are consumed in real time, with live updates that break so fast it’s almost impossible for a star (or her publicist) to get ahead of the story. On of the most popular and successful sites is TMZ.com, a Hollywood-centric blog and online tabloid originally owned by Warner Brothers and AOL (it is now under the sole control of Warner Brothers.) TMZ debuted in November of 2005 and quickly rose to prominence by breaking celebrity-related stories and posting often embarrassing pictures of famous people with commentary. Its original intention was to provide “a Hollywood and entertainment-centric news site” that would “further feed the current 22 American obsession with celebrities.” 44 It was a decision meant to provide a large corporation with a piece of the online celebrity gossip trade. In 2008, the New York Times called it “One of the most successful online ventures of the last few years,” claiming that it received “more than 10 million unique visitors every month.” 45 Harvey Levin, Managing Editor of TMZ.com told Rolling Stone in 2008, “‘We serialize Britney Spears. She’s our President Bush.’” 46 As one of the most sought after celebrities, Spears allegedly commanded for the photographers who followed her anywhere from $250 to more than $100,000 per photo around 2006, and hundreds of paparazzi followed her every move trying to get an exclusive shot. 47 Photo agency X17 estimates that Britney Spears photos accounted for 30% of its revenue in 2007. 48 Says Trope, “Surely she invited it, and the marketing of any celebrity is in many ways deliberate. At the same time, when I think of examples of her driving with her baby on her lap without a seat belt, I think there's also a way in which the tabloids targeted her not only as a pop icon but as emblematic of a white trash identity and aesthetic.” 49 In Speaking Out, a now interview infamous mostly for Spears’ complete lack of composure, she states, “I don’t allow anybody to change me,” and admits that she 44 Shields, Mike. “AOL Launches TMZ.com.” Mediaweek. 8 Dec 2005. 45 Cieply, Michael. “A Star Watcher Has Star Power.” New York Times 25 Oct. 2008: BU7. 46 Grigoriadas, Vanessa. “The Tragedy of Britney Spears.” Rolling Stone. Feb. 2008: pp.1-6. 47 McDonald, Duff. “The Britney Economy.” Portfolio.com 14 Jan. 2008. <http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/arts/2008/01/14/Britney-Spears-Career-Analysis/>. 48 Ibid. 49 Trope. 23 thinks the headlines are affecting how the public views her. 50 Though her reputation (a virtual “image implosion,” as Matt Lauer calls it) 51 had been compromised by the constant attention she was at the time receiving, she seems in clips from the special unwilling to modify anything about her lifestyle that might silence her critics. Spears again uses her supposed normality as a way of asking for understanding from both the paparazzi and the public hungry for news about her, though it’s no longer the selling point of her entire career. “I’m not perfect. I’m human,” she says in response to the many negative stories about her marriage and parenting style. 52 Her appearance only added fuel to rumors that she had lost whatever magic she used to have. Six months pregnant at the time of the interview, Spears’ stringy hair extensions and purple eyeshadow are made more noticeable by the fact that one of her false eyelashes has come unglued and begins to peel off of her face. If she’s human, it’s in a way that is disappointing to an audience that expects she will be professionally styled at all times. She describes her former self not incorrectly as “a young blonde girl who would do as she was told,” 53 the implication of the statement being that Spears no longer cares what her formerly adoring fan base thinks of her. Far from being an eager-to-please master of switching personas to suit the occasion, Spears sells herself as someone who has matured into the sort of woman who plans to live her life as if there aren’t pictures of her splashed across supermarket aisles everywhere. 50 “Britney Spears: Speaking Out.” 51 Ibid. 52 Ibid. 53 Ibid. 24 TMZ Takes Over The problem with Spears’ newfound “screw you” attitude was that it was even more entertaining, and thus more lucrative for those using her as a source of income. She may have lost a few fans, but she gained the sort of ubiquity that comes with unending bad press. The biggest story about her in 2007, broken exclusively by TMZ on November 7th, was her filing for divorce from Kevin Federline. 54 That post garnered 94 pages of comments, ranging from “Finally!!” to “Never really liked Ms. Spears, but I have new found respect for her. . . It is kind of sad that the nation is going through a (hopefully changing) election on this day and their divorce is breaking news. What's that say about us??” 55 If nothing else, the comments signaled that the public was ready for Spears to shed her white trash housewife persona (complete with shoeless gas station bathroom runs and a wardrobe of tacky t-shirts with slogans like, “I’m a Virgin, But This Is An Old T-Shirt”) and return to making music. If Spears was the values and issues of her generation condensed, then what did her downward spiral say about them? TMZ fed the nation’s appetite for exclusive photos and videos of celebrities’ daily activities, and even parlayed its celebrity-centric brand to into a TV show, TMZ on TV. The show, currently airing on FOX five nights a week, mostly shows videos of stars (very frequently Britney Spears) walking into or out of restaurants or shops and answering questions asked by paparazzi. Levin and his staff members will then comment 54 “Britney Spears Files For Divorce.” TMZ. 7 Nov. 2006 <http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/07/britney- spears-files-for-divorce/1#comments>. 