Head Bitch Music presents: #FreeBritney

Partnering with the SoCal chapter of the ACLU, Head Bitch Music recruits the talents of 19 female-identifying and non-binary artists in the #FreeBritney project in support of Living Pop Legend Britney Spears and her struggle for self-determination from the ongoing conservatorship legal disputes.

The #FreeBritney movement was launched to public awareness in 2019 after the Britney's Gram podcast made public a voicemail obtained through an anonymous source, in which an alleged former member of Spears' legal team detailed outrageous circumstances surrounding an -again alleged- involuntary admission of the pop star into a Psychiatric facility. In the following weeks and months, new details -both factual and rumored- would emerge, making the public call into question the true nature of her conservatorship as well as the methods and ethics employed.

The story of this release begins somewhere with Jessica Vaughn -better known as LACES right now- who is the Head Bitch at Head Bitch Music, the creative label bringing this whole thing together. Jessica, who is a survivor of the predatory traps and power abuses that are sadly all too common in the entertainment industry, felt an immediate sense of solidarity with the Pop Icon and decided to help the best way an artist can: By raising awareness and working with charities in the creation of art that empowers, inspires and moves survivors of conservatorship, guardianship and general industry abuse.

Featuring artists such as ZOLA, Boh Doran, Olvia Dear, and many more, #FreeBritney is a full-length album covering 17 songs from across the Princess of Pop's career with each artist bringing in their own takes and emotions into Classics like "Toxic", "Sometimes" and "Crazy". The album goes live now, just as Jamie Spears goes back to court to face further inquiries into his conservatorship. 25% of the proceeds from the album sales will go towards the SoCal Chapter of the ACLU to help fight abuse and iniquity.

But how does the music stack up to the originals? Covering a song is always a big challenge, especially when it's from the catalog of someone so influential as Spears, but I'm happy to report that none of the songs are carbon copies and that each artist does justice to these veritable classics by incorporating their own sound fully into them, at times with arrangements so wildly different that they allow completely new flavors to shine through from these old songs. I feel like particular praise is due to ZOLA for her beautiful guitar rendition of "I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman". Dressage's extremely unique and minimalistic take on "Oops!…I Did It Again" and the haunting and cinematic version of "Toxic" that JPOLND (Vaughn herself) and Rachel K. Collier put together.

This massive collaborative effort would not have been possible -once again- if not for Head Bitch Music and their partners at the SoCal Chapter of the ACLU. So massive props -and thanks- to them for bringing this amazing project to fruition.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Samuel Aponte is Venezuelan-born raised and based. 

I joined Rival Magazine after a few years of doing PR work for independent musicians of all stripes; understanding their struggles to be heard in a sea of constant  ADHD noise and paywalled access to platforms, I now bring a willingness to always appreciate and encourage the effort and creativity that artists put into their work . Can also find some of my writings on LADYGUNN and We Found New Music.