POP-ROCK

BRITNEY'S AND JAY-Z'S DEATH SCENES

Forget choreography and special effects. The latest way for music stars to put some life into their videos is to dramatize their own deaths.

BRITNEY SPEARS, "EVERYTIME" In Las Vegas for her tour, Spears fights with her Justin Timberlake-like boyfriend (played by actor Stephen Dorff), then seemingly commits suicide in her hotel room bathtub. She appears to run toward the light as she flat-lines on the hospital table.

JAY-Z, "99 PROBLEMS" This gritty black-and-white clip, featuring the song's producer Rick Rubin and actor Vincent Gallo, returns the soon-to-retire Jigga to his street roots in Brooklyn, where he is gunned down in a hail of bullets at the video's end.