Reviewed by Ramona Prioleau
The music video for “Piece of Me” by pop music icon Britney Spears is unlike anything else in the performer’s extensive catalogue. Released in 2008 following the single’s release the year prior, the video’s different scenes are all framed as covers of different tabloid or paparazzi magazines. The idea is that these are the very people at whom the song’s surprisingly bitter lyrics are directed towards. So as Britney dances, in different outfits and locations, the magazines keep coming, but Britney dances around them unbothered and uncaring.
The music video has everything you’d come to expect from a Britney video, though a little bit tuned down from something like “Circus.” There are steamy, sexy moments and choreographed dance sequences, and a lot of different outfit and style changes as well. However, for the most part, the “Piece of Me” video features Britney just having a good time. She dances around—not in a certain style or with any choreography—but just to enjoy dancing. These moments are very feel-good. The whole song is about reclaiming her privacy and her brand, so she should at least have some fun doing it.
“Piece of Me” is not a grand production, and it’s not the type of music video that one would necessarily watch over and over again. Once you’ve seen half of it you’re able to get a pretty good picture of what the video has to offer. However, there’s something special about it, something surprisingly hard to put a name to. “Not over-the-top sarcastic, but having a laugh at everything that was going on,” was how director Wayne Isham described the video in 2008.
This perfect balance—a blending of self-awareness and dry comedy—is what makes the video so intriguing. “Piece of Me” might not be Britney’s most popular or most iconic video, far from it, but it has a feeling to it unlike anything else the artist has made. It’s more true, more joyful. It, counterintuitively maybe, is a little more innocent than anything in Britney’s collection of videos. It’s a fascinating entry for an artist with countless classics.M
November 2023