55 Ibid. 25 on the videos, giving personal opinions of the celebrity or sharing anecdotes about their behavior. The appeal of the show lies in the comfort of seeing famous people removed from the glamorous light they’re often seen in, without the help of photo re-touchers or stylists, and it keeps the public coming back for more. It’s hardly a thrilling half hour of television, but it gives Americans the chance to mindlessly gawk at their favorite (or least favorite) stars, and to judge their actions accordingly. Spears is one of their easiest targets. In trying briefly to resuscitate her ailing career in 2007, just prior the release of her album Blackout, Spears turned to her old friend MTV and tried to use them to boost herself back into the spotlight. She attempted a comeback performance on the MTV Video Music Awards of the lead single off of the album, “Gimme More,” and it was nothing short of terrible. Spears, wearing sparkly black lingerie and 4” heeled boots, put no energy into the performance, mouthing “sorry” to her fans at its conclusion. 56 The Washington Post called it “underwhelming,” 57 while TMZ on TV showed footage of Spears onstage with running commentary about how she looked like “a circus pony shot up with horse tranquilizers,” adding, “I didn’t know they made stripper-wear for Butterball turkeys.” 58 By translating the snarky, insult-laden tone of the website onto television, TMZ confirmed that there was a strong market across multiple media 56 “Gimme More (Live).” Video Clip. <http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/173440/gimme-more-live.jhtml> 57 Maynard, John. “In VMA Comeback, Britney Makes All The Wrong Moves.” The Washington Post 10 Sept. 2007. 58 TMZ on TV. FOX. 10 Sept. 2007. 26 platforms for its particular brand of exploitative celebrity exposure, Britney Spears’ requests for solitude be damned. Essentially, Spears’ attempt at living life on her own terms backfired. The combined power of an insatiable American public and a media culture eager to deliver its daily dose of breaking gossip were too strong for her to defeat without playing by their rules. She did zero press for Blackout after the fiasco at the Video Music Awards (though the album still managed to debut at #2 on the Billboard chart--she’s nothing if not a force in auto-tuned pop music) 59 and continued to live her life regardless of whose cameras might be following her. Her lyrics were confrontational, directly addressing the paparazzi in song, if not in person. “I’m Miss American Dream Since I was 17,” she sings in “Piece of Me,” “Don’t matter if I step on the scene, or sneak away to the Phillipines/they still gonna put pictures of my derriere in the magazines/do you want a piece of me?” 60 Spears was on TV again, but in the worst possible light and without a say in how she was portrayed. She didn’t back her bold song up with anything but more controversy. Since she didn’t bother to correct anyone’s assumptions of her, the TMZ era of her life was defined solely by unflattering and ultimately uncontested portrayals. Ironically, tabloid covers featuring stories of Spears’ professional and personal trials stopped selling as well during this period of her life. As reported by ABC News, “she landed 18 single covers during [the first half of 2007],” making her “the most 59 “Britney Spears Blackout.” <http://britneyspearsblackout.com/?p=3915>. 60 Spears, Britney. “Piece of Me.” Blackout. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2007. 27 popular cover-subject choice.” 61 But the magazines “collectively sold some 600,000 issues below average,” suggesting that people were tired of reading about her downfall. 62 By the summer of 2007, though she was still followed by paparazzi and still by all accounts letting her once charmed life devolve into chaos (there was one incident where she shaved her head, and another where she was put on involuntary psychiatric hold), Britney Spears had become someone more worthy of collective public pity than of admiration or fascination. In Touch Weekly Editor in Chief Richard Spencer explained the sudden decline in popularity: “‘Usually there’s a roller coaster of emotions. But unfortunately for Britney, there’s been no roller coaster lately--there’s just been downhill.’” 63 61 Rose, Lacey. “Sexy Sells: Top Celebrity Faces For Tabloid Sales.” ABCNews.com 4 Oct. 2007. <http://abcnews.go.com/Business/FunMoney/story?id=3678037&page=1>. 