@@michaelprendergast1483 that’s doesn’t mean they are a man, they literally said “when I used to be a boy” in this video, they are non-binary, and use they/them pronouns, regardless of voice or anything that would deem them “male”, respect that they are non-binary please
I know I'm late to the party here, but I'm amazed you didn't touch on, what I consider to be, Toxic's most distinct musical identity: "Spy music". It's obviously a little nod to 007 and Spy Hunter. The chromatic line cliches and frantic strings are the first hint, but the tremolo-laden single coil neck-pickup guitar is straight out of a James Bond theme.
Agreed. Other common elements in James Bond movies (fast/cool cars, aerial maneuvers, and commando-style engagements) also fit really well. I always felt the instrumental would have made an awesome videogame OST for a desert level.
one of the best pop songs of the century, and proof that experimentation and catchiness are not mutually exclusive. would love to see today's top songwriters and producers take similar risks.
I agree. Today's pop songwriters and producers are too by the book. I love when music walks that fine line between being accessible and being experimental.
@@chantoya17 Keep your eye on Ms Billie Eilish and hyper pop eventually gaining mainstream appeal - the pop music zeitgeist is due for another face lift in a year or so.. I recommend Charles Cornell's analysis of Billie's music (especially the harmony+melodies in "my future") and MicTheSnare's Hyper Pop video.
@@Alberto-ny7kf Yes Alberto? Jk I'm girl with a boys name but you're only the third person to bring it up in 27 years so it's a little more unisex in the places i've lived.
I love Britney. Her voice is so evocative. I remember the first time I ever heard her. I was filling out some forms at a reception desk, and the radio was playing. The music was utterly ignorable, then Hit me baby one more time started playing. It was so different from everything else, and her voice stood out with its emotional vibe; It caught my attention, and I said, “who is that?”
Dennis' demo is/was on YouToob somewhere... it was surprising how little (production/post-production stuff aside) was different from the Spears version. Not dissing Britney at all, her performance is pretty great, but as you say credit where it's due. Dennis' song is a great thing to work with.
Yeah for a composition breakdown like this it makes no sense to credit Britney. He's not doing a vocal analysis. He's talking about the song writing which was mainly done by Cathy Dennis
I suppose saying "Cathy Dennis used the Hendrix chord!" in a thumbnail is only likely to elicit the response "who the hell is Cathy Dennis?" from most people. Not me, of course - I'm one of the initiated.
I'd agree. I was a metalhead/punk growing up and Toxic came out when I was a teenager at the peak of my music elitist phase where everything that wasn't what I listened to was inferior. But I always loved Toxic. But I could never admit it at the time. So catchy and such an incredibly crafted pop song.
As a huge metal head who’s learning how to do death growls and plays bass in drop tunings, I am naturally so fucking pumped you made a video on this finally. I’ve always loved this song. And after watching the whole video I now know why a metal guy like me loves it. This is why I love theory
@@woofspider330 I've often wondered if the people who make songs mostly just slap together cool sounds that they like, then musical theorists run themselves in circles trying to interpret meaning that absolutely isn't there. Like an English teacher analyzing a book's meaning and the author tweets out "lol no, none of that meaning is there, it was just an interesting plot twist I threw in for fun."
@@WarrenGarabrandt Music theory is just a tool to help us understand music. It's useful but certainly not necessary. Song writers usually focus on 'does this sound good?' or 'does this convey the emotion that I want?'. Music theory is a way of explaining why music works or sounds good. Some musicians have a good understanding of theory but plenty of highly respected musicians that write complex songs admit they don't even know the names of the chords/scales that they use! I like to compare it to athletes who probably don't understand the physics of what they do so well.
Exactly, also from the soundtrack of a Hindi movie, which explains the exotic sounds. That being said, I think the sample was flipped in an amazing way, the original had a completely different mood
@@robertolanzone it got flipped really hard. Im a violinist and always thought it was a string synthesizer or something else because it just doesent sounds like a real violin to me but that would explain that. I schould mess with violin samples more often
@@yesitsvish most of it is definitely not reversed, and prob not gated, just chopped clips of audio. i can easily imagine whoever produced the track was messing around with chop order and length, and keeping the clips staccato was a fortunate discovery, for instance
@@repker ruclips.net/video/AXXUodk-pVo/видео.html This link is a detailed analysis of the sample. It is cut up, reordered and some sections are played both forward and reverse. Probably the most complicated 2 second sample ever.
such an unnerving melody, and such a sophisticated choice to match the song’s lyrics. if anyone hasn’t heard the slowed down string cover of this song from Promising Young Woman, I highly recommend. it’s terrifying
@@P-YT-CH The song was originally sung by the composer. Some of the original recording vocal is still in the song. They don't really sound very similar so you can usually tell who's singing what.
That's very cool and definitely helps to explain both the tonal quality and why it has that eastern sound. I've always been interested in the second part of the main riff and why it sounds that way. I wonder if there's a modal analysis/explanation that would help with that as well.
