Clearly no longer stuck in the zone between girlhood and womanhood, Britney Spears bared it all in her high-tech, mid-2000s smash “Toxic.” The video is one part James Bond, one part Bollywood strings, and multiple parts Spears. The result: a fun and white-hot club banger that still stands the test of time.
“Toxic” saw Spears bring out her biggest guns, oozing confidence, sex appeal, and playfulness all at once. We can all imagine what it’s like to be cheated on. Catching the person to do it, not letting them win, and ultimately getting them in your own game, however, is the video’s true prize.
Compositionally, “Toxic” is based largely around an iconic string hook – one that was taken from an 80s Bollywood musical and revamped by the Swedish duo Bloodshy & Avant. The beat is cold and electronic, which makes for a brilliant contrast. The vocals swing back and forth between the high notes of the pre-chorus, “Too high, can’t come down,” and the blue notes of the chorus tagline, “I’m addicted to you, don’t you know that you’re toxic,” evoking a feeling of cinematic drama.
In the Joseph Kahn-directed video, Spears stewards an airplane, cruises on the back of a motorcycle (and leading male model, Tyson Beckford), gets her hands on some poison, and covers her naked body in nothing but diamonds. It’s safe to say it’s a feast for the eyes.
Spears plays a number of stimulating characters in “Toxic,” donning blonde, brunette, and red hair for the Bond-esque treatment. The opening moments are of her as a stewardess, and they’re seductive, enticing, and some of her best work (ever). The viewer is instantly caught in her web, left with no choice but to keep watching. Moreover, there’s a sense that Spears is having a genuinely good time in “Toxic,” and that sense of fun is highly contagious.
The manner in which Spears commands your attention suggests she knows exactly what she’s doing. She understands what her audience and fans like most about her, and here she acutely plays to those angles in full-on sex kitten mode. “Toxic” is a classic and signature Spears single that sounds like it’s from another time, let alone world. It’s futuristic, bizarre, and even a little bit hedonistic. Plus, it gives her the perfect platform to demonstrate her role-playing abilities, as she embodies various Britneys on her mission to takedown her unfaithful lover.
The end of the video shows Spears first seducing her cheating boyfriend and then feeding him the precious poison she procured. There’s no better way to describe this scene than getting away with murder. With a smile on his face, the unknowing male accepts his fate before Spears escapes into thin air and sends us off with no more than a cheeky wink, back on the plane where the whole game started mere minutes ago. Even to this day, over a decade later, “Toxic” holds its own against current pop music videos and songs, thanks in full to an intoxicating performance by the bubblegum genius that is Britney Spears. Rewatch the iconic video below and let me know if you think it still measures up in the comment section:
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