Understanding Toxic
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- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
- In The Zone, the fourth album by Britney Spears, changed the landscape of pop music forever, and perhaps no song is more emblematic of its lasting legacy than its second single, Toxic. It's hard to overstate the extent to which Toxic was everywhere back in 2003, and as someone who lived through that era of pop music, I wanted to go back and see what made this song so special. Turns out it was a lot more than I was expecting.
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Script: tinyurl.com/y6ll5ncc
Huge thanks to our Elephant of the Month Club members:
Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Duck
Howard Levine
Ron Jones
Brian Etheredge
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Paul Ward
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Ken Arnold
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Thomas Morley
Jacob Helwig
Davis Sprague
Darius Rudominer
Alex Knauth
Braum Meakes
Hendrik Stüwe
Dan Bonelli
Kevin Boyce
Allyson
Devin Strayhorn
And thanks as well to Henry Reich, Gabi Ghita, Owen Campbell-Moore, Gene Lushtak, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, Oliver, Anna Work, Abram Thiessen, Adam Neely, nico, Rick Lees, Dave Mayer, Paul Quine, CodenaCrow, Nikolay Semyonov, Arnas, Caroline Simpson, Favrion The Man, Michael Alan Dorman, Dmitry Jemerov, Michael McCormick, Blake Boyd, Luke Rihn, Charles Gaskell, Ian Seymour, Trevor, Tom Evans, Elliot Jay O'Neill, Chris Borland, Max Wanderman, Alex Atanasyan, Elliot Burke, Tim S., Elias Simon, JH, David Conrad, Jerry D. Brown, Chris Chapin, Ohad Lutzky, James A. Thornton, Benjamin Cooper, Lamadesbois, Jake Lizzio, Ken Bauso, Brian Dinger, Stefan Strohmaier, Shadow Kat, Adam Wurstmann, Kelsey Freese, Todd Davidson, Angela Flierman, Richard T. Anderson, Kevin Johnson, Roger Grosse, Ryan, Matthew Kallend, Rodrigo Roman, Jeremy Zolner, Patrick Callier, Danny, Francois LaPlante, Volker Wegert, Joshua Gleitze, Britt Ratliff, ml cohen, Darzzr, Peter Leventis, Charles Hill, Alexey Fedotov, Joshua La Macchia, Alex Keeny, Emilio Assteves, Valentin Lupachev, John Bejarano, Aaron Epstein, Blake White, Phillip N, Chris Connett, Scott Frazer, Niko Albertus, Luke Wever, Gary Butterfield, Kenneth Kousen, James, h2g2guy, W. Dennis Sorrell, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Connor Shannon, max thomas, Melvin Martis, Jamie Price, Red Uncle, Professor Elliot, Jozef Paffen, Doug Nottingham, Nicholas Wolf, Scott Howarth, Roming 22, Andrew Engel, Robert Beach, ZagOnEm, Carsten Lechte, Peter Brinkman, Thomas McCarthy-Ward, Tuna, Hexa Midine, Mathew Wolak, Aaron Zhu Freedman, T, Lincoln Mendell, Vincent Engler, Luke, Sam Rezek, Matt McKegg, Beth Martyn, Lucas Augusto, Marcus Doyle, Caitlin Olsen, Naomi Ostriker, Alex Mole, NoticeMK, Anna, Evan Satinsky, James Little, RaptorCat, Jigglypuffer, leftaroundabout, Jens Schäfer, Mikely Whiplash, room34, Austin Amberg, Kaisai Morihito, Francisco Rodrigues, Elizabeth, Michael Tsuk, David Van der Linden, Carter Stoddard, Betsy, Stephen Jones, Tonya Custis, Mike Lin, Dave Shapiro, Jacopo Cascioli, ThoraSTooth, Robert McIntosh, Brandon Legawiec, Brx, Fernando Gonzalez, CoryC, Rafael Martinez Salas, Walther, Jim Hayes, Evgeni Kunev, Alon Kellner, Özgür Kesim, Rob Hardy, Graeme Lewis, Jake Sand, Kayla Sparks, Max Glass, Patrick Chieppe, Eric Stark, Jon Prudhomme, David Haughn, Gordon Dell, Byron DeLaBarre, Matty Crocker, anemamata, Brian Miller, Lee-orr Orbach, Eric Plume, Kevin Pierce, Jon Hancock, Aditya Baradwaj, Matt Ivaliotes, Yuval Filmus, Richard Goldberg, Caleb Meyer, Pamela O'Neill, Juan Madrigal, Jason Peterson, Peggy Youell, EJ Hambleton, Jos Mulder, Daryl Banttari, Tarragon Eames, J.T. Vandenbree, Mark Henning, Byron Williams, Symmetry, Cereus, John Carter, Marcus Radloff, Wayne Robinson, and Gabriel Totusek! Your support helps make 12tone even better!
Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!
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!*
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 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.
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 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!
I always thought Toxic would make a kickass metal song, not like Children of Bodom covering it as a metal song for laughs, literally played straight by a metal band. I could definitely hear like Corey Taylor delivering the line "I'm addicted to you" in a menacing growl before breaking into a roar for "BUT YOU KNOOOW THAT YOU'RE TOXIC". But I never really acknowledged the amount of weird stuff going on in the song.
