The 1966 musical Sweet Charity has an iconic sequence, "The Rich Man's Frug", choreographed by Bob Fosse, that vaulted the high ponytail whip into pop cultural consciousness and helped solidify the idealization of long hair: There's no better indication of hair's importance to a female pop star than what happened after Spears shaved her head: shortly after her shave and stay in rehab, she was once again sporting extensions - her hair was perhaps even more important than her mental health it seemed.
They represent sensuality and sexuality and are one more heavy-handed reminder that female pop stars are young, sexy women, as evidenced by Britney Spears's iconic whiplash-inducing performance at the VMAs in 2000: And longer locks are a requisite for female pop stars. Record labels and managers often control a singer's look and appearance. It's been established that the music industry can be a sexist place. "Your hair is your biggest form of expression when you're a pop star," Ursula Stephen, Rihanna's hairstylist said in an interview with Buzzfeed.Ī look at the hoopla over Britney's extensions, Beyoncé's pixie cut and later her bob, Rihanna's asymmetrical snip, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj's wigs and weaves, Miley Cyrus's chop, Lady Gaga's multicolored and multilayered locks, and Christina Aguilera's dye jobs proves Stephen right. " In what's become one of the most stunning moments in her career, she headed into a hair salon and shaved her head with clippers," Rolling Stone wrote, declaring Spears's shave one of the 25 boldest career moves in rock history.
"Bald and Broken," an ABC News headline stated. But it wasn't until 2007, when Spears shaved her head and entered rehab, that people began feeling like something was truly wrong. She was going into gas station bathrooms barefoot, driving with her baby in her lap instead of a car seat, and filing for divorce from Kevin Federline. A pop music princess's hair is really importantįrom 2004-2007, Britney Spears was displaying erratic behavior. To be a pop princess, you have to have hair and know what to do with it.
Grande's hairography is just a microcosm of the way record execs have influenced how we expect female pop stars to look and behave. It's also part of a larger narrative surrounding Grande's rapid rise to the top of the pop charts: Grande can't dance, so she's incorporating hair flips and tosses to hide that fact. Instead, there are lot of shots of Grande's hair, like this:Īriana Grande takes off a helmet in "Break Free" (Vevo)Īriana Grande's short dance sequence in "Break Free" (Vevo)īut the dance moves to hair-shot ratio in "Break Free" is hopelessly skewed toward hair. Last week, Ariana Grande, an overachieving tribute from District 4, unleashed a video for her song " Break Free." The zippy track is the second dance hit Grande released this summer, coming on the heels of "Problem."īut if you look at this video (and the video for "Problem"), you'll notice an utter lack of dancing, despite the songs being impossibly dance-y tunes.
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