30 Glorious Years

Somehow we've come to the point where Britney Spears turns 30. Yes, the young ingenue is no longer young (or an ingenue). She's a mature, older woman with 13 years of experience in the music business. She is, dare I say, a veteran.
I can remember, back in the late 90s, when Madonna released a song on the Austin Powers' soundtrack thinking how long Madonna had been around. She has been around as long as I've been alive.
Around that time, a young lady from some small town no one ever heard of in Louisiana showed up. For all intents and purposes, she had one-hit wonder written all over her. Baby One More Time was a catchy pop song back when pop was making its comeback thanks to the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, the Spice Girls, Hanson, etc. Goodbye grunge, adios gangsta rap, see ya later alternative, it was pop's time to shine again.
Of course, as we all know, genres come and go in music in terms of popularity. The Spice Girls disappeared, BSB disappeared for a while, *NSYNC broke up, and pop music seemed destined once again to play second (or third or fourth) fiddle to other genres like R&B and country (not to mention nu-metal). Clearly, Britney's time was just about up.
But a funny thing happened while people were shoveling dirt on her grave: Britney decided to get up. She didn't rise from the dead - this is not a religious thing; however, she didn't allow herself to expire. Could she have quit 10 years ago and been remembered as that girl who sang that awesome song Baby One More Time? Sure. Berlin is still remembered as having sung Take My Breath Away and that was more than 10 years BEFORE Britney even showed up. We don't forget great songs.
Britney wanted more, though. Obviously, she wasn't intent on just being that girl who sang that song. She kept coming at us with infectious hit after infectious hit. She had what Simon Cowell might call the "X Factor" (or the French might call je ne sais quoi). At some point people started to realize Britney was for real.
The shelf life of a pop star isn't long. It's probably as long as that of an NFL running back - four or five years. Some are fortunate to get a hit and some might even get two. Realistically speaking, though, asking for anything more is asking for too much. Sure, some keep making albums, keep touring, keep releasing singles and videos, but they don't top the charts. So, for someone to survive 13 years is quite an impressive feat. Britney started making music at 17. She's now 30.
I don't know what drives Britney to keep churning out song after song. Critics don't particularly love her. Bloggers/gossip hounds/those in the media seem to take more pleasure when she's down than up (see: 2007). At any point over the years she could have packed it in. She's said many times she'd be a teacher if she wasn't a musician. It would have been easy to go that route after one or two hits - fade into obscurity, fall off the map like so many before her have.
I can remember watching TRL and thinking how nice Britney seemed. Today, I still think that. I've read 100s of interviews, many where it seemed as though she had no clue what was going on, and many more where I thought she was hysterical and totally got it. But I think that's how you stay relevant at 30 - you keep people guessing. Michael Jackson once said about Britney that too much of her was out there, that there was no mystery and she wouldn't last. Nowadays, I think he'd have a different opinion were he alive.
When you hit 30 you begin to evaluate your life. Am I where I want to be? Did I do what I wanted to do? In Britney's case, what didn't she do and where hasn't she been. How does she take stock of her life? How does she know if she missed anything?
Amazingly, in the past 13 years, Britney's had time for private moments. She found time for love, children, and more love. She's been held up and pushed down, picked on and praised, loved and hated, worshiped and vilified, and everything in between. That's a lot to pack into a life (and she's only a third of the way toward the end). Just imagine being 30 and accomplishing in such a short time what so many couldn't do in 10,000 years.
30 is a milestone birthday, or so they say. But Britney's reached every milestone imaginable. Sell one million records? Done. Sell 10 million records? Done. Sell a 100 million records, have #1 hits, be on TV, in the magazines, sell-out arenas all over the world, etc? Done, done, done, done, and done. In that regard, what does 30 even mean?
Will she slow done at 30? She didn't slow down at 29. In fact, she worked harder at 29 than she did at 28. Maybe she'll work harder at 30 than at 29. Who knows what she'll do. I'm confident she's not gonna quit, though. I have no proof of this, of course. I just know there's no reason to stop now.
When I turned 30 I couldn't believe I was that old. Now, Britney's turning 30 and I can't believe she's that old. Someday we'll both be 40 and 50 and 60 and, God willing, 70 and 80. And just like now I'll think, how did we get here?