Primarily, her 2nd and 3rd albums, "Oops... I did it again" and "Britney"...
These were albums one of my friends burned for me back when CD burning was a huge thing. Eventually, I put together my own "Greatest Hits" of Britney Spears.
a) so I could keep my favorite tracks from her first album, which I wound up selling because I hardly listened to more than the first three songs :-P
b) in general, greatest hits from the 90's dissatisfy me, which is why I did my own for The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC as well
c) I was sick of skipping every other track of "In the Zone" to get to my favorites
d) my friend's copy of "Oops... I did it again" was scratchy and as a result, the track "Don't knock on my door" was debilitated so bad that it couldn't get past the 3 minute mark... the ticking remains in the background, but the tracks don't "tick" as much in my copy
when I was getting to know these tracks real well, I was playing them along with Spider Solitaire. Ironically, one of those times, I skipped out on "Coyote Ugly,' thinking I wouldn't get into that movie... finally saw it recently, roughly a decade after that... might of mentioned it a few times
long story short, here're the tracks I'm considering using...
- What you see is what you get
- Crush on you (though I believe the real title is "I can't make you love me")
- I'm a slave 4 u
- Don't wanna let you back in
- Boys
- Cinderella
- Breathe on me
- Brave new girl
For a second, I even considered the title track. When I recalled it (it's been YEARS since I've heard it, I wasn't a huge fan of that particular track), I thought it sounded exactly like something Talia would say.
"I'm sorry I made you fall in love with me during my performance, but it was just an act"
But after listening to it, the undercurrent didn't agree with my motives. It isn't as if Talia flaunts her sexuality with the intention of toying with other's emotions.
"Don't come knocking on my door," as much as I love that track, it doesn't really fit into my storyline anywhere. The only place it could is as another way of her turning down Alejandro (or JP's) advances... got one too many tracks like that already in mind.
"Don't wanna let you back in" also fits in that same category, but it seems more final than its predecessor
"I'm a slave 4 u" seems pretty obvious... plus the music video will provide ample inspiration. It was choreographed by Prince's first wife, Mayte, who is my key inspirer for Talia's belly-dancing... I need to get back to that element, been focusing so much on the cha-cha and samba steps
"Boys" struck me as a good match because within it lays Talia's policy when it comes to the opposite sex:
"when a girl is with one, then she is in control"...
considering the terrors the girls have endured, that needs to be a top priority. In this business, they must be the ones calling the shots because they don't want to think of themselves as victims anymore
While listening to it, I started pondering a possible back story for either Talia or Vanessa... :sigh: Vanessa remains the one girl with the past that's impossible to nail down. I thought she could be the girl that came from a conservative family (kinda like Katy Perry, who wasn't even allowed to say "deviled eggs" in her house), wanted to take dance lessons in addition to college and leaves academia for dance...
now, I just have her down as the girl that came to the main setting along with Talia, and Talia aimed to help with this new proposal.
Anyway, the storyline is that before the girls came together as a "group," one of these girls was in a controlling, abusive relationship.
Sounds like something Vanessa could fall into, supposing she gave up on college and her parents' dream of her becoming a doctor or lawyer to become a professional dancer.
But at the same time, I can't help but consider Talia might fit that description as well...
considering how far she's gone to protect herself, compared to how much pain the other girls went through, it's kinda hard for those pieces to click in my head.
It's not like she was molested as a girl or that she grew up in a brothel or that she was a prostitute who was raped multiple times a day... that sort of deal...
Right now, I have it figured that she's bitter towards the opposite sex because her stepfather had her believing he loved her, but he betrayed her and her family by emptying the bank account. He treated her like a queen and left her and her mother with nothing.
Then the crap with Alejandro happens and she decides never to open her heart again, believing the opposite sex to be untrustworthy
The furthest I got with "pressing" the limits of Talia's relationship with her stepfather is that he's there for her when she's rejected by a boy she likes and has considered losing her virginity to. Kinda racy considering she's likely only 16 at the time, but he might take advantage of her because she's emotionally compromised over this break-up. Maybe this guy went with another girl because he wants to be someone more experienced. So he takes it upon him to "show her how" to do it... takes her to bed a number of times, she yields to his every direction until the idea forms in her mind that this kind of relationship is normal.
