Here we have a site entitled Britney Spears: In The Zone. In all honesty, my first impressions of this site were quite negative. The color scheme is extremely dark, and, furthermore, the site has not been updated since December 17. I also found the blog itself somewhat confusing. It appeared to be written in the voice of Britney Spears, and there was no visible explanation of this.
I initially wondered if perhaps I was reviewing a kind of roleplaying journal, like one sometimes stumbles upon on Livejournal. Eventually, however, I found a very small (and difficult to find) disclaimer of sorts indicating this site to be part of a collection of “immersive fabrications of your favorite celebrities’ innermost thoughts, words, and deeds, carefully woven into satirical weblogs for your viewing pleasure.” With this firmly in mind, I continued reading the weblog.
I couldn’t help but think of how much satirical potential an endeavor such as this blog could have, but I was ultimately very disappointed. There are a total of six entries to this blog, beginning in July of 2003. While there are a few funny bits, this site is miles short of being what it could be. The most recent entry is a half-hearted attempt by the author to poke fun at celebrities who try and make political statements, and features Britney bemoaning the war while receiving over-the-top fan letters from Uday Hussein. Other entries try too hard to contrast Britney with “real artists.” Clearly, on this blog, the author’s attempts to satirize the music industry are as subtle as a sledgehammer, and a lot less humorous than one. Interspersed through all the drivel and cliché observations, we are met with reader comments, most of which consist of “OMG! IS THIS FOR REAL? IS IT REALLY U BRITNEY!” As scintillating as all of this is, any wise weblog reader would move on.
The design appears to be a poor execution of the standard MovableType format. By some fluke in coding, the right navigational column is shoved to the bottom of the page, below the blog, and is very hard to find. As mentioned before, the color scheme is too dark, and despite the light text, is difficult to read. Design issues that elsewhere could be tolerated here detract further from an already lackluster weblog.
Overall; this site was a disappointment, especially considering the potential the concept had. Aside from gullible teenagers who actually believe this is Britney writing, I doubt there is any reason for anyone to visit this site. For readers seeking poignant and original satire, there are too many, far better alternatives.Britney Spears : In the Zone