Thong and dance

Skin is in as a promotional tool for female pop stars, but it's unclear if this approach will ultimately be liberating or limiting

By Vanessa E. Jones, Globe Staff, 8/26/2003

Call it the case of the incredible shrinking clothes. A bevy of once-demure pop princesses are invading pop culture in extreme states of undress to promote their summer CDs. And no, it's not because miniskirts and short shorts are in style this season.

Earnest, folky Jewel trades her jeans and T-shirts for leg-baring dresses and bra tops in the video for her uptempo tune ``Intuition.'' Beyonce bounces through her ``Crazy in Love'' video wearing bottom-hugging shorts and a lacy teddy. Ashanti glances from the cover of the July issue of The Source in a bikini shot that introduces readers to her flat abs and firm thighs. Hello!

These forays into flesh are a familiar rite of passage for teen singers eager to show - to take liberties with the words of Britney Spears - that they're not girls but women. Spears did it by pledging: ``I'm a Slave 4 U.'' Christina Aguilera simply got ``Dirrty.'' Along the way they bombarded viewers with confusing images of sexual independence that defined ``women'' as people who dress in clothes as skimpy as possible.

Now it's being tried by singers who used to cover up a little more.

``Most of this explicitness is driven by the music industry,'' says Tricia Rose, a professor of American studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, ``[which] is trying to figure out a way to keep consumers, particularly young male consumers.''

The industry's solution? ``There's no doubt that you get ... a whole lot more attention, a whole lot more media value, and a whole lot more ratings the less clothes [a woman] has on,'' Rose says.

These days, even the most talented female singer with the body and the willingness to expose it must find a middle ground between the salaciousness that sells and innocence. After all, they have to compete with the body-baring hoochie mamas who populate many hip-hop videos. The women who show the most in this battle of the flesh can boost record sales and become major stars. But if they reveal too much, it can scream ``desperate'' to savvy teens or send raunchy messages an artist may not intend.

So what compels these ladies to take it off? The artists themselves aren't talking; several singers were contacted for this story, and all declined to be interviewed. Ask Misa Hylton-Brim, the hip-hop stylist who creates publicity-generating looks for P. Diddy, Lil' Kim, and Mary J. Blige, and she suggests it's a matter of ``if you've got it, flaunt it.''

``These women are young and famous and successful and beautiful,'' says Hylton-Brim, a fashion editor at The Source who styled the Ashanti cover. ``They're working out hard, they're watching what they eat, they're changing their lifestyles for their careers.''

When Ashanti Douglas, 22, seduced the public with her songs of urban romance last year, she was a sweet innocent whose idea of racy was flashing a bit of tummy. But she arrived at The Source photo shoot to promote her sophomore CD, ``Chapter II,'' ready to expose some skin. The singer had been working out with a trainer for months, says Hylton-Brim. Good thing, since the stylist and The Source's editor in chief, Kim Osorio, wanted a cover image that showed ``a more sexy, grown-up side to her,'' Hylton-Brim says.

Ashanti's stint as a pinup left guys howling with approval, but it had the opposite effect on her female fans. To Kendy John, 18, a vocalist from Roslindale who will soon start her freshman year at the Berklee College of Music, the bikini shot showed ``some lack of confidence. Like, `OK, I've got to show some skin because that's what sells.'''

Holly Poleet, 15, of Roslindale also sees the cover as a calculating way to generate sales. ``It's like, `Oh, she can't sing, but she got a nice body,''' says Poleet. ``The men are obviously going to buy the CD, just because she's beautiful.''

Sales and popularity are a frequent outcome of this skin game if it's played correctly. Jewel's eye-popping ``Intuition'' video smartly parodies the fleshy excesses of hip-hop videos by showing the singer being hosed down by muscular firefighters and strutting through scenes in a sequined minidress. The 29-year-old rode the joke to the top of MTV's video countdown show. ``She was nowhere near `TRL,''' says Jorge Ramon, fashion director at Teen People, referring to MTV's ``Total Request Live'' show. ``Now she's all over [it].''

