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Teen pop stars are singing, dancing time bombs ...
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Page 2
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Christina one-ups Britney ...
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Page 3
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Jessica moves from singer to iconic ditz, Nick Carter's star dims ...
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Britney Spears: 'I Don't Want To Be A Tease'
Mandy Moore: O-Town Girl
Jessica Simpson: Simply Jessica
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— by Jon Wiederhorn
Teen pop stars are singing, dancing time bombs.
Soaking up adoration, power, prestige and cash, traveling the globe playing sold-out concerts, riding in limos, receiving VIP treatment ... yeah, teen celebrity has its perks — at least for a while.
But then anything and everything can change. Their bodies, musical tastes, outlook on life ... anything. And their fans can change, too — if a girl gets a dreamy boyfriend who listens to the White Stripes or 50 Cent, suddenly O-Town may not seem so cool anymore.
So as they hit their 20s, most teen pop stars reinvent themselves, because if they don't, it can all end faster than you can say, "Whatever happened to Danny Wood from NKOTB?"
Surviving teen-pop annihilation requires skill, strategy and creativity. Sometimes the changes are sonic, sometimes they have more to do with image. And there's no rule for success. Christina Aguilera may have benefited from getting stripped, yet the provocative approach didn't really work for Brandy. Justin Timberlake prospered by infusing his music with elements of a different genre, hip-hop, but the same game plan failed for Nick Carter, who tried to be "more rock" on his solo album.
For better or for worse (sometimes much worse), here's what the teen pop A-listers have done over the past few years to let the world know they've grown. ...
Britney Spears
Remember when Britney surfaced at age 17 cooing "... Baby One More Time"? Of course you do. The image from the video of Spears dressed in a schoolgirl uniform was simultaneously the stuff of teenage strength and independence, and adult male fantasy. From the start, Britney was not that innocent, yet there was a wholesome purity to her presentation. She dated Justin Timberlake, claimed to be a virgin and differentiated between acting sexy and being sexual.
With the release of her third album, 2001's Britney, Spears became noticeably more provocative, asserting herself as a young woman growing into adulthood with songs like "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Boys." But it was 2003's In the Zone that completed Spears' transformation into liberated woman. The album was preceded by the infamous French kiss with Madonna, and included a single with the yoga-loving pop matriarch ("Me Against the Music"), a song about masturbation ("Touch of My Hand") and one about affairs with married men ("Toxic"). Musically, Spears also became more adventurous, abandoning her three-album relationship with pop producer Max Martin to work with a variety of more hip songwriters including Madonna, Moby, the Matrix and a non-"M" producer, R. Kelly.
Oh, and there was that whole marriage thing, too. Only grown-ups do that.
Then: "You drive me crazy/ I just can't sleep/ I'm so excited/ I'm in too deep." — "(You Drive Me) Crazy" (1999)
Now: "I don't want to be a tease/ Would you undo my zipper please?"— "Showdown" (2003)
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Photo: MTV News
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