62 Ibid. 63 Ibid. 28 An MTV Homecoming It was at this point in her career that Spears needed an official comeback if she was ever going to prove her detractors wrong, and when she and her team decided to rehabilitate her image, they turned to the network that had supported her since the beginning: MTV. Britney: For The Record was heavily hyped by the channel as an all access, behind the scenes look at the state of her career and in it she made it clear that performing was still something she wanted to devote her life to, no matter what amount of privacy she had to compromise. Airing on November 30, 2008 (just two days before her new album Circus would be released), the 90-minute documentary promised to “set the record straight” about the past few tumultuous years of her life. 64 For the most part, it delivered on its promises. Though most likely tightly controlled by Spears’ own representation, the special reassured fans that Britney Spears was sane and ready to reclaim some control of her own image. In it, Spears reasserts the value of her stardom, and shows viewers that she can still make compelling television. Spears is interviewed extensively in the film, which begins with the 2008 Video Music Awards (having been derided for her bad performance in 2007, she knew better than to try again, and instead just came out at the beginning to introduce the show) and follows her through the shooting of two different videos for singles from Circus. The Britney she presents in the special seems less guarded and certainly less defensive than in 64 Vena, Jocelyn. “Britney Spears ‘Sets The Record Straight’ In Documentary Airing November 30 on MTV.” MTV.Com 9 Oct. 2008. <http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1596736/20081009/spears_britney.jhtml>. 29 past clips, as if she has accepted what her life has become and has learned to live with it. “There was a point where I didn’t know how to run my life,” 65 she admits. `Much as a politician would hold a press conference to address indiscretion, Spears uses her MTV documentary to admit to past failings (“I had totally lost my way...I lost myself.” 66 ) and to directly connect with her audience, promising them a brighter future. She allows the cameras to record what her everyday life is like—the security detail, the tinted-window SUVs, and most of all, the paparazzi who practically engulf her with their lenses in New York City as she is trying to enter a building. In the world of Britney, it’s almost impossible to use the main entrance. “I never wanted to become one of those people,” she confesses, “I always wanted to feel free and get in my car and go and not let people make me feel like I had to stay in my home.” The pop princess turned superstar has at this point become a prisoner of her own fame. Her choreographer, Andre Fuentes, weighs in on her dilemma: “The only time she’s free is when she’s in a closed...space.” 67 More telling is Spears’ own awareness of what she is worth, in terms of revenue, to the photographers who follow her every move. “They all have this paranoid look on their faces,” she says. “They’re so stressed. They’re like, ‘We gotta get the picture. We gotta get the picture!’” 68 She believes that to let them get the picture would be to let them win, and so she does her best to keep the lenses off of her (or the lenses she can’t control, as the MTV documentary crew has a camera on her the whole time). 65 Ibid. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 30 Taking control is a big theme of the documentary. Though she still may not be able to drive her own car anywhere (and driving, as clips from earlier in her career show, is the ultimate feeling of freedom as far as Spears is concerned. Even here, when asked when she last felt free, Spears responds, “when I got to drive my car a lot.”) 69 , it is her mission to take some control of her own life back from the media circus. To that end, she explicitly states that, though her life is confining (“even when you go to jail,” she laments, breaking into tears, “there’s always the time that you know you’re gonna get out.”) 70 she still claims it as her own. “I’m really not interested in pity,” she says, “I have no need for it. What I could use is some understanding from people and a little privacy and just--a day off would be nice.” 71 In the end, she still insists (and those who know her would at least publicly agree), that she is essentially a normal girl in an abnormally bright spotlight. When asked what is the single biggest misconception about her, the one thing she would want to tell everyone in America, she turns to the camera, once again using TV to spread the same message she’s been preaching since 1998, and says, “that I’m just like them. I love my babies, I love what I do, and I work really hard.” 72 She does, at times, appear to be a regular 26-year old. She goofs around on the set of her lavish videos and dresses up like a witch for Halloween. She plays around with an iPhone and frets over the price of a sweater. Fuentes sums up what has always been the single most important element to her 69 Ibid. 70 Ibid. 71 Ibid. 72 Ibid. 31 appeal: “We love her, you know? Not because of the stardom but because she’s just like the rest of us.” 73 She’s not, but Britney: For The Record shows that, if nothing else, she has paid for the glamorous parts of her life with her own freedom, but that those hardships have not compromised her ability to put on a show for the cameras. 