This is only the second 12tone video I've watched, and I'm a bit mind-blown at the moment. I've never seen this done before. About halfway through I was laughing because of the sheer density of the information, and that it was making sense to me in spite of the speed of delivery. I've been playing piano/keys for about 4 years, and I just found a month's worth of study in this video. Thank you. Also, Toxic is a great tune even though I never wanted to like Britney Spears. Excellent work!
It's so interesting how every part of the song feeds the narrative of the song. Toxic is about obsessive love with a violent twist. I never thought this song was this complex
One thing I love is when the words line up with what the music is doing. You mention the pre-chorus being the first place the notes jump up, but that's when she literally says "too high, can't come down", right as the notes take that perfect 5th jump up and minor 6th down. Love it!
I think it was about six months ago. I turn this exact song on, with headphones on, after a forever of not hearing it... and finally heard the first round of backing vocals you mentioned. For the first time in my life. Que me going "Hol up" and looping the track a few dozen times to see what else I missed. XD
I've always loved this song. I remember being a kid and hearing it playing from the house next door and getting as close as I could so I could hear it. I'd have the string riff stuck in my head for weeks.
I related strongly with the "I was a nine year old boy, of course I didn't listen to Britney! But now I'm not so it's ok" Plus, "added them in slowly" and you drew a burette over a conical flask. Looks like I've found a goldmine, gonna watch so many of your videos
I'm guessing I'm around the same age as you, and was a prog nerd metalhead who thought that Britney Spears was terrible, and even I never thought Toxic was anything but a masterpiece.
Had that realization a couple of years back that I was "incredibly wrong" in dismissing Pop music when I was 7 at that time (hey, we're about the same age), but the artists that did the trick for me were Aaliyah (her second and third albums are outstandingly good, specially from a producer's point of view) and TLC (Left Eye's death was the last punch to the socially aware, lyrically well written rap of the late 80s and 90s in my opinion)
I've heard the original Bollywood track - Tere Mere Beech Mein - a few times. The high part is reversed but not the low part from memory. The use of the sample definitely adds an atmosphere to the song, but by chopping it up and reversing parts its very creative use of a sample
I'm really big on recognizing singer songwriters. Like Cathy Dennis, Richard Marx, Linda Ronstadt, etc. Specifically; Cathy Dennis also wrote "Can't Get You Out of my Head" for Kylie Minogue, "Toxic" for Britney, Co Wrote "I Kissed a Girl" for Katy Perry, "Before Your Love" for Kelly Clarkson, and a few songs for S Club 7. She absolutely deserved a mention for the composition of this particular song.
Always loved this song. Perfect catchy slightly weird pop song done right. I love the mix of genre elements...a bit Bollywood, a bit surf rock, a bit middle eastern, a bit James Bond theme, etc. Kinda feels akin to that great April March song "Chick Habit." Another very catchy deceptively simple piece of ear candy. Pop music, when done very very well, always makes me fall in love with music all over again. More of a spotlight should be shone on the actual writers behind the scenes. Then again, maybe they don't want the spotlight? For whatever reason, watching this breakdown of Toxic made me think of the Michael Bolton song "Time Love and Tenderness." It's SUCH a great piece of pop music. It's got a slight early 90s new jack swing sound....feels like it would fit on Michael Jackson's Dangerous album. Everything about that song, the chords, the melody, the timbre....is just perfect. Juuuust weird enough to be cool and interesting....but also supremely catchy and well crafted. Would love to see a 12 tone break down of THAT song. :)
As someone who never liked any of Spears' music, EXCEPT for this one song, I love seeing it broken down and explained. So many well used and actually intelligently creative little musical tricks in this tune.
I discovered how interesting this song was and posted an essay about it in an Instagram caption because I had to get it down. The essay was so long it maxed out the character count on the post and I had to post it in two parts. Fascinating piece of music
I kept seeing tritone substititions all around RUclips music theory videos, this was the one that made me understand the concept, my head went booooom. Thanks for the awesome video
One thing I didn't catch you mentioning is how the last bar of the string line doesn't always follow the same shape. In one instance, after the second verse when Spears sings "Slowly, it's taking over me", the strings slide up creating an otherworldly almost see saw feeling. We've become so accustomed to hearing that slide down that when the music comes to a near complete stop and plays the reverse shape it feels almost like a surprise gut punch. Like a disorienting punctuation to the previous line that really emphasizes the feeling of losing control.
I always did like this song, despite my sister teasing me for it. I had only just learned the Hendrix Chord when this song debuted, from a guitar magazine and primarily learned to play from accompany the radio or whatever was on MTV, at the time. I think that's why I liked it so much,.. it was effectively using a certain level of dissonance that I rarely heard outside of Hendrix at that point.
ABSOLUTELY love the fact that you are taking Pop songs, which discarded by people as "Computer generated crap", and show how carefully crafted and rich these songs are.
