Not like I have a big presentation tomorrow to prepare for or anything, but I have another confession to make: a few days ago I decided that the Britney Spears song, "Toxic," is really, really cool.

And now I don't know quite what to do. Not like I've ever been a particularly outspoken detractor of Britney-- or, at least, not as outspoken as I am in regards to certain other blond, vacant starlettes (you know who you are, Kirsten DUMBST)- but I really feel as if there's some sort of self-imposed moral line that I have transgressed. Maybe it's because she's always been a little too poppy for my taste (and, let's face it, I still don't really like any of her other stuff...). Maybe it's because she was specifically manufactured, from early childhood, for pop stardom, and I have a little bit of trouble endorsing that. Or maybe it's because later on she married this guy-- who is, *obviously,* a huge douche- when she was young, successful, cute, and quite probably could have had ANY guy that she wanted.

But none of this changes the fact that "Toxic" is an AWESOME song.

I'm not sure what it is...(I do have a theory though. I think what makes "Toxic" such a compelling work is that its success is premised on invigorating lack. Take even the first few bars, for instance. What we here is a little synthesized string riff-- one that even sounds too complicated to make much sense. This pushes forward, however, to a HUGE BREATHTAKING PAUSE. And for a second, we are caught in indeterminacy. Oh my God! What do we do? Where is this song going to go? We are answered after a full half-second of silence by a high-pitched screamy riff-- also, we might add, stupid sounding by itself; but as a response to the first riff, and by virtue of the fact that it seems to scream back at the first musical gesture from across a wide gulf of pregnant silence, it sounds totally bitchin'. In its first seconds, then, what "Toxic" seems to do is turn the idea of lack (that huge, wonderful, uncomfortable pause) into something empowering. And, really, we can relate this formal gesture back to the content of the piece as a whole--the fact that the message of the music itself enacts and reenacts lack as its riffs are repeated over and over rubs interestingly against the message of overabundance that the female voice conveys. The problem presented by the lyrical content is, after all, not absence-- but EXCESS! What we hear is a young woman's voice trying to make sense of the fact that she desires something "toxic," something harmful, that she should not want but does anyway. Her problem is too much wanting, which, juxtaposed with a constant rhythmic backbeat that can only be said to prove the fact that "less equals more," makes the song an interesting an ultimately poignant study.)





or...it could just be an awesome song...