Mya now treads the same path to boost sales of her third CD, ``Moodring,'' which is stuffed with R&B songs detailing the 23-year-old's sexual hijinks. She introduced her adult persona in the video ``My Love Is Like ... Wo '' by stripping off a conservative white suit to reveal exclamation-producing abs and long legs. It's almost enough to make you forget her teen image as the girl next door who roller-skated through videos built around pop beats. Now she's on the cover of the September/

October issue of King magazine - the African-American version of lad mags FHM and Maxim - striking soft-core porn poses in sheer short shorts that leave no curve unseen.

Ramon has major problems with the over-the-top sexuality touted in King and The Source: ``That is objectifying women, saying, `Look at me. I've got no clothes on. Buy this magazine.''' But when sexy is done right, he considers it a 21st-century form of feminism for singers battling a double standard that allows men to exhibit their bodies but considers the women who do it sluts. ``A lot of these girls are reclaiming that and saying, `You know what? We can be sexy, we can be pretty, we can be feminine.'''

Monica, 22, gets kudos for making that point tastefully. She grew up in the public eye, hitting the scene as a 15-year-old crooner with an adult-size voice. She's clearly matured on the cover of her latest CD, ``After the Storm,'' exposing taut legs and a bit of cleavage. It's a sophisticated sexiness that works for many of her fans.

``I have absolutely no problem with the way she's dressed,'' says Alyssa Arzola, 16, of the South End. ``She has dressed her age when she was 16, dressed her age when she was 17. Now she's in her 20s, and she's dressing her age. ''

Beyonce, who turns 22 in September, makes a less successful transformation in Arzola's eyes. Beyonce was the least-clothed member of Destiny's Child, and now her bottoms are shorter and her bra tops smaller as she promotes her first solo CD.

Rose says, ``For Beyonce, it's a little bit shocking that someone of her musical talent would on her first album have to raise the stakes. As if she wasn't already sexy. As if she wasn't already scantily clad. The idea that you have to get as nude as possible to sustain a viewership is a losing game. There's really nowhere to go with that but naked, and then what?''

Some artists do take the game nearly to its conclusion. Aguilera appeared nude with a strategically placed guitar on the cover of Rolling Stone last year to publicize her sophomore CD, ``Stripped.'' Liz Phair strikes a similar pose on the cover of her self-titled new CD in a bold attempt to capture mainstream ears four albums into her indie music career. Spears currently battles for relevancy by posing topless on the cover of September's British Elle magazine.

But the more skin pop stars flash, the more teens sense desperation. Take Mariah Carey's nude dip into her bathtub on a segment of MTV's celebrity homes show ``Cribs'' and her ever-sultrier video appearances. ``It's just like, `Could you put on some clothes?''' says Arzola.

There are those who won't or can't go to those extremes. Think Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne, Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige. Branch and Lavigne are the anti-Britneys deterimined not to follow Spears's breast-baring path. Chunky Elliott simply doesn't have the body to compete with her nubile peers.

With her six-pack and sculpted legs, Blige can pull off the racier styles, and she's done so in the past. Now she balances her look, pairing short shorts with long sleeved tops in the first video for her new CD, ``Love & Life.'' There will be no publicity shots in bikinis. ``She's not comfortable that way, and she's not going to do that,'' says Blige stylist Hylton-Brim.

Will a public raised on provocative images allow singers to backtrack? Take the case of Jennifer Lopez, whose recent ``I'm Glad '' video, a mini version of the 1983 film ``Flashdance,'' is a blatant homage to the body Lopez. In her latest visual confection, ``Baby, I Love You,'' a soft-focus camera concentrates on her glowing face, with only glimpses of her body clad in loose pants and a modest T-shirt. The video received a thumbs-down from ``Jose of the Bronx'' when it premiered last week on BET's video countdown show ``106 & Park.''

His complaint? ``She didn't show no body.''