This Day in Pop: the 'Stronger' music video premieres in 2000 (November 3)

[PokemonSpears]

 

On November 3, 2000, Britney Spears released the Stronger music video, the third single off her second studio album Oops!... I Did It Again. It was shot from October 5 - 7, and it was directed by Joseph Kahn, being this the first out of 4 videos she would eventually do with him throughout her career (so far).

 

 

In 2009, Joseph Kahn told MTV News that he considered this video to mark a departure in Britney's image and career: "I think this video is interesting because it's got a very sophisticated, adult look to it [...] It's definitely a departure from the sort of candy-colored videos she was doing before, so I always thought this was the transition between Britney the teenage pop star and Britney the sort of diva she became."

He revealed the original concept was created by Britney "For 'Stronger,' she said, 'I would like to dance in a chair and drive in a car and break up with [my] boyfriend. Those are your three elements.' And then, as a director, you go, 'OK, well, how do I make that cool?'" He's also noticed the influence of Janet Jackson's videos such as The Pleasure Principle and Miss You Much for the video's chair routine: "She pitched it to me as an original concept by herself, but the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of the chair sequence, in terms of how it applies to music videos, was Janet Jackson's 'Pleasure Principle' — the iconic chair sequence in that."

In 2019, he talked about his original concept for the video in an interview he did for Indy Mogul: "The first time I met her on the Stronger video, I had this entire idea of like pitching like this big thing with a dragon, and dancing in the rain and soldiers and all this stuff, and she's listening, she's listening, I go through my whole pitch and then she looks at me and goes 'I was thinking about dancing in a chair'".

 

The video takes place in a futuristic world where Britney walks into a club to find out her boyfriend cheated on her, so she breaks up with him and leaves, driving away, walking in the rain over a bridge, while we also see alternating scenes of her doing the chair routine choreography.

There was a bit of controversy on set with Britney's manager over a particular scene he shot: "There's a shot here where I'm tracking with her, and her legs are spread, and Larry [Rudolph], the manager, was like, 'Don't do that.'  And she was like, 'Yes, definitely do that.' "

The MTV article also reveals another aspect of the video Kahn was insistent upon, Britney's silver eyeshadow: "One of the big things I wanted to do here, that I was just obsessed with ... I know it sounds really strange, but I wanted her to have gray eye shadow, and I think it looks really good. I remember when I was looking at the close-ups, Britney goes, 'You're really obsessed with this gray eye shadow!' and I go, 'Yes, absolutely.' But if you look at it, it just makes her eyes pop like crazy."

The music video was nominated at the VMA's 2001 for Best Pop Video, but lost to *NSync's Pop. Stronger appeared at #71 on the yearly Top 100 of MTV Latin America in 2000, but it reappeared the next year claiming the top position.

In October 2019, the music video surpassed the 100M views on her official YouTube channel, becoming her 21st video in achieving that feat.

 

 

The Making the Video:

 

Bloopers/outtakes: 

 

Alternative version:

BRITNEY-SPEARS Stronger from Supermega Films on Vimeo

PLAYER.VIMEO.COM

 

 

[PokemonSpears]

 

[JayTawndre]

Best video ever 

[Emil87]

5 hours ago, PokemonSpears said:

 

“I had this entire idea of like pitching like this big thing with a dragon, and dancing in the rain and soldiers and all this stuff, and she's listening, she's listening, I go through my whole pitch and then she looks at me and goes 'I was thinking about dancing in a chair'".

 

6 hours ago, PokemonSpears said:

 

There was a bit of controversy on set with Britney's manager over a particular scene he shot: "There's a shot here where I'm tracking with her, and her legs are spread, and Larry [Rudolph], the manager, was like, 'Don't do that.'  And she was like, 'Yes, definitely do that.' "

 

 

These parts made me  Kudos to her for stickin it to Bonehead Larry and for sticking with her concept. I’m surprised she hasnt gotten more co-director credits with how many video concepts she came up with (then again this isn’t Beyonce who’d demand credit for changing her undies). 

Joesph Kahn and Britney came up with video magic together. This is in my top 5 fav Britney videos and ties with “DLMBTLTK” as the most beautiful she’s ever looked on screen. 

Also. @PokemonSpears thanks for posting this, I didn’t know some of these details and you obviously put a lot into this thread! Let’s not let this flop people..