73 Ibid. 32 Taking Back Control If Britney Spears was born on TV, she was also reborn on TV. After many years of unquestioning love from her fans and a couple years of wavering support, she is again in demand in the way she wants to be in demand: as a performer. Part of the aim of Britney: For The Record was to sell her new album to fans have may have turned their backs on her. It was promotion that her brand managers could control. Circus debuted on Britney Spears’ 27th birthday at number one on the Billboard 200, making her the youngest female in history to have five albums debut in the top spot. 74 This success signaled that she could still deliver catchy tunes as well as a sold-out live world tour supporting the album that would go on to gross $83 million dollars and become the fourth most profitable concert series of 2008 (behind Bruce Springsteen but ahead of the Jonas Brothers). 75 Of course, Spears does not operate as the sole person responsible for her career. Like many pop stars before her, she has a manager (Larry Rudolph) who has guided her professionally since the very beginning, and who acts as her mouthpiece and protector. Rudolph was fired by Spears in the dark period of her life, and then rehired just before Britney: For The Record was produced. It is as if, caving in to the pressure from her record label to act a certain way at the beginning of her career (bubbly, polite, flirtatious, virginal), Spears was allowed to grow up only as much as was profitable for her handlers. 74 Serjeant, Jill. “Britney Spears is Ringmaster With ‘Circus’ Album.” Reuters 10 Dec. 2008. 75 Lewis, Randy. “U2 Tops Highest Grossing Concert Tour List For 2009.” Los Angeles Times. 01 Jan. 2010. 33 By 2009, that had changed. Spears, having tried rebellion and found it complicated and messy, decided to return to her roots and let someone else handle her image. Circus is a fun dance record without much meaning behind its lyrics. There are songs about loving the spotlight and about having a good time, but no obvious kiss-offs. In one song, Spears sings, “Been so many things when I was someone else/boxer in the ring, tryin’ to defend myself,” and that’s about as personal as it gets. 76 Who is the Britney Spears of today? Well, she’s not on television very much anymore. She has no image to cement in people’s minds and no accusations to defend. Having proved that she could rise from the lowest point of her career to become a successful artist again and reclaim her spot at the top of the charts, she has managed to keep most of the cameras away because she is no longer controversial. She still commands an empire (including an unlikely area for a pop star to find success—a fragrance line worth $100 million) 77 and she is still a puzzling mixture of sweet and seductive, though at 28 years old, her bared midriff is hardly considered scandalous anymore. Spears has in recent months forged into the world of online media, where she has mounted a campaign against the bad press that has plagued her since 2005. She has over 2.5 million fans on Facebook, and she posts regular rebuttals to stories about her through a feature on her official website called “The BS Alert.” 78 The feature is designed to alert readers (and all of her Facebook subscribers) of stories about her that are 76 Spears, Britney. “Unusual You.” Circus. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2009. 77 Duff. 78 “The BS Alert.” <http://www.britneyspears.com/rumors/>. 34 completely untrue. It’s Spears’ way of discrediting the media and of keeping herself from seeming like a victim in the eyes of her fans. In September of 2009, she released a new song called “3,” an ode to the art of the menage-a-trois. 79 The song was reminiscent of the biggest hits of her career, produced once again by Max Martin and containing a mixed message. “What we do is innocent,” she sings of the tryst, “just for fun and nothing meant.” 80 Only in the distinctly contradictory world of Britney Spears could a threesome be innocent. In many ways, it was a classic Britney moment: the fusion of a naughty concept and a heavy dance beat all done with a sly wink in the service of selling copies of an upcoming Greatest Hits collection. Eschewing TV (her old standby, MTV, has replaced much of their music video programming with reality TV shows and she has found a much easier way to reach out directly to her fans), Spears released a video for the song on her website and through Facebook. The song succeeded, becoming her third single to reach the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. There are those who have been depicting the demise of Britney Spears since the nascent months of her career. Writing about her in 1999, Jon Daly surmised: “There would seem to be a finite number of available story lines for Spears. She could find gainful employment in stage musicals, as did Debbie Gibson, or even denounce pop altogether and reincarnate herself like a vengeful Alanis Morissette. Then there's Tiffany, 79 Martens, Todd. “Britney Spears’ ‘3’: Odd Lyrics, but a Production Seduction.” The Pop & Hiss Music Blog. LA Times. 