Toxic Analysis - Alfie

Toxic Analysis

Lyrics

The lyrics for the song Toxic establishes the point that Britney is now ready to move on from her teenage years and now is looking to show her more adult life as a pop star.  The lyrics to the song Toxic are filled with sexual remarks just to reinforce the idea of her as a sexual image. The lyrics are as follows:

There’s no escape, I can’t wait

I need a hit, baby give it to me

You’re dangerous, I’m lovin’ it

With the taste of your lips
I'm on a ride
You're toxic I'm slippin' under
With a taste of the poison paradise

Music

Toxic is an example of pop music in the 90’s this involved high tempo beats that could be used as a dance track. This is the reason for the fast-paced music video

Genre

Due to the pop genre, that Toxic is this means that dance and movement has a high involvement in the video, the young target audience for the video are seeing Britney doing these famous dance moves and therefore they are becoming more likely to enjoy the music video and be satisfied with the outcome. During the video, she often portrays sexual content in the video, which shows a more mature nature within Britney.

The costumes that Britney is shown to be wearing during the video are very revealing for the pop star, she has done this in order to show her audience that she is not a child anymore and would like to be treated like the adult that she is. While wearing the costumes she is shown to be using her body as a weapon against the male stars in the video.

Camera Work

Many different shots are used during the video but it mostly consists of long shots and close ups of Britney. The close ups are used during the video to show the centre of attention (Britney) during the video and mid shots are used in order to show the character and any of the background information that is necessary. Log shots are used towards the end of the video to show the audience the tasks that Britney has done throughout the video eg riding on the motorbike.

Editing

The editing is mostly fast paced in order to reflect the beat of the song and the dance genre. However, the song does slowdown in certain parts in which this is shown through the music video also slowing down due to the editing.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when the music video uses other forms of media in order to spark recognition from the viewers, this could be a video based around a film. The music video from toxic has a feel from modern superhero films eg the marvel franchise. This is due to the costumes that Britney is wearing throughout the video and also the things she is doing throughout the video for example going through a laser field.

Narrative / performance