…Baby One More Time by Britney Spears
“Princess of Pop” Britney Spears released her debut album in 1999 titled: … Baby One More Time. Spears quickly became a teen-pop sensation and her rise to stardom was propelled primarily by the hits that were put on her debut album. The songs off this album I am going to analyze will be “(You Drive Me) Crazy”, “Sometimes”, and of course, the title track “…Baby One More Time.”
I think it might go without saying that Spears herself isn’t credited with writing the songs on this album, as was becoming the usual within the music industry in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Normally, a record label will enlist contemporary songwriters to work on tunes that can be given to the talent that’s signed to the label. In reality, almost all of the most famous performers are performing songs that were written by one of these “ghost writers,” and in Britney’s case, she had Swedish songwriting legend, Max Martin, writing for her on this album. Martin’s writing style is iconic and his sound is easily recognizable, as is seen on the second song on the album, “(You Drive Me) Crazy.”
Right off the bat, the percussion on “(You Drive Me) Crazy” makes a statement. The sixteenths played on a cowbell are unmistakable, and I think that’s little bit of percussion is what makes the song great. Through out the years, and through every genre, instrumental percussion totally transforms a song. Like, would the Black Sabbath song “Black Sabbath” really be as heavy and gritty had it not had the little tambourine tap going on in the back? In the same way, would “(You Drive Me) Crazy” really be the pop hit that it is without that iconic cowbell? I think not. I strongly believe that tastefully added percussion is a trademark symbol of close and detailed writing, and that’s a super important factor to me when analyzing a song as a whole.
Aside from the writing and production of this song, we have to discuss the iconic-ness of the Britney Spears “baby voice”. If you’re a kid in the 90’s and you’re sitting down to listen to this album for the first time, your introduction to Britney’s voice will be on this song. You would hear a whiny yet beautiful voice, and it’s totally not something that the world is used to. Although Britney’s voice was trained to sound like this, it adds a youthful and poppy flutter to each of her songs. And, I think combined with the remarkable choices within the writing, the stylistic