I remember seeing articles back in the day about how Britney Spears' music is deceptively sophisticated, and didn't take them seriously. _I should have taken them seriously._
Thank you for writing it down and explaining what happens. I have close to perfect pitch and the song confused the hell out of me when trying to name the notes/what happens
Ok so check it. The string riff that u hear is a flipped sample from an old Indian movie, they cut the main part and played it backwards in some parts, they also transposed it somewhat. I tried recreating it and got pretty close, there were just some parts that no matter what I did couldn’t get right. Some sample manipulation magic, truly incredible. I also found original stems for this track and can confirm that they support main string riff with another strings from vst. This record has been and still is the GOAT for me, the amount of simplicity and creativity in the instrumental is truly inspiring, and don’t even get me started on that bass line OMFG. 🔥🔥🔥
love this track. used to be my favorite track of hers, but that was until she did 'slumber party'. such a deeply weird track, and i couldn't love it more. nothing about it should work, but it sure as fuck does.
Using a Hades reference to illustrate "Chaos" is definitely a killer choice ! Besides, great video, I too had a revelation a few years ago of how good this song actually is, but your analysis really highlighted elements I wouldn't even have suspected in there. Great work !
I love these analysis'...and always interesting how different any one component in a piece can be interpreted. For ex. that G Hendrix chord....I sensed it more as an altered dominant (G7#9) being used to add tension to pull the listener back to home at Cm. Which would be a more traditional use of the chord in the jazz world compared to Hendrix's use. And that bass hitting that Db supports the altered dominant idea by implementing the b9, or just turning the sum of the parts into a big huge altered tritone sub of G7 as you say ...MOAR TENZSHUN!!! Of course I'm fairly recently acquainted with using altered dominants...so I'm prone to overuse it (and hear it everywhere)
It's always worth remembering when watching these videos, music theory is being used as a tool to interpret why a song sounds the way it does, it's not reverse engineering the writing process of a song
As always, awesome analysis of a classic. One thing i would like to note here, which i am certain you came across but didn't really find it necessary to include in the video, is that the starting brass (or whatever it is) intro that starts the song is actually a sample from a Bollywood song. At first it doesn't really contribute anything to this discussion but when you do a bit of research on Bollywood music you realize that what you talked about in the beginning on how weird the intro is, that's 80/90% of old classic Bollywood music. So the clashing ideas between the two harmonies (i am not the music theorist so i don't know if they are melodies or harmonies quite honestly) is a huge part of Bollywood music. They tend to do that a lot in the old days. Even today in some songs. Just thought I'd mention this cause i find it interesting to talk about and I'm guessing if you did the video might have veered off topic unnecessary. Again, thanks for the great analysis!
I like people like you, make me feel like I am learning something but since my knowledge of music is so small that it is just a fun r/whoosh Like I can understand the point is "Song crazy and all over the place but smartly and goodly"
I'm in the same boat, I used to look down on Britney Spears for no real reason but have eventually had to acknowledge that her music is pretty good. Also #freebritney
@@DuoXCity She is great. And she has a lot of gems hidden in her discography actually. I recommend listening to both her Blackout and In The Zone albums :)
I'm pretty sure the string line is sampled from the Bollywood tune Tere Mere Beech Mein. I don't know anything about the lyrics, nor the narrative of the film(s) in which it was used, but I imagine there's a lyrical relationship between that song and Toxic.
Always loved this song. Perfect catchy slightly weird pop song done right. I love the mix of genre elements...a bit Bollywood, a bit surf rock, a bit middle eastern, a bit James Bond theme, etc. Kinda feels akin to that great April March song "Chick Habit." Another very catchy deceptively simple piece of ear candy. Pop music, when done very very well, always makes me fall in love with music all over again. More of a spotlight should be shone on the actual writers behind the scenes. Then again, maybe they don't want the spotlight? For whatever reason, watching this breakdown of Toxic made me think of the Michael Bolton song "Time Love and Tenderness." It's SUCH a great piece of pop music. It's got a slight early 90s new jack swing sound....feels like it would fit on Michael Jackson's Dangerous album. Everything about that song, the chords, the melody, the timbre....is just perfect. Juuuust weird enough to be cool and interesting....but also supremely catchy and well crafted. Would love to see a 12 tone break down of THAT song. :)
Man that first part of the video really hit hard. It was only due to the lockdowns i was able to listen to some old songs, and I was finally able to appreciate Britney's songs. Seriously, the bassline alone is simply too filthy, albeit in a good way, to be pass
I have never been and likely never will be a big fan of pop music (pop in that narrow, specific genre sense, rather than the broader everything-that-follows-the-Beatles sense) but there are a few songs that I feel to be truly brilliant, and Toxic was one of them. I was a student working in a nightclub when it came out and it blew me away the first time I heard it through the PA. I'd heard it on the radio in my girlfriend's kitchen a few times and paid it no heed, but upon hearing it properly, I realised it was an absolute belter.
I’ve looked up the string riff that she was using, and it was taken from an Indian film from I guess the 50s. A lot of hip-hop and pop songs between 2000 and 2005 used indian samples. for instance, Contagious by Truth Hurts feat. Rokim used a really good sample from an indian song.
