This Day in Pop: 'Everytime' music video premieres in 2004 (April 12)

[PokemonSpears]

On April 12, 2004, the Everytime music video premiered on TRL. It was the third video to promote In the Zone, Britney's fourth studio album. It was filmed on March 13 and 14 in Los Angeles and it was directed by David LaChapelle, who had photographed her in 1999 for the Rolling Stone magazine.

The video features Britney and her love interest (Stephen Dorff) arriving at a hotel in Las Vegas inside a limousine. They seem distant, and when Britney tries to touch him while he talks on the phone, he pushes her away . They're received by a crowd of paparazzi and fans, making them struggle to walk by, but they eventually make their way, entering from the backdoor of the hotel, after Britney's boyfriend had thrown some magazines to the paps.  They keep arguing as they reach their room, where Britney gets in the bathtub while her boyfriend stays in the couch. As she touches her head while lying in the bathtub, she notices that there's blood from a wound she got at the beginning of the video, when a paparazzo accidentally hit her with a camera. She then loses consciousness and drowns. From here we see intercut scenes of Britney running in a hospital hallway and her boyfriend rescuing her from the bathtub. We see her being carried into an ambulance surrounded by the paparazzi, and the doctors trying to resuscitate her at the hospital. Her ghost or spirit is seeing herself in the bed, and when she walks to the next room, she sees a baby being born. At the end we see her rising from under the water in the bathtub and smiling, suggesting it was all a dream or fantasy.

Before the video was shot, MTV news obtained a treatment of the video, which involved a cup of wine and a bottle of pills in the bathtub scene. She was supposed to die and be seen in the end walking past the paparazzi, who wouldn't notice her ghost. However, it received a lot of criticism from the public who accused Britney of "glorifying suicide". Britney, through her record label, decided against this treatment, clarifying it was not meant to be a suicide, but an accidental death, and that the treatment would be revised.

Quote

Early treatments for Britney Spears' "Everytime" video were unfortunately released to the media. Britney Spears was uncomfortable with these treatments due to the potential for a fictional accidental occurrence to be misinterpreted as a suicide. Accordingly, Ms. Spears revised the treatment to ensure the video for "Everytime" will not have a Scene in it that could in any way be perceived as a reference to a suicide. She does not endorse this as a solution to any individual and fully recognizes that people who go to this length need assistance and advice and should contact their local suicide prevention organization.

The day of the premiere, Britney called the show and explained the concept of reincarnation of the video. She added "It's more like a movie. It's different than anything I've ever done. It's dark, and it shows me in a different light. Of course, I'm going to go back and do dance videos, but I wanted to be inspired and challenged."

 

The video went #1 a few times on TRL countdown, and in MTV Latin America, it landed at #37 in the yearly Top 100 of 2004. In 2018, it became Britney's 15th video to surpass 100M views on YouTube.

 

In May, she appeared on UK's TRL, where she clarified again the video wasn't about suicide, but that even if it were, it should be taken in a positive light by the parents, in order to raise awareness since the suicide rates were at their highest. She also talked about David LaChapelle, and played Rock, paper, scissors against her past self.

 

On her Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, an alternative cut of the video was released, including some outtakes:

 

 

[I'mNotTheAverageLady]

The song that made me a stan forever

And the inspiration to do leg workouts

[Chrischi]

My favourite music video of hers... and of course one of her best songs 

[thebritmaster]

Her legs in this vid 

[Blackout2006]

It was a moment

[J in the Mix]

So iconic & I'm happy she fought to have this as a single. 

[Oxic]

I live for legney

[PokemonSpears]

I think it's not available now, but I remember when I first started to visit BreatheHeavy, and searched for the archived news, one of the earliest news was the behind the scenes pics of Everytime leaking 

[Sea flower]

This video is a piece of art, i agree with what Britney said, it could be an extract from a movie. Even if you watch it nowadays it doesn't look old, could be released today. The song is so beautiful it reaches your heart and it is one of my favourite Britney songs.

[rik]

46 minutes ago, PokemonSpears said:

I think it's not available now, but I remember when I first started to visit BreatheHeavy, and searched for the archived news, one of the earliest news was the behind the scenes pics of Everytime leaking 

That’s so interesting. I wish I got to experience breathe heavy in it’s earlier days just to see what it was like. I experienced glory as a lurker 

are the pics still out there?

 

 

I remember once I did a thread doing analysis of the meaning of this video. It was super long and I deleted it along w all my other posts from the old account  

[Isla]

A beautiful video. I know the plot had to be changed but I still love the way it turned out. It's really well shot.

[Style.]

Everything about it is so iconic. The music video and the song are stunning. I remember Everytime being played on the television but I was so young to comprehend who’s the singer and what’s going on. Years later, Womanizer was released and made me a stan forever. 

[DignifiedLove]

That second pic omg never seen it before she looked like an ANGEL

Early 2004ney was a doll

[Style.]

2 minutes ago, SUCCESSICA IS A QUEEN said:

That first pic omg never seen it before she looked like an ANGEL

Early 2004ney was a doll

The last pop star, the definition of a pop star was Britney. 

[DignifiedLove]

2 minutes ago, Style. said:

The last pop star, the definition of a pop star was Britney. 

She had a distinguishable charm, aura and mystery behind her presence that no other pop star has ever matched 

[Style.]

8 minutes ago, SUCCESSICA IS A QUEEN said:

She had a distinguishable charm, aura and mystery behind her presence that no other pop star has ever matched 

I so miss her voice, I miss her pop songs so much. 

[zxcvb]

1 hour ago, Sea flower said:

This video is a piece of art, i agree with what Britney said, it could be an extract from a movie. Even if you watch it nowadays it doesn't look old, could be released today. The song is so beautiful it reaches your heart and it is one of my favourite Britney songs.

At the end of the day this is arguably her best song and video because of how sincere it is (and her obviously writing it)

People keep talking about how big Britney was, but this video accurately depicts how she was feeling more than any other song/video she ever recorded/released...

[Stefani]

The video that changed pop and raised awareness of reincarnation. 

[I'mNotTheAverageLady]

24 minutes ago, Style. said:

Everything about it is so iconic. The music video and the song are stunning. I remember Everytime being played on the television but I was so young to comprehend who’s the singer and what’s going on. Years later, Womanizer was released and made me a stan forever. 

I was literally 4 years old, but it was a number #1 hit in my country, so I heard it all the time and it got through to my little heart and it was that song that I spent years wondering what it could have been, but knew no words of it, than more than 10 years later I found it while listening to my favourite Britney bops (the og hits) and it blew my mind to hear it again and I was so suprised it was Britney

[PokemonSpears]

1 hour ago, Rick101 said:

That’s so interesting. I wish I got to experience breathe heavy in it’s earlier days just to see what it was like. I experienced glory as a lurker 

are the pics still out there?

 

 

I remember once I did a thread doing analysis of the meaning of this video. It was super long and I deleted it along w all my other posts from the old account  

I think the pictures were the same I posted, well, there are more, but you can google them, they were those full body shots taken in that sort of balcony