As if.
Britney Spears -- the new Madonna? The longer the teen queen sticks around, the more she garners comparisons to the 43-year-old pop diva.
On the surface, the analogy seems to work: Both are female superstars who earned their names with suggestive dance music and provocatively choreographed videos.
But that's about as far as you can reasonably stretch it -- despite the best efforts of Spears herself, whose new album, Britney, seeks to establish her as a grown-up career artist a la Madonna. It's also despite Madonna's gushing shout-out to Spears in Elle magazine: "I want to do nothing but support and praise her. She just bowls me over. I love Britney!"
Stop it, Madge. Britney is no you, for reasons obvious to anyone who looks beyond chirpy vocals and bared midriffs.
Madonna was a self-determined artist from her earliest days, dropping out of the University of Michigan to claw her way to the top of the New York scene. She has famously controlled nearly every aspect of her career. Her public persona is itself a piece of performance art, layered with mischievous but intelligent statements about femininity, sexuality and the nature of celebrity.
Britney Spears, from all appearances, isn't nearly so savvy. It's hard to shake the feeling that every move is contrived by consultants and sanctioned by handlers. Her career is a corporate creation, directed from above, a product designed to meet consumer demand -- in this case, an enormous teen generation that wants its own colorful pop music. Spears is to Madonna what the Archies were to the Beatles.
The bottom line: There wouldn't have been a Madonna without Madonna Ciccone. But there would have been a Britney without Britney Spears.
WHO'S THAT GIRL? THE BORDERLINE IS CLEAR
BRITNEY
* Claims to be a virgin
* Music played in strip malls
* Songs are written by middle-aged Swedish men
* Cavorts onstage with a snake
* Shows off her bellybutton
* Former Mouseketeer
* Justin Timberlake
* Drew attention with Catholic schoolgirl outfit
* Emulates Madonna
MADONNA
* Claimed to be like one
* Music played in strip bars
* Songs are written by Madonna
* Cavorted offstage with a snake (Warren Beatty)
* Indulges in navel-gazing
* Former dancer at Menjo's in Detroit
* Sean Penn, Warren Beatty, Dennis Rodman, JFK Jr., Guy Ritchie, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sandra Bernhard, Jose Canseco, Prince, Jack Nicholson
* Condemned by Pope
* IS Madonna
Britney on tour
Where: MCI Center
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 21
Tickets: $39.50-$65
Call: 410-432-7328
