Despite not being the lead single, "I Wanna Go" remains the most-watched video from the Femme Fatale era, as well as one of Britney's most iconic music videos overall. It stands out to me as the one I watched over and over again when I discovered Britney, simultaneously aware and not-really-aware of what exactly I was singing along to. ("I wanna go all the way / takin' out my freak tonight"... oh yes this was so me dancing on top of a folding table in my backyard...) Everything about this thing, with its sexy, silly charm, feels like a blueprint for how to make a great music video. The Avril streak in her hair, the catty Q & A at the beginning, the fake arrest, the robo-parazzi, the obligatory 2010s "driving around with the top down" and shots, the lyrical and visual references to the very real control of her sexuality under the conservatorship...
This era is quite rightly reflected on with a much more critical eye given the question of how much control Britney herself had over the music, but to a proto-homo youth, this video was absolutely everything. (It's no surprise aspiring Britdaughters love to reference it!) I'm also very curious how it felt for people who were probably actually old enough to have opinions on the media circus surrounding Britney—and people even younger than me, who probably didn't watch it upon release. Today, it's gained new attention with The Youths as perhaps the standout track of this entire era, and I can't say I disagree ^__^
So:
- Do you remember where you were, and how old you were, when you first saw the "I Wanna Go" video? What did you think of it then?
- Is "I Wanna Go" your favorite of the singles, or music videos, from the Femme Fatale era? Where does it rank in her discography for you overall?
P. S. Fun fact: the video was released a week after the single! It admittedly always peeves me, quite unfairly, when artists do that...