Music Video Analysis- Toxic

The music in this song is up-beat and faced with a steady beat. This makes the song faced passed and lively which is further conveyed with the fast-paced editing. The key of the music is in a minor key which shows the music is more emotional and upsetting. The music is very generic and typical of a pop song because it has a similar beat to most other pop songs. Toxic is in the genre of pop. This can also be referred to as chart music and pop music are top of the charts. In terms of target audience, this video is aimed towards the younger audience as it has a lot of dancing and different costumes to entertain her fans. We also see Britany trying to express her sexuality to her fans. She does this through her sexualised dancing and interactions with other men in the music video.

She is wearing red nails and minimal clothing in this video which are all indications of a more mature natured video. This shows Britany as being bold and expressing her sexuality in her videos. This video is showing Britany Spears taking on this new persona and that she is not the same as she was when she was younger. The costumes are another way of showing her new persona. The costumes she is wearing are typical of a young female star. For example, she wears ‘revealing’ clothes. She uses her sexualised dancing and ‘revealing’ clothing to attract her audiences. This variety uses the idea of voyeurism. Voyeurism is the enjoyment of people watching you without you knowing. The use of multiple different outfits conforms to the idea of the male gaze theory proposed by Laura Mulvey. The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of heterosexual male audience. It may linger over certain different instances such as body shape.

This theory proposes that the heterosexual men are drawn to women which shows a level of control. This shows an element of patriarchy. This is visualised in this music video. The minimal clothing and erotic style dancing is used to capture the gaze of a typical heterosexual man. Mulvey agrees that an element of patriarchy is seen in ‘illusionistic narrative film’. Since the male gaze is used to gain the attention of heterosexual males, it makes the women’s status more of an object to look at. This is closely linked to voyeurism because it is the idea that people are watching you without you knowing. This in turn portrays that men are more powerful and have far greater control. This is because the dominant hierarchy has always been that men were above women. Hence Britany Spears keeps changing costumes and does sexualised dancing to stop the male audience from losing attention.

It is clear throughout the music video that her theme is about getting freedom and escaping. The birds flying over the plane at the beginning symbolises her desire to be free. The costumes are used as disguises. This to me shows a clear message that she wants to be free but she must hide away and pretend to be someone she isn’t. The use of a plane and a motorbike shows a way to escape and that she wants to get away. This can appeal to the younger audiences as some of them probably want to escape school and be rebellious like Britany.

The lyrics further convey Britany’s inability to escape. The word toxic itself conveys danger and something that really isn’t good for you. She repeats throughout the song multiple times that she is “addicted”. This shows she keeps is attached to something and can’t let go. This creates isolation and loneliness for Britany as she is unable to escape. The lyrics however juxtapose the music video. The lyrics make Britany appear to love the danger and that she is “addicted” to it however, in the music video she appears to be trapped and looks like she wants to get away. This juxtaposition makes the audience unaware of whether she enjoys the danger or whether she is afraid of it.

The camerawork is heavily focused on Britney. Even though there are other backing dancers dancing with Britney, they get little camera time as the camera is focused on Britney. The camera portrays Britney in a very sexualised way as the camera is focusing primarily on her body. The camera uses a range of long shots, mid-shots and close-ups. There constantly close-ups and extreme close-ups of Britney lip synching because watching her lip-sync creates verisimilitude as it creates the impression she is singing the song.