Great video. I have to say that the quality of this channel has improved recently. I did also enjoy your old content, but I feel like the most recent videos have been a clear improvement, since they have started focusing on other elements than just harmony. And the world definitely needs more music analysis like that. Harmonic analysis is of course also interesting, and harmony is an important musical element - but it is only one of the elements, and too often, we ignore the other elements and only focus on harmony.
Ah, one of Earth's traditional ballads
I love this reference.
Doctor Who reference? Fantastic!
Obviously best listened to when played on a “iPod”.
@@Zangoose5 No
*Mosturize-me!*
This guy must burn through sharpies and staff paper. 10/10 vid.
they're not a guy, but yes, they probably do!
Huh??? Sounds like a man’s voice....
@@michaelprendergast1483 that’s doesn’t mean they are a man, they literally said “when I used to be a boy” in this video, they are non-binary, and use they/them pronouns, regardless of voice or anything that would deem them “male”, respect that they are non-binary please
@@sisi7304 lol non binary is not a thing
@@tartarus1322 non-binary is a thing, they are non-binary, I'm also non-binary, stop being transphobic
I know I'm late to the party here, but I'm amazed you didn't touch on, what I consider to be, Toxic's most distinct musical identity: "Spy music". It's obviously a little nod to 007 and Spy Hunter. The chromatic line cliches and frantic strings are the first hint, but the tremolo-laden single coil neck-pickup guitar is straight out of a James Bond theme.
You're absolutely right... When I listen to Toxic, I can identify the same "spy idea"
Agreed. Other common elements in James Bond movies (fast/cool cars, aerial maneuvers, and commando-style engagements) also fit really well. I always felt the instrumental would have made an awesome videogame OST for a desert level.
one of the best pop songs of the century, and proof that experimentation and catchiness are not mutually exclusive. would love to see today's top songwriters and producers take similar risks.
I agree. Today's pop songwriters and producers are too by the book. I love when music walks that fine line between being accessible and being experimental.
@@chantoya17 Keep your eye on Ms Billie Eilish and hyper pop eventually gaining mainstream appeal - the pop music zeitgeist is due for another face lift in a year or so..
I recommend Charles Cornell's analysis of Billie's music (especially the harmony+melodies in "my future") and MicTheSnare's Hyper Pop video.
Yes
Today's Pop: "Whoahhh-Oh-Ohhh-Oh-Ohhhhhhhh Ohhh Ohhhhhhh.... Whoahhh-Oh-Ohhh-Oh-Ohhhhhhhh Oh Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
@@voronOsphere That was more popular in the 80s than it is now
I like how in the 'cant go down' she actually goes down
what's the opposite of musical imagery?
@@ayeletdrago imaginary irony
Lol
A nice example of "word painting", a video about it by David Bennet Piano is right here on yt!
@@noelcowo9479 That's a great video! Would recommend!
One of the few upsides to being a girl is that I've always known Britney Spears slaps.
jordan?
@@Alberto-ny7kf Yes Alberto? Jk
I'm girl with a boys name but you're only the third person to bring it up in 27 years so it's a little more unisex in the places i've lived.
@@jordang7479 oh sorry i didnt know jordan was unissex
@@Alberto-ny7kf no worries : )
@@Alberto-ny7kf I had a classmate in high school, her name was Jordan.
I love Britney. Her voice is so evocative. I remember the first time I ever heard her. I was filling out some forms at a reception desk, and the radio was playing. The music was utterly ignorable, then Hit me baby one more time started playing. It was so different from everything else, and her voice stood out with its emotional vibe; It caught my attention, and I said, “who is that?”
Ummm ... she really isnt famous for her voice.
@@Tuck7326 uhh yes she is?? what do you mean?
@@Tuck7326 what is she famous for other than that then?
@@Tuck7326 what is she famous for then.
s*x
Whatever the merits of Britney, we should give some credit where it is actually due: Cathy Dennis.
Dennis' demo is/was on YouToob somewhere... it was surprising how little (production/post-production stuff aside) was different from the Spears version. Not dissing Britney at all, her performance is pretty great, but as you say credit where it's due. Dennis' song is a great thing to work with.
Yeah for a composition breakdown like this it makes no sense to credit Britney. He's not doing a vocal analysis. He's talking about the song writing which was mainly done by Cathy Dennis
Yes, Ms. Dennis and the producers Bloodshy & Avant.
Everybody envolved deserves credit.
I suppose saying "Cathy Dennis used the Hendrix chord!" in a thumbnail is only likely to elicit the response "who the hell is Cathy Dennis?" from most people. Not me, of course - I'm one of the initiated.
Do you have to pay Adam Neely every time you use the word "spicy"?
if he were ordered to pay Adam royalties for that, you could bet there would shortly be an Adam video explaining why he shouldn't have to!
My curry house went bankrupt paying Neely royalties, and he only ordered vegetarian takeaways... grr...