At the same time, he might even put the idea in her head that no boy will ever be good enough for her, so she decides not to pursue high school romance.
Somehow, I just can't see their relationship ever being strained... that she finds out how horrible he is until after the hit on him is carried out...
she more or less makes up her mind that since she lost her virginity to him that she never wants to be used for sex again... instead, she'll be the one in charge
which leads me to "Cinderella"... one of my personal favorites, which I believe is because my friend expressed his love of the track as well... it's about stepping outside the "fairy tale" path and becoming a stronger person... rather the "passive" versions of the original realizations of Snow White (before the 2012 movies and "Once upon a time") and Cinderella who waited for their destinies to come to them...
I listened to that the previous time, seeing it as this HUGE musical type number that's more or less like a revenge anthem pointing the finger at the stepfather :-P
not sure if I'd be able to duplicate that coolness each time I listened to it
"Breathe on me" is very hot and steamy... in a subtle sort of way... so it really doesn't have to belong to one specific scene
"Brave new girl" could either play to Talia or Amber's strengths
which leaves the first two tracks I listed that fit Amber like the tracks from "Circus" did
"What you see is what you get" has the same thing in common with a lot of my favorite Britney Spears tracks... you have a couple verses and a chorus... but after a bridge or an instrumental solo, you get a second chorus that jumbles up some of the same words used in the first chorus, and that extends to the two choruses playing simultaneously to end the song...
Max Martin definitely knows how to write some catchy tunes, but he was at his height with the boyband era in the late 90's/early 2K's
looking at the song, I'm not sure how it fits Amber exactly... maybe it is another one specifically for Talia.. the song is about a girl being with a possessive guy who watches her too closely when she's hanging out with her friends and other guys, thinks she dresses so provocatively that she'll attract unwanted attention from other guys.
thinking it over, maybe I was wrong about this one. The jury's out.
"Can't Make You Love Me"...
"can't make you love me, I'm just a girl with a crush on you"
...
When I listen through my favorites on this album, it always follows "what you see is what you get"... both sound very similar to me and I don't mind that. That's part of the charm.
In this case, she's talking about being into this guy but at the same time, she can't make advances because her fame keeps her away from having a relationship with anyone...
but for Amber, I'm using it in a different context. This could be her swan song before she leaves the name "Carmen" behind. Believing that Alejandro will never want anything to do with her now that he's interested in Talia... in my head, it plays almost like a dream sequence, kinda like "Paparazzi", her answer to "Say it Right" (seeing as I thought "Paparazzi" plagiarized from that Nelly Furtado song when I first heard it).
an interesting thing happened when I listened to it the previous time... something like an alternate version of my story. Instead of Talia starting the dancing component of the club, Carmen was the veteran who had washed up routines and Talia was the fresh newcomer that threatened to overthrow her "reign"...plus there'd be a significant difference in their ages with Amber being vastly older.
The only downside to that, other than me having a lot of rewriting to do, is that it sounds a little too similar to "Purple Rain" :-P
the difference in styles were also vastly different... with Amber having Britney choreography and Talia and her crew being closer to Lady Gaga with some Mayte thrown in... Britney ruling the 90's while Lady Gaga ruled this latest decade
Amber has choreography coming from a lot of different artists. She likes to think she has a hold on Britney's stuff, particularly the "Circus" album... except that Talia has used "Womanizer" and "Mannequin"... "Mannequin" is the last straw, though. Amber will get wind of them using that track to ward off JP's advances and throw something of a hissy fit about it, until they compromise.
like Amber wants to borrow Vanessa for a number or two and wants use of one of their exclusive songs, like "Paparazzi"
Amber likes using:
- Circus
- Kill the Lights
- Lace and Leather (with Vanessa)
- Womanizer (attacking Alejandro)
- Out from Under (attacking her stepfather.. or it just describe something Vanessa went through, about being in the abusive relationship)
- Shattered Glass (she has daggers for somebody, either Alejandro or JP)
- Mannequin (warding off JP, alongside Scarlet & Ruby)
still got a lot to figure out, but that'll help at least a little bit
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