Britney Spears.

I’m underwhelmed by Britney Spear’s new song “Work, Bitch”; it’s a great idea, but the beat and melody and rhythm of the lyrics are much less effective than her “Scream and Shout” collaboration with will.i.am.

On the other hand, my one (half British) (half Sudanese) friend is a huge fan of the song, and even says in a very (British) way that it has a good message (“you want a hot body/ you want a Bugatti/ you want a Maserati/ you better work bitch”), and that it should be mandatory viewing at welfare offices everywhere.

(He’s joking, of course, and thinks that poverty is systemic rather than individual, and is instead understatedly poking fun at the reactionary idea that poor people are lazy, through his patently ridiculous idea of the government using a Britney Spears video in an official capacity to motivate the poor...  British humor is so odd, he almost came up with a whole modern-day Monty Python sketch by himself.)

That said, the video for “Work, Bitch” isn’t half bad, especially how a BDSM Britney cracks the whip at the climactic chorus words “now get to work/ bitch”, and how female mannequins explode at a climactic music part towards the video’s end, a striking image that that doesn’t quite make any narrative sense but is nevertheless very memorable and arresting.