No, only when you talk about repetition.
@@milesparker557 Haha yeah thats true. Haha yeah thats true.
@@milesparker557 but It Legitimizes!
I will never grow tired of terrifying people by mimicking the squealing string line of this song. 😈
Look for the video of a small dog singing that part of the song. Pitch perfect
Matrix theme song is even better
@@mcmagiccracker that dog is a global icon and a national treasure
kinda of things that makes me wish for audio commenting.
Park
In my opinion, this is the best pop song of the 21st century. There is nothing that sounds like it. And yet it's catchy as hell.
I'd agree. I was a metalhead/punk growing up and Toxic came out when I was a teenager at the peak of my music elitist phase where everything that wasn't what I listened to was inferior. But I always loved Toxic. But I could never admit it at the time. So catchy and such an incredibly crafted pop song.
As a huge metal head who’s learning how to do death growls and plays bass in drop tunings, I am naturally so fucking pumped you made a video on this finally. I’ve always loved this song. And after watching the whole video I now know why a metal guy like me loves it. This is why I love theory
I honestly never thought most of the songs you analyze on this channel had as much music theoretical complexity to them as they apparently do...
Neither do the songs respective artists lol! Usually, anyways
@@woofspider330 I've often wondered if the people who make songs mostly just slap together cool sounds that they like, then musical theorists run themselves in circles trying to interpret meaning that absolutely isn't there. Like an English teacher analyzing a book's meaning and the author tweets out "lol no, none of that meaning is there, it was just an interesting plot twist I threw in for fun."
@@WarrenGarabrandt Music theory is just a tool to help us understand music. It's useful but certainly not necessary.
Song writers usually focus on 'does this sound good?' or 'does this convey the emotion that I want?'. Music theory is a way of explaining why music works or sounds good.
Some musicians have a good understanding of theory but plenty of highly respected musicians that write complex songs admit they don't even know the names of the chords/scales that they use!
I like to compare it to athletes who probably don't understand the physics of what they do so well.
I'm pretty sure the violin part at the beginning is a sample, hence the very 'start-stop' aspect of the phrasing.
Exactly, also from the soundtrack of a Hindi movie, which explains the exotic sounds. That being said, I think the sample was flipped in an amazing way, the original had a completely different mood
its reversed and gated.
@@robertolanzone it got flipped really hard. Im a violinist and always thought it was a string synthesizer or something else because it just doesent sounds like a real violin to me but that would explain that. I schould mess with violin samples more often
@@yesitsvish most of it is definitely not reversed, and prob not gated, just chopped clips of audio. i can easily imagine whoever produced the track was messing around with chop order and length, and keeping the clips staccato was a fortunate discovery, for instance
@@repker ruclips.net/video/AXXUodk-pVo/видео.html This link is a detailed analysis of the sample. It is cut up, reordered and some sections are played both forward and reverse. Probably the most complicated 2 second sample ever.
such an unnerving melody, and such a sophisticated choice to match the song’s lyrics. if anyone hasn’t heard the slowed down string cover of this song from Promising Young Woman, I highly recommend. it’s terrifying
The strings are a Bollywood sample played in reverse.
Is that microtonal vocal bit also a sample, and not her? Can’t really tell
@@P-YT-CH The song was originally sung by the composer. Some of the original recording vocal is still in the song. They don't really sound very similar so you can usually tell who's singing what.
Interesting!
This is also how they got that super short cutoff he was talking about at 1:15 - it was originally a really quick attack rather than a decay
That's very cool and definitely helps to explain both the tonal quality and why it has that eastern sound. I've always been interested in the second part of the main riff and why it sounds that way. I wonder if there's a modal analysis/explanation that would help with that as well.
Absolutely adore that you play the specific thing you talk about right after talking about it
Few songs in the history of pop music have had such a profound influence on me as this song. It’s so much greater than the sum of its parts.
This is only the second 12tone video I've watched, and I'm a bit mind-blown at the moment. I've never seen this done before. About halfway through I was laughing because of the sheer density of the information, and that it was making sense to me in spite of the speed of delivery. I've been playing piano/keys for about 4 years, and I just found a month's worth of study in this video. Thank you.
Also, Toxic is a great tune even though I never wanted to like Britney Spears. Excellent work!
It's so interesting how every part of the song feeds the narrative of the song. Toxic is about obsessive love with a violent twist. I never thought this song was this complex
It's pretty crazy how many weird sounds went into this song. I think you nailed what the composer was going for. Thank you for this video :D
The string parts are sampled and chopped from an old Indian pop song.
One thing I love is when the words line up with what the music is doing. You mention the pre-chorus being the first place the notes jump up, but that's when she literally says "too high, can't come down", right as the notes take that perfect 5th jump up and minor 6th down. Love it!
me too! that’s called “word painting” in music theory (:
@@davespriter Thanks! Good to add that to my vocabulary!