29 Sept. 2009. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/09/britney-spears-3- odd-lyrics-but-a-production-seduction.html>. 80 Spears, Britney. “3.” The Singles Collection. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2009. 35 the teen-pop sensation whose name is now synonymous with anonymous.” 81 But Spears doesn’t currently seem headed for any of those gloomy fates, because she has harnessed the power of both television and new media to reflect the ever-shifting, sexually charged culture of her own audience, and they have in turn thanked her by making her a superstar. Having spent a solid decade in the spotlight, she’s managed to tweak her own image as her audience matures, using the visual medium to alert viewers as to who she wants to be next while reminding them that she’s still at heart a regular girl from Louisiana. It’s exciting to watch her perform (both onstage and off), but it’s also somehow safe. She might be the most recognized blonde in the world, but her fame is at this point routine. Spears’ name recalls everything her brand encompasses and the frenzy of attention she commands, but it has most of all come to symbolize her essential contradictions: she is sweet but knows how to push buttons, aware and unaware at the same time; she courts fame, but not when it becomes overwhelming or reduces her to a national punchline. She is American youth at the turn of the century personified--an outwardly confident pastiche of flash and sparkle, more spectacle than substance, who just wants to move, but who nonetheless accepts the responsibilities of her job with a begrudging smile. And she doesn’t seem eager to quietly fade into irrelevancy anytime soon. Britney Spears endures. 81 Daly, p. 3. 36 Bibliography Associated Press Interview. “Britney Spears.” Dec. 3, 2001. 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Diary: Britney Spears. MTV. 4 Nov. 2001. Dyer, Richard. Heavenly Bodies. New York: Routledge, 2004. 37 “Gimme More (Live).” Video Clip. <http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/173440/gimme- more-live.jhtml>. Grigoriadas, Vanessa. “The Tragedy of Britney Spears.” Rolling Stone. Feb. 2008: pp.1- 6. Lewis, Randy. “U2 Tops Highest Grossing Concert Tour List For 2009.” Los Angeles Times. 01 Jan. 2010. Lloyd, Robert. “Review: TRL’s ‘Total Finale Live’.” Los Angeles Times. Show Tracker blog 17 Nov. 2008. Martens, Todd. “Britney Spears’ ‘3’: Odd Lyrics, but a Production Seduction.” The Pop & Hiss Music Blog. LA Times. 29 Sept. 2009. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/09/britney-spears-3-odd- lyrics-but-a-production-seduction.html>. Maynard, John. “In VMA Comeback, Britney Makes All The Wrong Moves.” The Washington Post 10 Sept. 2007. 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Stark, Steven D. Glued to the Set: the 60 Television Shows and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today. Brooklyn: Delta Publishing, 1997. Spears, Britney. “3.” The Singles Collection. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2009. ---. “I’m A Slave 4 U.” Britney. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2001. ---. “Overprotected.” Britney. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2001. ---. “Piece of Me.” Blackout. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2007. ---. “Unusual You.” Circus. Compact Disc. Jive Records. 2009. “The BS Alert.” <http://www.britneyspears.com/rumors/>. TMZ on TV. FOX. 10 Sept. 2007. TRL Retirement Home. <http://www.angelfire.com/music3/multi/retired.html>. Trope, Alison. Email Correspondence with Nora Crutcher. 16 Jun 2010. Vena, Jocelyn. “Britney Spears ‘Sets The Record Straight’ In Documentary Airing November 30 on MTV.” MTV.Com 9 Oct. 2008. <http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1596736/20081009/spears_britney.jhtml>. Wolk, Josh. “Shooting Her Own Foot.” Entertainment Weekly 18 May 2005.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Crutcher, Nora Clark (author)

Core Title Mutual appreciation: Britney Spears and the media machine

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Publication Date 07/30/2010

Defense Date 07/30/2010

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Britney Spears,Disney Channel,media,OAI-PMH Harvest,online media,pop music,TMZ

Place Name USA (countries)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Page, Ellis Tim (committee chair), Burlingame, Jon (committee member), Kun, Joshua (committee member)

Creator Email ncrutcher@gmail.com,nora44@aol.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m3236

Unique identifier UC179596

Identifier etd-crutcher-3719 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-349371 (legacy record id),usctheses-m3236 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-crutcher-3719.pdf

Dmrecord 349371

Document Type Thesis

Rights Crutcher, Nora Clark

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu