Britney spears – Toxic Analysis

By Jack Emmett

LyricsThe song Toxic uses lyrics that portray the idea that Britney Spears is moving more into the adult area of entertainment and out of her original genre of entertainment which attracted more of a teenage audience. This is shown as the lyrics represent quite a sexual theme with suggestions of drug use, this helps to emphasise that Britney is now 21 and moving into the bigger world. The lyrics to Toxic also help Britney engage with her fans due to the fact that they are majority teenage they will also be going through similar lifestyle changes.Here are some examples of lyrics from the song that display these messages;

“I need a hit – baby, give me itYou're dangerous, I'm loving it”

“With the taste of your lips, I'm on a rideYou're toxic I'm slippin' under

With a taste of the poison paradise”

MusicBritney is famous for fast pace dance tracks, and the song and video for Toxic further support this, the continued theme of high tempo dance music drives the music video to have fast paced editing, through the use of quick cuts, short shots and a lot of action. So overall the music keeps up Britney Spear’s well know genre and appearance.

Genre/Mise en scene The basic genre of the music video “Toxic” is clearly a pop song that revolves around dancing and movement which are mostly simple until the video gets to the ‘Laser Trap’ whereby Britney has almost what appears as a dancing solo where the dancing becomes the main focus for the viewers. This is most likely inserted in the video to engage the target audience, seeing as Britney’s fans are mainly teenagers and would expect dancing. However whilst talking about Britney’s dancing it is worth noticing that Britney’s dancing is a lot more sexual as she gets very close and personal with a lot of the males in the video, this is probably due to her age and her desire to express her sexuality. However this is not unexpected from Britney when taking into account her outfits from other videos, her outfits in this video continue and increase in that sexual desire, this is shown through her nearly nude outfit and red nails for the performance side of the video which indicates a more mature nature.

The opening shot of two birds and a plane symbolises freedom and escape, which is a reoccurring theme throughout Britney’s videos that shows her desire to be free, this is reinforced through her outfits and props such as the motorbike and aeroplane shows that she wants to escape her manufactured image.

Genre/Mise en scene continued

Camerawork Due to the close ups used throughout the video as well as the large amounts of mid shots, it is obvious that Britney herself is the main focus of the music video, this is supported by the idea that all the other characters/actors in the video are kept to a minimum (e.g the other air hostess's). The few long shots that are used are only used to show her triumphs and show off her body (e.g her midriff of the superhero scene)

EditingThe editing of the video matches the fast pace of the song itself. This creates a consistent rapid style throughout the video, this is very common for a song of the pop genre, meaning that Toxic is very conventional.

Intertextuality - Britney’s female heroin theme (black haired Britney at the end of the

video) could be influenced by manga comic strips, as well as the comic strip “Witch Blade” which centres on female superheroes.

- The near nude suit that Britney wears for certain elements of the song could be inspired by the Holly Valence video “Kiss Kiss”.

- In 2003 the TV show Alias was very popular, it stars a young female spy who often wears disguises, one of these outfits is very similar to the ‘Red haired’ Britney that is in the music video, this could potentially have been an influence.

Narrative/PerformanceThe narrative for Toxic fits very closely to the definition of a music video, there are performative elements whereby Britney dances which is one of her main selling points, whereas the main narrative of a female spy (where Britney uses her sexuality) who tries to complete her mission and tries to escape and be free. The lip syncing close ups are also the main performance of the video which is very common in pop and rock genre videos.

Star Image/BrandI have already noted the Image the Britney has put across of herself, her selling points are her body, her connection to young people and her desire to be free (a trait she shares with her fans and the general audience). The Toxic music video clearly demonstrates all three of these key points about Britney.

Voyeurism/LookingThis video conforms to Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, Britney is sexualised as an object to be appraised. This is shown through the focus on her legs and derrière and her near nudes outfits, which highlights pop music’s desire to sell sexuality. This is further supported though her actions, such as winking, is it a wink to suggest power or control?