I think it was about six months ago. I turn this exact song on, with headphones on, after a forever of not hearing it... and finally heard the first round of backing vocals you mentioned. For the first time in my life. Que me going "Hol up" and looping the track a few dozen times to see what else I missed. XD
I've always loved this song. I remember being a kid and hearing it playing from the house next door and getting as close as I could so I could hear it. I'd have the string riff stuck in my head for weeks.
You think in a few thousand years they'll discover 12tone's sheets and try to decipher them like hieroglyphics
When you talk about the "Fake out" at the 8 minutes mark I'm reminded of the Pixies and Nervana with the "loud quiet loud" technique.
Also, Sweater Song.
I related strongly with the "I was a nine year old boy, of course I didn't listen to Britney! But now I'm not so it's ok"
Plus, "added them in slowly" and you drew a burette over a conical flask.
Looks like I've found a goldmine, gonna watch so many of your videos
I'm guessing I'm around the same age as you, and was a prog nerd metalhead who thought that Britney Spears was terrible, and even I never thought Toxic was anything but a masterpiece.
I was a classical music weeb who has since come around as well.
Had that realization a couple of years back that I was "incredibly wrong" in dismissing Pop music when I was 7 at that time (hey, we're about the same age), but the artists that did the trick for me were Aaliyah (her second and third albums are outstandingly good, specially from a producer's point of view) and TLC (Left Eye's death was the last punch to the socially aware, lyrically well written rap of the late 80s and 90s in my opinion)
FreeBritneySpears
...in specially-marked packages!
I've heard the original Bollywood track - Tere Mere Beech Mein - a few times. The high part is reversed but not the low part from memory. The use of the sample definitely adds an atmosphere to the song, but by chopping it up and reversing parts its very creative use of a sample
Watching this, waiting for a mention of Cathy Dennis.
Me too, I almost like Cathy Dennis's original demo more than the finished thing
thank you
I'm really big on recognizing singer songwriters. Like Cathy Dennis, Richard Marx, Linda Ronstadt, etc.
Specifically; Cathy Dennis also wrote "Can't Get You Out of my Head" for Kylie Minogue, "Toxic" for Britney, Co Wrote "I Kissed a Girl" for Katy Perry, "Before Your Love" for Kelly Clarkson, and a few songs for S Club 7.
She absolutely deserved a mention for the composition of this particular song.
Always loved this song. Perfect catchy slightly weird pop song done right.
I love the mix of genre elements...a bit Bollywood, a bit surf rock, a bit middle eastern, a bit James Bond theme, etc.
Kinda feels akin to that great April March song "Chick Habit." Another very catchy deceptively simple piece of ear candy.
Pop music, when done very very well, always makes me fall in love with music all over again. More of a spotlight should be shone on the actual writers behind the scenes. Then again, maybe they don't want the spotlight?
For whatever reason, watching this breakdown of Toxic made me think of the Michael Bolton song "Time Love and Tenderness." It's SUCH a great piece of pop music. It's got a slight early 90s new jack swing sound....feels like it would fit on Michael Jackson's Dangerous album. Everything about that song, the chords, the melody, the timbre....is just perfect. Juuuust weird enough to be cool and interesting....but also supremely catchy and well crafted.
Would love to see a 12 tone break down of THAT song. :)
As someone who never liked any of Spears' music, EXCEPT for this one song, I love seeing it broken down and explained. So many well used and actually intelligently creative little musical tricks in this tune.
I discovered how interesting this song was and posted an essay about it in an Instagram caption because I had to get it down. The essay was so long it maxed out the character count on the post and I had to post it in two parts. Fascinating piece of music
Here's me, a prog dude, intrigued by a guy explaining a Britney Spears song. Super informative video man, cheers
toxic really is a sick as heck song.. bollywood sample, tritones, surf guitar, hendrix chords?? wow
I kept seeing tritone substititions all around RUclips music theory videos, this was the one that made me understand the concept, my head went booooom. Thanks for the awesome video
One thing I didn't catch you mentioning is how the last bar of the string line doesn't always follow the same shape. In one instance, after the second verse when Spears sings "Slowly, it's taking over me", the strings slide up creating an otherworldly almost see saw feeling. We've become so accustomed to hearing that slide down that when the music comes to a near complete stop and plays the reverse shape it feels almost like a surprise gut punch. Like a disorienting punctuation to the previous line that really emphasizes the feeling of losing control.
The song was always a guilty pleasure of mine, but now I feel like I have not to feel guilty for enjoying it at all!
BRITNEY!!! i cant wait to hear this vid. love your stuff 12.
I had the interesting experience of playing this along with 2 other songs as a part of my Marching band show. It was fairly fun to play
Toxic was a return to the kind of pop music I grew up with. A huge outlier.
crazy how you make such good content! it's unbelievable you have only 400K subs
I always did like this song, despite my sister teasing me for it. I had only just learned the Hendrix Chord when this song debuted, from a guitar magazine and primarily learned to play from accompany the radio or whatever was on MTV, at the time. I think that's why I liked it so much,.. it was effectively using a certain level of dissonance that I rarely heard outside of Hendrix at that point.
