Ridiculous. In an 80’s-inspired farce, Iggy Azalea and Britney Spears’ newest music video, “Pretty Girls,” seems determined to take the word to new heights.
The video begins when Spears’ Californian valley-girl-esque world is invaded by alien Azalea, who emerges from Spears’ backyard swimming pool — giving them the joint opportunity to play dress up in leopard-print and jean crop tops, triangular earrings, rock crimped hairdos, and prance around town in their yellow convertible. Surely, alien Azalea gets the knack of being a so-called “pretty girl” with the help of Spears, and she is able to give back the favor by turning water pink, forcing an ATM to spew cash and transforming a sizable, antiquated cell phone into a Samsung Galaxy S6 (read: cheap sponsorship insert).
Yes, it’s a little preposterous, but that’s what makes it fun.
After Spears and alien Azalea join two other high-brow, blush-washed girls in a pink convertible, typically overusing the word “totally” in expressing their excitement, they head to the club where, of course, they show off choreography — only more than expected from a 21st century Spears video. Finally, to Spears’ excitement, a UFO comes to seemingly take the two musicians-gone-wild back to the alien planet Azalea came from in the first place.
There’s more to be anticipated than delivered in Azalea’s third directorial attempt. In a mid-April interview with USA Today, Azalea said Spears wanted to “let loose and not necessarily feel like she’s playing Britney Spears” in the “Pretty Girls” video, inspired from the 1988 comedy “Earth Girls Are Easy.” Unsurprisingly, the song and the video screams “SPEARS”, showing no musical growth from Spears’ latest album, Britney Jean, with acting and dancing terrifyingly similar to “I Wanna Go” and “Work B**ch.” While Azalea has proved her creative direction leads to aesthetically cohesive videos when paired with the right song, “Pretty Girls” leaves little to the imagination and more to be desired.
At the end of the day, though, the video is colorful. It’s ludicrous plotline tallies with its underlying song (Wipe the floor, with all the boys / pour the drinks, bring the noise / we’re just so pretty!), making it easier to laugh off as a parody than to heavily criticize.
