Jewel has let loose. After spending years as the mainstream folk queen of the pop scene (whoa), she’s busted out of her traditional role and assumed a Britney Spears-ish persona. She’s got a new pop record, a new pop image, a new pop video, and a new pop fake-n-bake tan.

Where did the sensitive songbird go? Where did her clothes go? Why on Earth did she team up with a razor manufacturer for an advertising deal? There must be an explanation. Rob Walker, author of the above linked article, says:

It’s possible to overlook the mild hypocrisy of Jewel poking fun at a musical and video style by basically copying it and adding a half-hearted wink. But how to explain writing a song that tells us all to resist the total marketing mentality all around us, promoting it with a video that satirizes advertising, all the while urging us to just be ourselves — and then licensing that song to a consumer products company for a huge sales campaign?

Crazy.