ABSOLUTELY love the fact that you are taking Pop songs, which discarded by people as "Computer generated crap", and show how carefully crafted and rich these songs are.
I’ve played this in a cover band. It’s an awesome arrangement
I remember seeing articles back in the day about how Britney Spears' music is deceptively sophisticated, and didn't take them seriously. _I should have taken them seriously._
"It's an old Earth music player. It's called an iPod."
Thank you for writing it down and explaining what happens. I have close to perfect pitch and the song confused the hell out of me when trying to name the notes/what happens
As a fan of complex metal, I finally understand why I've always liked this song.
Ok so check it. The string riff that u hear is a flipped sample from an old Indian movie, they cut the main part and played it backwards in some parts, they also transposed it somewhat. I tried recreating it and got pretty close, there were just some parts that no matter what I did couldn’t get right. Some sample manipulation magic, truly incredible. I also found original stems for this track and can confirm that they support main string riff with another strings from vst. This record has been and still is the GOAT for me, the amount of simplicity and creativity in the instrumental is truly inspiring, and don’t even get me started on that bass line OMFG. 🔥🔥🔥
Bloodshy & Avant are watching this video, looking at each other like.... "I'm not sure I remember doing all that this guy is saying we did."
Fantastic analysis. I did a similar analysis for a university class, but yours is way better!
love this track. used to be my favorite track of hers, but that was until she did 'slumber party'. such a deeply weird track, and i couldn't love it more. nothing about it should work, but it sure as fuck does.
Using a Hades reference to illustrate "Chaos" is definitely a killer choice !
Besides, great video, I too had a revelation a few years ago of how good this song actually is, but your analysis really highlighted elements I wouldn't even have suspected in there. Great work !
meanwhile the producers:
- why did you use that note Steve?
- idk man, felt right
Literally
I love that the scetches get more and more all over the place the further we get into the video
My body is ready for this video
Brilliant! - the track & the analysis.
me: fails my music theory class
also me: listen to the nuances in this track, britney here uses the mode-
I used this video to create my own cover of this song. I have learned so much from this channel. Thank you for making awesome content!
Toxic is amazing. It is my guilty pleasure.
Guilty why? The for the song is great
Not guilty at all. One of my favorite songs ever.
That's really cool that you play go! I'm not aware of any other youtubers who play go besides the ones that made the game their career.
Didn't know this song was spears. Also don't get why youtube hasn't learned to recomend the actual song next to these videos yet
You didn’t know toxic is by Britney Spears?
Fun explanations! I love learning more about music through these kind of deep dives. Thanks for making the effort!
Michael Jackson also used it in “Remember the Time”
I did not know that
thats incredible because MJs song was written ten years before Toxic. So he must have travelled fwd in time...
i never really listened to the song as a kid but now that it came on on my mom's phone i gotta say i love the chord progressions
13:46 If we played that same line on an Electric Guitar distorted in the lowest register, it would sound Metal as heck.
this song really is a masterpiece!! ive always loved it, happy to see you bringing it up!
HUGGIN AND A KISSIN DANCIN AND A LOVIN WEARIN NEXT TO NOTHIN CAUSE ITS HOT AS AN OVEN THE WHOLE SHACK SHIMMYS
THE WHOLE SHACK SHIMMY
THE WHOLE SHACK SHIMMIES
The shorter audio examples injected as you went made your analysis easier to follow. A nice change.
I love these analysis'...and always interesting how different any one component in a piece can be interpreted. For ex. that G Hendrix chord....I sensed it more as an altered dominant (G7#9) being used to add tension to pull the listener back to home at Cm. Which would be a more traditional use of the chord in the jazz world compared to Hendrix's use. And that bass hitting that Db supports the altered dominant idea by implementing the b9, or just turning the sum of the parts into a big huge altered tritone sub of G7 as you say ...MOAR TENZSHUN!!!
Of course I'm fairly recently acquainted with using altered dominants...so I'm prone to overuse it (and hear it everywhere)
Great analysis 12tone. Also worth mentioning is the clever 'retrograde transformation' of the high strings motif around 1:35 into the song.
Producer : "We didn't have time to autotune every line"
12tone : "She's using microtonality"
(Kidding, of course)
I’m gonna sing in microtonally at karaoke now 😂
It's always worth remembering when watching these videos, music theory is being used as a tool to interpret why a song sounds the way it does, it's not reverse engineering the writing process of a song
The cancer of autotune had not metastasized into all of pop music yet when this was recorded.
@@alaeriia01 Yes! Good times.
As always, awesome analysis of a classic. One thing i would like to note here, which i am certain you came across but didn't really find it necessary to include in the video, is that the starting brass (or whatever it is) intro that starts the song is actually a sample from a Bollywood song. At first it doesn't really contribute anything to this discussion but when you do a bit of research on Bollywood music you realize that what you talked about in the beginning on how weird the intro is, that's 80/90% of old classic Bollywood music. So the clashing ideas between the two harmonies (i am not the music theorist so i don't know if they are melodies or harmonies quite honestly) is a huge part of Bollywood music. They tend to do that a lot in the old days. Even today in some songs. Just thought I'd mention this cause i find it interesting to talk about and I'm guessing if you did the video might have veered off topic unnecessary. Again, thanks for the great analysis!
