20 Years Ago Tonight Britney Spears gave us one of the VMAs most iconic performances

She traded the snake for a ring. She and Sam are engaged.

Let's hope she didn't trade the snake for a snake.

People here mock Madonna but at least Madonna makes up her own mind. I always felt like Britney was never in control and she was not too bright.

I never thought she was a great performer. I didn’t think she was terrible. She just has the presence of a good backup dancer

[quote] "20 Years Ago Tonight..."

The 2001 VMAs were held on Thursday, September 6th. So other than being incorrect for the sake of sounding dramatic, why say this?

Anyway, it WAS a bit exciting, because it was the first time the public had ever heard the lead single from her soon-to-be-released third album, "Britney" (my favorite by her). I didn't like it immediately, but it grew on me.

It's sad that the snake didn't kill her, live, on TV, that night.

It is a failure of adult entertainment.

Oh look, a lip synching hooker. With a snake.

Britney Spears at her peak was the truest embodiment ever of that peculiarly American tension between:

Children must be spared and shielded from all knowledge of sex and sexuality (including things like Janet Jackson's terrifying nipple) BUT jailbait is the hottest shit ever and all red blooded American men secretly want to fuck 16 yr olds.

Even in this song you've got that line at the beginning about "I know I may be young but I got feelings too...all you people look at me like I'm a little girl..." Britney was 20 at the time, no? Way past too old for that "little girl" shit. But that was what made her so famous, the little girl voice and that schoolgirl uniform. She never stood a chance, and her not being smart didn't help.

She was 19 when she sang "I'm not a girl not yet a woman" so she definitely was trying to hold onto the jailbait thing

Umm this would only be iconic if that snake had bit her when she twirled around with it like an idiot.

That snake is still alive. Her name is Banana.

^And she was still kind of a baby at the time, apparently. She's now 15 feet and 100 pounds. Nice size for a Burmese python.

Britney was a fine entertainer before her knee injury and later mental issues. But too much of her image is derivative to be unique. Madonna took inspirations but she made them her own and Madonna used intricate choreography and theatrics. Britney was straight up a carbon copy of Janet, Aaliyah and J. Lo and she was never as good a dancer as they were. Britney had stage presence and charisma which made up for her lack of technical skills.