There are certainly a lot of conversations happening right now about how much control Britney Spears has over her own life. Even a number of celebrities have weighed in about the #FreeBritney situation. So, it's particularly interesting to look back and discover just how much control Britney had over some of the songs that made her famous. For instance, Britney may have had less influence on her first hit "Baby One More Time" than her later work. Then again, filming her music video for the same song played out a little differently, according to Entertainment Weekly. The truth is, Britney made some decisions that ultimately made her first music video absolutely iconic. And yet, she received push-back from the filmmakers. Here's why they disagreed.
Standing Up For Her Vision
Max Martin was the writer/producer who basically put "Baby One More Time" together for Britney Spears. In fact, he even recorded almost all of the songs before she was asked to come in and record it in her voice. However, when it came to the music video for the song, the 16-year-old Britney had a lot more influence than she did on the single itself. This is saying something given that the man who discovered her (president of Jive Records Barry Weiss) brought in Nigel Dick to direct it. Nigel was a major music video director and had just come off of directing the videos for "Backstreet's Back" and "I Want It That Way" for the Backstreet Boys.
"Interestingly, a lot of people I worked with at the time told me I should walk away from the project," Nigel Dick told Entertainment Weekly. "[They'd say] 'She’s an unknown girl. She’s 16 years old. It’s candy-floss pop.' I’d done quite a lot of stuff which was a bit more meaty: Oasis, Guns and Roses, blah, blah, blah. I just thought the song was really, really good."
For Britney's first music video, Nigel came up with the idea to have Britney in outer space, which was basically the same idea he had when he later directed Britney's "Oops! ...I Did It Again" video.
However, Britney absolutely hated Nigel's idea. She thought it was 'cheesy', according to Entertainment Weekly. Instead, she wanted to be 'in a school with a bunch of cute boys and do some dancing'. This was a more authentic video for her, which makes sense given the fact that she was 16 at the time.
"Her idea was the whole Grease thing, dancing in the hallway," Barry Weiss explained. "She gave the kernel of the idea to Nigel, and he came up with the rest."
In the interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nigel explained that he was initially unsure of taking Britney's advice.
"Your initial reaction to this is, I’m being told by a 16-year-old-girl what I should do… [But] this girl is 16 and I’m a grown man; perhaps she has a better perspective on her audience than I do. So I swallowed my pride," Nigel said.
The Whole Issue With The Outfit
While Nigel took Britney's advice for the music video's concept, the two clashed over Britney's outfit which has since become one of the most popular Halloween costumes around.
"I don’t have kids, so my understanding of what teenagers wore was limited to driving home from the office and seeing kids standing by a bus stop. So I suggested they would be wearing jeans and t-shirts and sneakers and would have backpacks, and Britney said, 'Well, shouldn’t I be wearing a schoolgirl outfit?' And I was very dubious about this idea. But I was overruled," Nigel admitted. "Certainly, my initial reaction was, 'Are you sure we should be going down this route with this young lady?' And the people who were in control, the record label and whatnot, said yes, this is the route we want to take."
While the schoolgirl outfit caused a lot of controversies, it also became nothing short of iconic. Specifically, it was the fact that Britney tied up the bottom half of her shirt and exposed her belly button and abs. Ever since this has sparked debate about whether Britney knew she was sexualizing herself and did it on purpose or if she simply thought it was a cool look. Either way, a ridiculous amount of people have criticized it or voiced their support.
"There are so many other teenagers out there that dress more provocatively than I do and no one says anything about them," Britney Spears said in an interview back when the music video was released. "How can I explain this? I don’t see myself — hand on the Bible — I know I’m not ugly, but I don’t see myself as a sex symbol or this goddess-attractive-beautiful person at all. When I’m on stage, that’s my time to do my thing and go there and be that — and it’s fun. It’s exhilarating just to be something that you’re not. And people tend to believe it."
Regardless, of Britney's decisions, Nigel received a 'huge amount of grief' when the music video came out because people thought she was being exploited. However, according to Britney, she wanted to do what she wanted to do.