Have you heard the mashup with Change (In the House of Flies)? Shit slaps hard
Corey Taylor can do it all, though so yes. I'm in for it.
I saw a metal band play a cover of ti live once! They were pretty mild for metal and didn't scream in it but it was totally what you'd expect
As somebody who is in a metal band who covered Toxic and played it live as our encore I can tell you that not only does it work amazingly well (especially that chorus having that sweet 0321 motion that we also used as a basis for a breakdown we added to the song) but also once people recognize it they go wild.
Local H's cover is extremely good. I heard it in the early 2000's and didn't even know it was originally a Britney Spears song until a friend told me weeks later.
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
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.
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'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 czcams.com/video/AXXUodk-pVo/video.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.
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.
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.
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
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
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!
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
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
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
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.
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.
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!
You think in a few thousand years they'll discover 12tone's sheets and try to decipher them like hieroglyphics
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!
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
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'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.
The string parts are sampled and chopped from an old Indian pop song.
toxic really is a sick as heck song.. bollywood sample, tritones, surf guitar, hendrix chords?? wow
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.
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. :)
Absolutely adore that you play the specific thing you talk about right after talking about it
"It's an old Earth music player. It's called an iPod."
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
Fun explanations! I love learning more about music through these kind of deep dives. Thanks for making the effort!
this song really is a masterpiece!! ive always loved it, happy to see you bringing it up!
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
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 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.
BRITNEY!!! i cant wait to hear this vid. love your stuff 12.
FreeBritneySpears
...in specially-marked packages!
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!
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!
I kept seeing tritone substititions all around CZcams music theory videos, this was the one that made me understand the concept, my head went booooom. Thanks for the awesome video
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
Such an awesome analysis! This song brings so much memories...
Brilliant! - the track & the analysis.
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."
meanwhile the producers:
- why did you use that note Steve?
- idk man, felt right
Literally
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 enjoy your vids so much, thanks.
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 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
Here's me, a prog dude, intrigued by a guy explaining a Britney Spears song. Super informative video man, cheers
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.
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!
me: fails my music theory class
also me: listen to the nuances in this track, britney here uses the mode-
Love this. Presentation great Jx
Great song! Excellent breakdown! Thank you!
I've got a question: when you talk about songs like this, why don't you credit the people who wrote the song?
Ooooo good point. A lot of musicians don't write their songs and it would be interesting to find out what songs were written by the same people and what styles and techniques are common across the different artists who perform them.
Because the girl who wrote the song didn't care about being credited lol.
I’m thinking it might be an awkward precedent. For some songs it might be cut and dry but for a lot of songs you might have half a dozen people credited on the writing, let alone the production, and then working out who’s responsible for any individual decision is already a mess without realising that there may well be session musicians, sound engineers, &c. who were uncredited but are actually responsible for things
Nor any mention that the string part is a bollywood sample
Yeah I don't like the way he makes it sound like Brittany is the brain behind all of this great composing, when in reality she was just given the lyrics and melody to sing. The song has 4 writers and 2 producers though so I guess that could get cumbersome.
FREE BRITNEY
LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!
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.
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 !
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 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.
Great work!
Great analysis 12tone. Also worth mentioning is the clever 'retrograde transformation' of the high strings motif around 1:35 into the song.
As a fan of complex metal, I finally understand why I've always liked this song.
I’ve played this in a cover band. It’s an awesome arrangement
Fantastic analysis. I did a similar analysis for a university class, but yours is way better!
This is brilliant! 🙌🏽
My body is ready for this video
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.
Great analysis and breakdown, thank you!
Awesome analysis!
for some reason i thought of it as being relatively recent, 2003 damn
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)
I love that the scetches get more and more all over the place the further we get into the video
Great video, thank you.One funny anecdot: When you played the String's riff at the beginning I heard the decay and gap and it sounded like an editing mistake to me, I went to the song on YT to check what it was supposed to sound like. Then I was surprised that's actually what it sounded like and one moment later you mention this yourself in the vid 😂😂👍
13:46 If we played that same line on an Electric Guitar distorted in the lowest register, it would sound Metal as heck.
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?
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
The shorter audio examples injected as you went made your analysis easier to follow. A nice change.
I can only hear this song as the change (in the house of flies) mashup now
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...
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. 🔥🔥🔥
Actually honestly lold when you drew a sun orbiting earth to say "very wrong" 😂😂
Love the content, as usual
The Hendrix Chord really rocks
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.
first time seeing this kind of video..
i am blown away 🤯🤯
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
Her music composition is incredibly sleek and well crafted, it's hard not to appreciate.
Who's her? This song was written by a bunch dudes.
Lol, Britney Spears has not written a single song in her life.
I was bopin to this last week lmao
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 am a lifelong punk and hardcore musician, when I hit my 30's I got really into folk and pop, because of top 40 and living with my normal, well adjusted ex girlfriend and her daughter, so I got exposed to the radio for the first time since the late 90's, so I played catch up, as I had only been up to date on underground rock and hip-hop. Now I find myself transcribing Lady Gaga on a harmonica and acoustic guitar. It started when I got her daughter an acoustic and she wanted to learn Shake it Off, so I figured it out. Lol
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
i don't even know music theory but i always knew something special was going on in this song
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._
Amazing tune!