The Hendrix Chord really rocks
I like people like you, make me feel like I am learning something but since my knowledge of music is so small that it is just a fun r/whoosh
Like I can understand the point is
"Song crazy and all over the place but smartly and goodly"
I'm in the same boat, I used to look down on Britney Spears for no real reason but have eventually had to acknowledge that her music is pretty good. Also #freebritney
I have no idea whats going on but I like listening too it
I do not like Britney Spears' music in general, but I can't deny that Toxic is pretty damn good.
You kinda hafta cherry pick this song to defend her. Oh and ignore her performances LOL
@@DuoXCity her peforming is great.
@@DuoXCity She is great. And she has a lot of gems hidden in her discography actually. I recommend listening to both her Blackout and In The Zone albums :)
@@randomuser1887 and her unreleased music between those albums are the coolest 👀
@@shawnbay2211 yes!!! it truly shows her potential
While pop music isn’t something I enjoy music is music and I always appreciate the hard work and skill it takes to make it.
Do yourself a favor and look up "Toxic but it's Change (in the House of Flies)." It might be better than either original.
Recommended!
that works a lot better than most mashups. good recommendation.
Shaxicula by DJ Cummerbund is another excellent mashup featuring Toxic.
Toxic Fly by YITT is also great.
god, listening to it now, toxic really is such a great song.
Much Britney of this era is so good. Circus, Womanizer. Pop classic after pop classic.
Wow, Ive been listening to Toxic everyday for 15 years and I never understood it until now. Mine eyes hath been opened!
Yup, jumping straight to the song to try and catch as many details as possible!
I'm pretty sure the string line is sampled from the Bollywood tune Tere Mere Beech Mein. I don't know anything about the lyrics, nor the narrative of the film(s) in which it was used, but I imagine there's a lyrical relationship between that song and Toxic.
for some reason i thought of it as being relatively recent, 2003 damn
Always loved this song. Perfect catchy slightly weird pop song done right.
I love the mix of genre elements...a bit Bollywood, a bit surf rock, a bit middle eastern, a bit James Bond theme, etc.
Kinda feels akin to that great April March song "Chick Habit." Another very catchy deceptively simple piece of ear candy.
Pop music, when done very very well, always makes me fall in love with music all over again. More of a spotlight should be shone on the actual writers behind the scenes. Then again, maybe they don't want the spotlight?
For whatever reason, watching this breakdown of Toxic made me think of the Michael Bolton song "Time Love and Tenderness." It's SUCH a great piece of pop music. It's got a slight early 90s new jack swing sound....feels like it would fit on Michael Jackson's Dangerous album. Everything about that song, the chords, the melody, the timbre....is just perfect. Juuuust weird enough to be cool and interesting....but also supremely catchy and well crafted.
Would love to see a 12 tone break down of THAT song. :)
I can only hear this song as the change (in the house of flies) mashup now
Such an awesome analysis! This song brings so much memories...
Man that first part of the video really hit hard. It was only due to the lockdowns i was able to listen to some old songs, and I was finally able to appreciate Britney's songs. Seriously, the bassline alone is simply too filthy, albeit in a good way, to be pass
I have never been and likely never will be a big fan of pop music (pop in that narrow, specific genre sense, rather than the broader everything-that-follows-the-Beatles sense) but there are a few songs that I feel to be truly brilliant, and Toxic was one of them.
I was a student working in a nightclub when it came out and it blew me away the first time I heard it through the PA. I'd heard it on the radio in my girlfriend's kitchen a few times and paid it no heed, but upon hearing it properly, I realised it was an absolute belter.
I was bopin to this last week lmao
I’ve looked up the string riff that she was using, and it was taken from an Indian film from I guess the 50s. A lot of hip-hop and pop songs between 2000 and 2005 used indian samples. for instance, Contagious by Truth Hurts feat. Rokim used a really good sample from an indian song.
The Indian song was from the 80s.
Okay, it didn't sound 80s, it did sound 50's like, but okay. Thanks for telling me.
i don't even know music theory but i always knew something special was going on in this song
Great song! Excellent breakdown! Thank you!
When you said you were 9 years old and a boy I thought you were about to share some news with us
Love that when talking about chaos, he draws the icon of Chaos from Hades
This song sounds great on Distorted Guitar.
Great video. I have to say that the quality of this channel has improved recently. I did also enjoy your old content, but I feel like the most recent videos have been a clear improvement, since they have started focusing on other elements than just harmony. And the world definitely needs more music analysis like that. Harmonic analysis is of course also interesting, and harmony is an important musical element - but it is only one of the elements, and too often, we ignore the other elements and only focus on harmony.