Analysis of Britney Spears lyrics.
Oh baby, baby
How was I supposed to know
That something wasn't right here
Oh baby, baby
I shouldn't have let you go
And now you're out of sight, yeah
Show me how want it to be
Tell me baby 'cause I need to know now, oh because
Chorus:
My loneliness is killing me
I must confess I still believe
When I'm not with you I lose my mind
Give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
Oh baby, baby
The reason I breathe is you
Boy you got me blinded
Oh pretty baby
There's nothing that I wouldn't do
It's not the way I planned it
Show me how you want it to be
Tell me baby 'cause I need to know now, oh because
Chorus:
My loneliness is killing me
I must confess I still believe
When I'm not with you I lose my mind
Give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
Oh baby, baby how was I supposed to know
Oh pretty baby, I shouldn't have let you go
I must confess, that my loneliness is killing me now
Don't you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
Chorus:
My loneliness is killing me
I must confess I still believe
When I'm not with you I lose my mind
Give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
The entire album is about Britney being in love with some boy, and
doing anything for him. (She had not yet begun to assert her
independence.) The first verse of “Hit Me Baby One More Time” is no
different. The most telling line is “Show me how you want it to be,”
highlighting how the man is supposed to be in charge. Many people
misheard the lyrics and thought she was singing “Show me how you
want to do me.” Was this intentional? Who knows? It doesn’t really
matter though. The straightforward reading of the lyrics alone hints at
the heart of Britney’s success.
But first, let’s get to that all-important chorus.
My loneliness is killing me
I must confess I still believe
When I'm not with you I lose my mind
Give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
The most subversive line in pop music in at least 25 years is in this
chorus, and it’s so obvious, so staring us right in the face that most
people miss it. For those of you who are slow: “HIT me baby one
more time.”
I remember when the song came out (I already knew of it) listening to people’s reactions.
It was just impossible to believe that Britney would be advocating that a guy actually hit
her, and people simply refused to believe it. After all, what sense do pop lyrics make
anyway, right?
I only saw Britney asked about this once, by a little girl in the audience of some
interview, and she responded that what she meant was for this guy to “hit me with the
truth.” Britney’s demeanor made it sound like she thought it was obvious what the lyrics
were talking about.
Uh, excuse me? No.
At this point I’m going to creep some of you out, but suck it up; you know I’m telling the
truth. There is at the heart of sex a violence, a violence that most people don’t talk about.
Even the most consensual sex in the world will often leave bruises, and we know of the
fabled consequences of the first time a girl has sex: she bleeds.
More than that, though, sex and violence have always been entwined. Perhaps it’s a
holdover from the days of yore when primitive man would subdue the woman he wanted
and drag her back to the cave, and she would go willingly. (Behavior still exemplified by
our animal brothers and sisters.)
There is this aspect to sex that most people don’t talk about, because it sounds like an
advocacy of violence, which it’s not. Something primal in men makes them want to
overcome women, to seduce and overpower them. And women respond to this. Most
women do not want to dominate sexual relations, but want to resist and be overcome, all
within the confines of a consensual relationship.
The reason most people don’t talk about this is obvious: it seems uncomfortably close to
forced sex, and maybe even to explain or condone the actions of predators. I would hope
my past work speaks for itself, and you know me well enough that I have the right to talk
about this. I’m not talking about rape. I’m talking about…a man pushing a woman up
against a wall, wild with desire, and ripping her blouse and skirt to get to her. Maybe not
every woman would like this experience, but most women at least understand the animal
power of it, if it happened with someone she was attracted to.
This is what Britney (or at least her people) tapped into. It started with her very
beginnings. There was a younger girl/older man vibe going on at that first mini-concert I
saw her in, and it never left. Maybe no one talked about it except in jokes, but the
phenomenon that was Britney wasn’t not driven by those young girls, but by their older
brothers and even fathers.
And when she sings “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” Britney is tapping into that. Maybe
not even on a conscious level. But like I said, there is this entanglement of sex and
violence that cannot be erased from genetic memory.
Am I saying that most guys get off on the idea that they could have sex with a girl and get
to hit her first to subdue her? Of course not. You know me better than that. But at some
level there is an attraction that is triggered, and that’s what the song, the singer, and the
whole sensation was about.
And that is deep. And that is a big deal.
http://literaryhype.blogspot.com/2006/01/britney-and-backstreet-boys.html