Missy Elliot Pass the Duchie/ Britney Spears Me against the Music.
There are no humans in pop music anymore, it can be assembled out of elements that already exist, in this way the vocals seem to be vestigal, reminding that this is “pop music” as opposed to something else, something that has not been named yet.
We have gotten so close to noise, beats, percussion and mechanical percision, so that we have producers becoming the new kings and queens–this does not mean that they do not have autonomy.
Missy chose all of the noise, both organic and inorganic in her track, and its brilliance is how the organic (horses braying, handclaps, her voice) grates against the inorganic (the rest)
Britney manages to make herself completley inorganic, a barbarella sexbot, and so we miss the organic. That’s the problem with this single, and her transition in the last few albums, she has moved from narrative to fractured forms, but it seems almost by accident (is this what Madonna is correcting, in her subtle, almost hectoring tone here ?) As well, that title her refusal to engage with what was traditionally called music. Its her, popbot versus the musics kudzu like growths.